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The head of global airlines body IATA said threatened U.S. trade tariffs were unlikely to halt a post-COVID surge in travel demand, and that President Donald Trump's approach could ultimately be positive for the industry. "It's additional uncertainty which we never welcome but we've always been able to manage," IATA's Willie Walsh said in an interview, as the prospect of more U.S. tariffs looms. He said the Trump administration's approach to date was a "net positive" for the airlines sector and was likely to encourage consolidation. Describing Trump's approach as a "wake-up call", he urged European regulators to relax regulation. "I think it is important that Europe re-evaluates its role in the world, and I think the Trump administration has caused that to happen much more quickly than I had expected," he said. Walsh said transatlantic travel was up in January and February year-on-year and that travel demand across the industry was up 9% since before the pandemic in 2019. "We'll look at March and April as we get the figures there. But certainly in the figures that we have available to us, it's not obvious that there's been an impact," he said. Individual airlines have given a mixed picture.<br/>

When senators grilled the Federal Aviation Administration last week about how the agency could have let the high number of close calls between helicopters and commercial jetliners occur at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the acting head of the FAA replied, “Something was missed.” That thought came “too little, too late,” according to Dailey Crafton, who was in attendance. In January, his brother was among 67 people killed when an American Airlines regional jet landing at the airport collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River. The NTSB later uncovered 15,214 “near miss events” at the airport between 2021 and 2024, where aircraft were within one nautical mile of each other, with a vertical separation of less than 400 feet. There were also 85 cases where aircraft were much closer - less than 1,500 feet apart, with a vertical separation of less than 200 feet, according to the NTSB. “There were a number of reports that came in, and we investigate every single near midair collision,” said Chris Rocheleau, acting FAA administrator in the hearing on the collision. “We have teams that go out and assess the airspace itself.” The “overburdened” Reagan National Airport, which sits on a total of 860 acres, has long been one of the nation’s busiest airports, according to the Coalition to Protect America’s Regional Airports. It served 25.5m passengers in 2023, more than its much larger counterpart Dulles International Airport, which served 25.1m. Reagan National Airport’s main runway is the busiest runway in the country, with over 800 daily takeoffs and landings, according to the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority. The airport has 58 total gates and three runways.<br/>

French hotel group Accor SA has warned that forward bookings from Europe to the U.S. are down 25% this summer as travelers that feel put off by U.S. President Donald Trump’s ’s crackdown on immigration divert to other locations. The company is seeing a “pretty strong deceleration” across the Atlantic, CEO Sébastien Bazin said on Tuesday in a Bloomberg TV interview. The drop is an acceleration from an 18-20% decline in the first 90 days of the year, he said. Travelers are deciding to visit places such as Canada, South America of Egypt instead of the US, Bazin said. “It’s probably anxiety to go in an unknown territory,” Bazin said. While cases of people being detained at the border are anecdotal for now, they have nevertheless created a “bad buzz” that’s starting to show up in booking trends, he said. “You don’t need any bad buzz today,” Bazin said. Transatlantic travel has long been a mainstay of airlines and tourism companies, counting as one of the most lucrative routes anywhere in the world. Now there’s a growing number of companies cautioning that the link has come under strain — with both US tourists tightening their belts and avoiding Europe, and Europeans circumventing the US for political reasons. While European airline executives said last week that there was no change in demand for now across the North Atlantic corridor, Virgin Atlantic Airways sounded the alarm this week about a recent weakening of travel to the UK. That caused shares of transatlantic carriers such as British Airways parent IAG to slide. <br/>

Anger over the Trump administration’s tariffs and rhetoric will likely cause international travel to the U.S. to fall even further than expected this year, an influential travel forecasting company said Tuesday. Tourism Economics said it expects the number of people arriving in the U.S. from abroad to decline by 9.4% this year. That’s almost twice the 5% drop the company forecast at the end of February. At the beginning of the year, Tourism Economics predicted a booming year for international travel to the U.S., with visits up 9% from 2024. But Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks said high-profile lockups of European tourists at the U.S. border in recent weeks have chilled international travelers. Potential visitors have also been angered by tariffs, Trump's stance toward Canada and Greenland, and his heated White House exchange with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “With each policy development, each rhetorical missive, we’re just seeing unforced error after unforced error in the administration,” Sacks said. “It has a direct impact on international travel to the U.S.” The decline will have consequences for airlines, hotels, national parks and other sites frequented by tourists.<br/>

Heathrow’s boss will be questioned by MPs on Wednesday about the airport’s closure for most of a day last month. CE Thomas Woldbye will give evidence to the Transport Select Committee as part of its investigation into the shutdown on March 21, which disrupted more than 270,000 air passenger journeys. The west London airport was closed to all flights on that day until about 6pm, after a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electricity substation which started late the previous night. The committee will examine whether the situation could have been handled differently and what lessons can be learned. Woldbye will be asked why the airport was closed for so long, and why it appears to have a single point of failure. He will be asked whether alternative power sources could have been used earlier, after National Grid said two other substations could have powered the airport. He could also be asked about reports that he went back to bed after the power outage began. The committee will also question whether this type of incident was deemed so unlikely to happen that investing in additional resilience was thought unnecessary.<br/>

European visitors to Britain will have to purchase an electronic permit in advance for trips from Wednesday, as the UK government follows other countries in seeking to strengthen immigration security by screening people before they cross its borders. The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme requires all visitors who do not need a visa to enter Britain to purchase pre-travel authorisation online at a cost of 10 pounds (12 euros), rising to 16 pounds from April 9. Irish citizens are excluded. The regime was initially rolled out to non-European nationals last year, including visitors from the United States, Canada and Australia. "Expanding ETA worldwide cements our commitment to enhance security through technology and innovation," migration minister Seema Malhotra said last month. Britain's Home Office, or interior ministry, said applying for an ETA should be simple through the UK ETA app, with the vast majority of applicants receiving a decision automatically in minutes. Applicants provide a photo and biographic details and answer questions on suitability and criminality. Once an applicant has successfully applied, their ETA is digitally linked to their passport. An ETA allows multiple visits to the UK of up to six months over a two-year period.<br/>

Zurich airport’s operator is to introduce a new noise classification by 2027, and implement adjustments to landing fees for the noisiest aircraft. The Swiss federal civil aviation office has approve an application from operator Flughafen Zurich which was submitted at the end of last year. “Flying at night will become increasingly expensive,” the office states. By January 2027 the airport operator will reclassify noise categories, adjusting surcharges for daytime operations while raising those for off-peak operations by noisy aircraft. Surcharges for operations after 23:00 will be higher, and a further hike will take effect after 23:15 – reaching up to SwFr5,000 ($5,660) for the noisiest long-haul aircraft. “The airport aims to reduce the number of late take-offs and create an incentive to upgrade fleets to quieter aircraft,” says the office. “This increase in fees contributes to the necessary reduction of noise pollution generated by night operations at the airport.”<br/>

Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell on Tuesday urged the Federal Aviation Administration to address critical concerns before deciding whether to extend a program that allows Boeing to perform FAA-delegated tasks like inspections and approving repairs. The FAA in May 2022 opted to renew Boeing's Organization Designation Authorization program -- known as ODA -- for three years, rather than the standard five years, to ensure the planemaker implemented "required improvements." Boeing's quality and safety efforts have faced harsh criticism since a January 2024 mid-air emergency involving a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 missing four key bolts. Cantwell told Reuters that the deadline for renewal was important for the FAA. "They have a great opportunity to basically build a kind of collaboration and focus on safety," Cantwell said. The FAA said it would respond directly to Cantwell. Boeing did not immediately comment. CEO Kelly Ortberg is set to testify on Wednesday before Congress. Then FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker in February 2024 ordered Boeing to implement a safety and quality improvement plan and acknowledged prior oversight "was too hands off." Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last month Boeing needs strict oversight. After the incident, the FAA took the unprecedented step of imposing a production cap of 38 planes per month on the 737 MAX. The FAA said in 2022 one requirement before a new extension was that ODA employees can "act without interference by company officials." Congress passed sweeping reforms in December 2020 on how the FAA certifies new airplanes after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people and led to the plane's 20-month grounding.<br/>

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg will tell lawmakers on Wednesday the U.S. planemaker made "serious missteps" in recent years but has since made "sweeping changes" after a January 2024 mid-air emergency involving a new 737 MAX. "Boeing has made serious missteps in recent years – and it is unacceptable. In response, we have made sweeping changes to the people, processes, and overall structure of our company," Ortberg will tell the Senate Commerce Committee, according to written testimony seen by Reuters. "No one is more committed to turning our company around than our team." Ortberg took over in August after the planemaker's prior CEO Dave Calhoun announced his resignation in the aftermath of last year's mid-air panel blowout on a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 airplane that was missing four key bolts. After the incident, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration imposed a production cap of 38 planes per month on the 737 MAX. Last month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Boeing had lost the trust of the American people and needed strict oversight after the Alaska incident and two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people. "Culture is perhaps the most predominant change we are making as a company," Ortberg's testimony said, adding company leaders are "spending more time listening and learning from our employees, working to restore trust, and holding leadership accountable."<br/>

Boeing on Tuesday denied a media report of fluctuations in 737 MAX production, saying that output had not reached 38 per month so far this year and nor had production recently fallen. Industry publication The Air Current reported earlier that the widely watched production level for Boeing's best-selling jet had reached 38 planes in February only to fall back to a rate of 31 per month after delays in fitting wing systems.<br/>

Airbus delivered about 70 planes in March, industry sources said on Tuesday, up about 11% from March last year but leaving the European group a steep path towards its 2025 target. The world's largest planemaker declined to comment ahead of a monthly progress report to be published next week. If confirmed, the estimated March level would bring Airbus deliveries for the first quarter to around 135 aircraft, lagging the 142 seen in the same period last year. Airbus has warned that first-quarter deliveries would be constrained due mainly to a shortage of engines from its biggest supplier CFM which brought forward some supplies to the previous quarter to help Airbus meet its 2024 targets. Airbus is targeting 820 deliveries for the whole year. "They are going to have to up the pace significantly in the rest of year to correct the trajectory towards 820," said Rob Morris, global head of consultancy at UK-based Cirium Ascend, who also estimates the planemaker delivered 70 jets in March. A Reuters reporter witnessed a handful of undelivered jets awaiting their engines during a visit to the planemaker's Toulouse headquarters for an industry event last week. Analysts say the rhythm of deliveries, which account for most revenues, will be under scrutiny in coming months as aerospace and other industries gear up for possible new trade tariffs that could affect parts and raw materials.<br/>