Future bookings for flights between Canada and the U.S. have plummeted by over 70% in every month through to the end of September compared with the same time in 2024, according to OAG, a global travel data provider. In February, the number of Canadians crossing the land border into the U.S. dropped almost 500,000 compared to the same period last year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — reaching levels not seen since the height of the Covid-19 border closures. “This is like Covid all over again,” said Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer in Blaine, Wash., which borders the Canadian province of British Columbia, in an interview with CBC News. “With the rhetoric coming from Trump — people just don’t want to come down here.” The number of Canadian residents returning from the U.S. by flights also fell by 13.1% in February, with Air Canada, WestJet and United Airlines announcing cuts to service due to declining demand. “A 10% reduction in Canadian travel could mean 2.0m fewer visits, $2.1b in lost spending and 14,000 job losses,” according to the U.S. Travel Association, which noted that Canada is the top source of international visitors to the country, with 20.4m visits in 2024.<br/>
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Environmental concerns over London Luton Airport's approved expansion plans are being taken "very seriously", the airport's boss has said. On Thursday, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander approved the plans that would see a new terminal, new taxiways and an increase in annual passengers up to 32m by 2043. However, environmental campaigners said "70,000 more aircraft a year" was the "last thing" the environment needed. Alberto Martin, CE of the airport, said the plans had a "legally binding framework" that put limits on noise and carbon emissions. "Already we do have the highest proportion of any airport in Europe of the most modern aircraft," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "We're talking about the quietest aircraft up there in the skies, the most fuel efficient... sustainability remains at the centre of these plans and they come with the most far reaching and robust environmental commitments of any UK airport. "It comes with a very innovative scheme. It's called Green Control Growth, and it's actually a legally binding framework with limits... on noise, limits on carbon emissions, limits on air quality and surface access. "Those limits will need to be met in order for the airport to be allowed to grow."<br/>
India wants to create more than 50 training organisations in the next five years to address the problem of pilot shortages in the country, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said on Friday. The South Asian nation is among the fastest-growing major aviation markets in the world.<br/>
Work has started on Wellington Airport’s new runway safety zones which will eventually allow for larger planes to land, creating new opportunities for international routes. The engineered materials arresting system (EMAS) uses energy-absorbing blocks to provide an additional safety measure at each end of the airport runway. Similar to a gravel trap on a motorway, these energy absorbing blocks are designed to crush under the weight of an aircraft, slowing it to a stop. The first phase of the project is to prepare the runway for installation. This will involve cutting through sections of the current runway to shift lighting and preparing to realign some of the runway entry and exit points. The second phase of the project is the physical installation of the EMAS blocks which will begin later this year. The entire project is due to be completed by the end of the year. Wellington Airport’s CE Matt Clarke said the project is a great example of innovation and collaboration in action. “EMAS has been installed at 86 airports around the world but mostly added as additional space at the end of runways.” Wellington Airport will be the second airport in Australasia to install EMAS, following Queenstown Airport which completed works last month.<br/>
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are set to drive up the cost of Boeing and Airbus planes, GE Aerospace engines, and hundreds of other aerospace and defense products, threatening an industry that helps soften the U.S. trade deficit by more than $100b a year. “It certainly makes things more expensive for the industry,” Dak Hardwick, vice president of international affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association, which represents Boeing, GE Aerospace, Airbus and dozens of other aerospace and defense companies, said of the tariffs. The industry group said it is asking the Trump administration to uphold provisions in a nearly half-century old trade agreement that allows for duty-free trade of civilian aircraft and imports tied to defense and national security. “The line is certainly long” for requests to the White House, Hardwick said. Trump’s executive order announcing the tariffs said trade and economic policies around the world have exacerbated a decline in overall U.S. manufacturing. Regarding innovation in the defense sector, the order stated, “If the United States wishes to maintain an effective security umbrella to defend its citizens and homeland, as well as for its allies and partners, it needs to have a large upstream manufacturing and goods-producing ecosystem to manufacture these products without undue reliance on imports for key inputs.” The aerospace industry has long been a top exporter for the United States. At Boeing alone, more than two-thirds of its airplane orders over the past decade came from customers outside of the United States, according to company data.<br/>
Howmet Aerospace, which supplies parts for planes built by Airbus and Boeing, may halt some shipments if they are impacted by tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a letter seen by Reuters.<br/>Pittsburgh-based Howmet said in the letter to customers that it has declared a force majeure event, a legal practice that allows parties to a contract to avoid their obligations if hit by unavoidable and unpredictable external circumstances. "Howmet will be excused from supplying any products or services that are impacted by this declared national emergency and/or the tariff executive order," Howmet wrote in the letter. Howmet is a supplier of critical metal components used across the $150b jetliner industry. Boeing and Airbus did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the letter, which three industry sources said went to multiple firms across the aerospace sector. It appeared to be the first such maneuver by a major aerospace company since the tariff announcement, one of the sources said.<br/>