general

Taiwan’s aviation regulator has stalled applications for new flights from China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines amid a row between Beijing and the self-ruled island over air routes, a regulatory official said Friday. Taiwan had not yet approved the applications to add flights during the approaching Lunar New Year holiday because in recent weeks the airlines had used four disputed air routes close to the island, said the official, who asked not to be identified. This month China opened several disputed air routes, including a northbound M503 route in the Taiwan Strait, without informing Taiwan, contravening what the democratic government in Taipei said was a 2015 deal to first discuss such flight paths. Taiwan has expressed concern the new routes are too close to existing routes that link it to airports on two groups of Taiwan-controlled islands lying close to China, and are a threat to flight safety. China has denied safety could be affected, saying it had no need of Taiwan’s approval for new routes. China Eastern had applied to add 106 flights while Xiamen Airlines, majority-owned by China Southern, had applied for 70, the official said. The applications were “still under review”, he added. More than 10,000 customers have made bookings for the yet-to-be approved flights, Xiamen Airlines said in an emailed statement that strongly urged Taiwan authorities to comply with popular demand. “While the economic losses caused by these actions to the airlines are small, it will cause much inconvenience to people who want to travel,” it said. The Civil Aviation Administration of China condemned the move, saying again there were no safety issues with the M503 route and warning Taiwan that it would “bear the consequences” of its decision.<br/>

The Chinese government said it will loosen its control over China’s big three carriers—China Southern Airlines, Air China and China Eastern Airlines—allowing its ownership stakes in the airlines to fall below 50%. Currently, state-owned company China National Aviation Holding Co. holds a 53.5% stake in Air China, state-owned China Eastern Group holds a 56.4% stake in China Eastern and state-owned China Southern Group holds a 52% stake in China Southern. Industry analysts in China speculated that the new regulation will allow China’s big three carriers to be just 40%-state owned, enabling a more mixed ownership structure in which outside investors take stakes in Chinese airlines.<br/>

China’s big three carriers—China Southern, China Eastern and Air China—each reported passenger boardings of more than 100m in 2017 as market demand continued to grow. Last year, China Southern transported 126m passengers, up 10.2% over 2016. Domestic passengers were up 10.3% to 109m and international passengers jumped 11.1% to 15.4m. The Guangzhou-based airline carried 2.3m passengers on regional routes (Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan). Average passenger load factor was up 1.7 points to 82.2%. China Eastern transported 111m passengers last year, up 9% over 2016. Domestic passengers were up 10% year-over-year (YOY) to 92.6m. International passengers increased 2.4% to 14.7m. The Shanghai-based airline carried 3.5m passengers on regional routes (Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan). Average passenger load factor decreased 0.17 points to 81.1%. Air China transported 101.6m passengers last year, up 5.1% over 2016. Domestic passengers were up 6% to 83.5m on domestic routes and 13.5m on international routes, up 2%. Air China carried 4.6m passengers on regional routes (Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan). The Beijing-based carrier’s average passenger load factor increased 0.4 point to 81.1%.<br/>

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday recommended that internet services like wi-fi and mobile connectivity should be permitted on domestic and international flights in India. India is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets and also the world’s fastest growing internet services market, and such a step is likely to boost revenue for service providers as well as airlines. The recommendations, which include providing a mechanism for the lawful interception and monitoring of wi-fi in aircraft cabins to ensure safety, were provided to the Department of Telecommunications which will draft the final policy. Once finalised it will, for the first time, allow flyers in India to surf the internet on a plane, a service common in many foreign countries.<br/>

The only functioning airport in the Libyan capital reopened on Saturday after a five-day closure caused by deadly clashes that left passenger jets damaged. Mitiga airport, located just east of Tripoli city centre, appeared to be operating normally, with both departures and arrivals areas busy with passengers. “All domestic and international flights have ...resumed,” said an airport official who asked not to be named for security reasons. “No technical problems have been reported and security is under control.” Fighting on Monday pitted the Special Deterrence Force (SDF), which is aligned with the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), and an armed group based in the nearby Tajoura district. At least 20 people were killed and 60 wounded. The four Libyan airlines operating out of Mitiga have been rushing to repair or replace aircraft that were hit by gunfire or artillery while parked there during the battle. Flights to evacuate or repatriate foreign migrants from Tripoli, which are mainly operated by UN agencies, were suspended because of Mitiga’s closure.<br/>

Angola still owes more than $500m to international airlines including Emirates, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, one of many items in the in-tray of new President Joao Lourenco as he tries to revive the economy. Africa’s second-biggest oil producer is withholding repatriation of the funds amid a persistent shortage of foreign-currency reserves, according to the IATA. Alexandre de Juniac, the industry body’s CEO, has this week held meetings with Angolan government ministries about how to recover the cash, IATA said. Airlines have been struggling to get ticket revenue out of oil dependent countries such as Angola, Nigeria and Egypt after a 2014 collapse in the crude price dried up reserves of dollars, euros and other major currencies. Emirates said in October 2016 it could scrap flights to some African locations, and followed up on the threat in July when it cut journeys to Luanda, the Angola capital, from Dubai to three a week from five. The lingering problem is one of a number of headaches for Lourenco, who became president in September after ending the almost four-decade rule of Jose Eduardo dos Santos. He’s vowed to fight corruption and end state monopolies, and has earned the nickname “relentless remover” after firing two of dos Santos’s children from senior positions at the state oil company and sovereign wealth fund. Other airlines waiting for cash are Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways, Air Namibia and Air Brussels. <br/>

A Congress-ordered rule that requires airlines to refund your bag fee if your luggage arrives late and other consumer protection regulations have stalled in DoT regulatory proceedings. Congress passed the refund law 18 months ago in July 2016. It called for airlines to automatically refund the fees when a passenger’s luggage arrives at least 12 hours after a domestic flight. Airlines collected nearly $4.2b in bag fees that year. The law left it to the DoT to work out and finalise the details by July 2017. The refund regulation is among a handful of consumer-oriented proposals at the department that were delayed, postponed or withdrawn in the year since President Trump took office. Trump ordered a regulatory freeze on Jan. 20, 2017, his first day in office. At the time, Trump's first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said the agencies needed time to review new or pending regulations. Ten days later, Trump signed an executive order requiring any new regulation to trigger the repeal of two existing regulations. The next month, he ordered every federal department to recommend which regulations to repeal or modify. Last month, Trump boasted of cancelling or delaying more than 1,500 planned regulatory actions — "more than any previous president by far.” Critics say Trump threw out consumer protections along with the red tape. "Consumers already know that airlines will stop at nothing — from exorbitant bag fees to shrinking seat sizes — to turn a profit," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. "Now, they are faced with an administration apparently anxious and eager to aid the airlines’ anti-consumer assault."<br/>

A woman notorious for stowing away on commercial airplanes made it past two TSA agents at O'Hare International Airport by hiding her face with her hair, and then stayed overnight at the airport before sneaking onto a plane and flying to London, prosecutors said Saturday. Marilyn Hartman, 66, faces a felony theft charge in connection with flying to the United Kingdom on a British Airways jet without a $2,400 ticket and a misdemeanour trespass charge in connection with getting into the airport illegally. At a hearing Saturday afternoon, a judge ordered her released on her own recognisance, but ordered her to undergo psychological treatment and stay away from O'Hare and any BA planes. This was Hartman's first arrest in Chicago since 2016, but she has a long history of trying to sneak onto airplanes.<br/>

Officials say about 190 flights have been cancelled at Denver International Airport as a winter storm moves through Colorado. Airport officials say passengers should check directly with their airline for information on delays or cancellations on Sunday. The FAA also is using a ground delay to space out planes arriving at the Denver airport. Airport officials say those delays are averaging about 2.5 hours. Crews began working overnight to treat the airport’s surfaces and officials said the airfield was in good condition. But officials said blowing snow and low visibility is a concern as winds pick up speed.<br/>

Airlines will fly the friendly skies without obvious changes during the federal government shutdown because air-traffic controllers at the FAA and TSA checkpoint officers are classified essential workers. But TSA administrator David Pekoske said a shutdown creates anxiety and the planning takes attention away from security screening. “All checkpoints will remain open,” Pekoske said. But he said there would be an impact because acquisition officials and other support functions would stop going to work. “What a shutdown does is you spend a lot of time planning and recovering from a shutdown,” Pekoske said. “That’s in my view a loss of time. We’re busy all the time.” Essential workers who report to their jobs typically are paid retroactively, whenever Congress resolves its spending dispute. TSA estimated 52,629 of its 58,007 workers, plus federal air marshals, are exempt from a lapse in funding because they are necessary to protect life and property such as processing passengers, according to a Department of Homeland Security plan. Likewise, 54,461 of the 58,872 workers at Customs and Border Protection keep working during a lapse in funding as law-enforcement officers or because of functions such as inspecting cargo at ports of entry, according to the plan. The 25,127 workers in FAA’s air-traffic organization are exempted from furloughs during a temporary lapse in funding, according to a Transportation Department plan. But that unpredictability in federal funding is a major reason why airlines and lawmakers have proposed to move air-traffic controllers out of the FAA to a non-profit corporation overseen by industry members. The opponents of privatizing controllers worry that removing the system from congressional oversight could leave travelers and lawmakers with nowhere to go with complaints about problems.<br/>

A pop-up license bureau is being set up at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas to accommodate all the lovebirds with marriage plans who flock to the city around Valentine’s Day. Getting married in Las Vegas is popular year-round. But each year around Valentine’s Day and the Presidents Day weekend, the Clark County Clerk’s office in downtown Las Vegas office reports issuing more than 1,500 marriage licenses, about twice the number they do during other times of the year. This year the Chinese New Year, considered by many to be a lucky day to tie the knot, falls on Feb. 16, and marriage license requests in Las Vegas are expected to surge. So to make it easier for couples flying to Sin City to get legally hitched this year, the County Clerk’s office will issue marriage licenses from Feb. 9 to 17 from a pop-up office in the airport’s Terminal 1 baggage claim area. The pop-up shop hours will run daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and credit cards will be accepted for the $77 license fee. That will help streamline the process a bit, but to make sure there are no glitches on the way to getting hitched, the clerk’s office encourages those planning to get licenses to fill out a license pre-application form online. <br/>

Mexico's anti-monopoly commission says it has found evidence of price-fixing by airlines on domestic airplane tickets. The federal Competition Commission said Sunday that various airlines are not competing on prices for domestic flights and "may have reached agreements with the aim or effect of manipulating base prices." The commission cited an investigation that ran from February 2015 and concluded in November. It did not mention how many or which airlines were involved. The companies will now be allowed to offer evidence before a ruling is made. Such practices can result in fines of as much as 10% of a company's income in Mexico. Mexico reserves domestic flights for Mexican carriers, but allows minority foreign ownership of them.<br/>

Airlines that fly over or near the Korean Peninsula have contingency plans should North Korea test another missile. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Jan.16 highlighted the threat North Korean missile tests can pose to civil aviation while speaking at a meeting in Vancouver, where officials from 20 nations discussed Korean Peninsula-related security issues. North Korea launched 20 ballistic missiles last year. Korean Air Lines said it would consider stopping flights from Incheon International Airport, near Seoul, to Guam, a US territory in the western Pacific, if North Korea moves to fire a missile toward the Micronesian island. South Korea's largest airline said its Incheon-Narita route and Incheon-Sydney route could be affected by a North Korean missile test and that it has predetermined detours that its jetliners can take to avoid trouble. A Japan Airlines spokesperson on Jan.18 said one of its captains also reported seeing "a flashing object" off in the distance while flying on the day of the missile test in November. The airline said it is difficult to prepare for another test since there is no saying when one might come and where the missile would be pointed. While route changes must be determined by the control tower to avoid collisions between civilian planes, "we will consider options including landing at an alternative airport and returning back to the departure point if a missile is in the vicinity," a Japan Airlines' spokesperson said. A spokesman for All Nippon Airways, under ANA Holdings, said the company is working closely with relevant authorities and closely monitoring the situation.<br/>

For many years, extensive renewal or expansion may have seemed unnecessary for Incheon Airport, as it has positioned itself as one of the world’s top-tier aviation hubs. But South Korea’s largest airport did not rest on its laurels. As part of its long-term vision to become the world’s third-biggest airport by year 2023, the airport has opened its second passenger terminal, marking the culmination of a nine-year construction project that cost some 5t won ($4.67b). Incheon International Airport Thursday opened Terminal 2, where four Skyteam airlines -- the nation’s flagship carrier Korean Air, Delta, Air France and KLM -- are to operate. Eighty-six other air carriers, including the country’s second-largest by sales, Asiana Airlines, will continue to operate in Terminal 1 due to space capacity, boarding convenience and operating efficiency. Commencing operation of the brand new landing strip was Korean Air’s flight KE624, which departed from Manila and landed in Incheon around 4:20 a.m. A total of 235 flights -- 117 departing and 118 arriving -- operated in Terminal 2 on its opening day, transporting 51,161 inbound and outbound passengers, according to the airport’s operator. The new terminal, which is about 71% the size of the first one, is to handle 18m passengers annually, rising to 46m once additional wings are completed.<br/>