general

The acting head of the US FAA said Tuesday the aviation industry must work to eliminate near-miss incidents that have triggered recent safety concerns. "Going forward, zero has to be the only acceptable number for serious incidents and close calls," said Billy Nolen, the FAA's acting administrator. Six serious runway incursions since January prompted the agency to convene a safety summit earlier this month. "Air travel is coming back in a big way since the pandemic. But the long layoff, coupled with the increased technical nature of our systems, might have caused some professionals to lose some of that muscle memory," Nolen said at an industry meeting in Baltimore. The FAA said last week that it was taking steps to improve its air traffic control operations. "There is no question that we are seeing too many close calls," Tim Arel, chief operating officer of the FAA's Air Traffic Organization, said in a message to employees at that time. On Wednesday, the FAA issued a separate safety alert to airlines, pilots and others citing the "need for continued vigilance and attention to mitigation of safety risks." NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said last month that a FedEx cargo plane and a Southwest plane had come within 100 feet of each other in what could have been a "terrible tragedy." Facing an air traffic control staffing shortage, the FAA wants funding for more hiring. Rich Santa, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said at the safety summit earlier this month that there are 1,200 fewer certified air traffic controllers than a decade ago.<br/>

Officials briefly ordered a partial evacuation of a South Florida airport Tuesday evening as part of a “security-related investigation.” The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport posted on Twitter shortly after 8 p.m. that officials were investigating in the baggage claim area of Terminal 1, which is used primarily by Southwest Airlines. Then just before 9 p.m., a second post said that law enforcement had cleared the security incident. The terminal’s lower level had been evacuated, and the airport’s entrance roadway was blocked, the social media post said. Airport services and entranceways were expected to resume normal operations later Tuesday night. Travelers were instructed to check their airlines for updated flight information. Officials didn’t immediately provide details about what prompted the investigation and evacuation.<br/>

Belgian authorities detained eight people following raids on suspicion of planning an Islamist attack in Belgium, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday. They said that the target of the potential attack was not clear and did not comment on how advanced the preparations were. Police carried out raids late on Monday at five addresses in Brussels, Antwerp and in Eupen, a city near the German border and detained five men, at least two of them suspected of planning an attack. In a separate investigation, police also raided three other addresses in and near Brussels and took in three people, also on suspicion of planning an attack. "There are links between the two files, but further investigation will be needed to show the extent to which the two groups were connected," prosecutors said. Judges will need to decide whether the eight detained should face charges and be held longer in custody. Belgium was the home to a number of the perpetrators of the 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people and Brussels was itself the target of twin bomb attacks at its airport and on its metro in March 2016, when 32 people were killed.<br/>

Four suspects were arrested in a customs fraud ring involving Chinese exporters at Liege Airport, in eastern Belgium, the European Public Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday. The investigation, code-named "Silk Road," carried out 10 searches targeting Chinese exporters suspected of having put in place a system to evade value-added tax (VAT) payments on imported goods worth E303m in estimated damages. EPPO said in a statement it suspected the Chinese exporters of using three Belgian private customs agencies and fake companies in other member states in order to benefit from a VAT import exemption. It said the Belgian companies, acting as representatives of the Chinese exporters, declared that the goods entering through Liege – electronic equipment, toys and a myriad of accessories – were destined for other European Union member states, in order to benefit from VAT import exemptions. Under EU regulations, importers are exempt from paying VAT in the country of import if the goods are then transported to another EU state. EPPO said the Chinese exporters used private customs agencies in Belgium, who would declare the final destination of the goods was shell companies in other member states. Those shell companies would never receive the goods, which were then supplied to real companies or sold to consumers via online marketplaces. Consumers would pay full price for the products, including VAT, which was never declared or paid to tax authorities.<br/>

The UK government will on Thursday publish a report recommending state subsidies for the production of low-carbon aeroplane fuel made from household waste. The Department for Transport will release the report as part of wider package of proposed policies but ministers are still haggling with Treasury over the scale of the subsidies, according to people close to the matter. Rishi Sunak, prime minister, will on Thursday oversee a so-called government “energy security day”, with dozens of policy announcements and consultations running to about 1,000 pages. Ministers have drawn up plans to fund a new nuclear body called Great British Nuclear; ease onshore wind development; and tweak the windfall tax on oil and gas companies, according to officials. Grant Shapps, energy secretary, has signalled his intention to remove green levies from customers’ electricity bills and include them in general taxation, and to change the way that electricity prices are set. The car industry is hoping for clarity over of a controversial electric vehicle sales mandate due to kick in next year. Auto sector executives have warned that to allow manufacturers time to plan ahead they need certainty as soon as possible on new rules stipulating a certain proportion of sales must be of electric vehicles, Officials have also been finalising an updated “green finance strategy” to encourage the uptake of products such as “green gilts” — bonds which finance projects that contribute to reducing carbon emissions. However, some of these policies have been delayed until later this year, according to officials. Ministers are under pressure to draw up a fresh “net zero” plan after their previous version was rejected by a High Court judge last summer for being insufficiently detailed.<br/>

The government has agreed to examine proposals to expand Luton Airport that would see passenger numbers increase from 18 million to 32 million a year. Luton Rising, the Luton Council company that owns the airport, said it could generate £1.5bn per year and create thousands of new jobs. But anti-noise campaigners have called the expansion plans "tragic". The government's Planning Inspectorate has six months to examine the plans. The transport secretary will then decide whether to grant development consent. The expansion plans include new terminal capacity, an extension to the current airfield platform and new airside and landside facilities. A council spokesman previously said the airport was "one of the largest employers in the area, contributing enormously to the region's economic vibrancy on an annual basis, whilst itself increasing significantly in value as an asset in its own right through successive tranches of investment". "We anticipate it will provide an additional GBP14m each year for communities in Luton and the surrounding areas," he said. "For every additional passenger above the airport's current capacity, it will be able to invest an extra GBP1 into local communities, helping to tackle deprivation."<br/>

The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) expects international travel demand to “moderate” following strong recovery seen at the end of 2022, where major markets such as Japan and China reopened their borders. In comments made alongside the release of February traffic results for the international operations of Asia-Pacific carriers, AAPA director general Subhas Menon says travel sentiment will continue to hold up for the rest of the year, with capacity and networks restored to pre-pandemic levels. During the month, AAPA data shows strong year-on-year recovery from airlines, buoyed by the Lunar New Year holidays, as well as “strong appetite for travel”. Asia-Pacific carriers flew close to 16.9m international passengers, a seven-fold jump against the year-ago period, when travel demand was still suppressed by travel restrictions. Capacity was up three-fold year on year, while traffic grew nearly six times, leading to a 38.6 percentage point rise in load factors to 81.3%. Menon states that “strong travel demand will continue to underpin recovery” for the near-term. He warns of potential operational issues arising while ramping up. <br/>

Honeywell International Inc. sees the first electric aircraft that take off like helicopters and fly like airplanes beginning commercial flights in 2025, but no air taxi boom until closer to the end of the decade. Early cases for electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, craft will be mostly limited to military and cargo applications, Mike Madsen, the head of Honeywell’s aerospace business, said at a Jefferies conference. Passenger service is still years away and will likely require a pilot for the foreseeable future, but Madsen said air taxis will ultimately be the catalyst for double-digit growth in the nascent industry. “There will be some initial vehicles introduced that’ll be used for some limited use cases maybe under some pretty strict requirements, and then it will take off,” said Madsen, who expects Honeywell’s eVTOL equipment-related sales to grow to about $2 billion by 2030. “It’s going to be really slow at the beginning” The promise of more nimble aircraft that use multiple electric motors, which are quieter, safer and less expensive to maintain than a helicopter’s internal combustion engine, has attracted a number of startups as well as traditional aerospace manufacturers. The passenger market alone could grow to as much as $1t by 2040, and some $3t including military and cargo, according to JPMorgan Chase analyst Marcelo Motta. Even eVTOL producers that have made the most progress have many regulatory hurdles remaining and some experts say certification for pilot-less flights is likely many years away.<br/>