Airlines & Aviation 2020-

12 June
The Boeing 747 Begins Its Final Descent
The jet was perhaps the pinnacle of American engineering excellence. Its retirement signals an end to an era of American culture—and ambition.
By Ian Bogost
(The Atlantic) … For 50 years, the aircraft was the principal host of Important Journeys: a young student’s trip to study abroad in Paris, a first-generation American’s pilgrimage to their ancestral home in Hungary, an Iranian family fleeing the 1979 revolution. Combining the immensity of an ocean liner and the elegance of a swan, the 747 is the only commercial jet that deserves to be called beautiful. Over the past two decades, airlines have stopped using it as a passenger plane and replaced it with smaller aircraft that are more efficient, but far less majestic and memorable. The 747 was once a symbol of American might, invention, progress, and populism. Now it embodies the decline of all of those values.
… From 1970, when the first 747 entered service, to 2023, when Boeing stopped building the plane, the company manufactured 1,574 of them, including the two that still serve as Air Force One. Most 747 routes spanned oceans and continents, giving travelers a speedier option than the Queen Mary had across the Atlantic, or the California Zephyr across the West. For generations, these jumbo jets flew to London, to Osaka, to San Francisco.
… Like most technological innovations of the 20th century, the 747 project was catalyzed by the military. In the early 1960s, Boeing produced designs in response to a government request for a large military transport aircraft. Lockheed won that job and produced the C‑5 Galaxy. Boeing’s loss steeled its resolve and freed up engineers to work on the biggest airplane ever built for commercial service. Boeing acquired 780 acres of land in Everett, Washington, just north of Seattle, and erected an assembly complex that included the largest building in the world by volume—at a cost of $200 million ($2 billion in today’s dollars)—to house up to eight 747s under construction. About 2,700 engineers labored on the project.

9 July
New Air Force One Lacks Defensive Countermeasures of Previous Model, Officials Say
Experts said the lack of such capabilities poses a potential risk when the president travels overseas.
The Air Force has declined to discuss specifics around security systems on the retrofitted Qatari plane, which is being used as a “bridge” aircraft while two Boeing jets that will be part of the permanent presidential fleet are being finished.
But in a statement it made when it announced that the donated jet was ready to transport the president, it acknowledged that the temporary plane did not have all the equipment usually found on an Air Force One.

8 July
Air Canada names new CEO following French-language row
Unlike his predecessor, the airline says Anko Van der Werff speaks French.
Anko Van der Werff will replace Michael Rousseau as Air Canada’s CEO, the airline announced Wednesday, promising its new top executive can communicate in French.
Rousseau, who has been the airline’s CEO for five years, announced his retirement in March following widespread outrage over his decision to deliver an English-only speech in the wake of a plane crash that killed two pilots, including Antoine Forest, a francophone Quebecer.
… According to Air Canada, Van der Werff is proficient in Dutch, English and French and has also learned Spanish, Italian and Swedish to varying degrees.
Quebec French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge congratulated Van der Werff on X.
“It goes without saying that the head of Air Canada must demonstrate proficiency in French, our official language in Quebec. That seems to be the case,” he wrote.
“That said, beyond the language spoken by the CEO, his responsibility is to ensure access to French-language services across the country. On that subject, there is still work to do,” Roberge added.

7 May
A landmark Quebec jet deal gives Carney a global win. Can it actually deliver?
Airbus Canada and AirAsia announced a multibillion-dollar deal on Wednesday [6 May].
(Montreal Gazette) …AirAsia’s charismatic chief executive, Tony Fernandes, ….just put in the largest single order ever for a Canadian-made commercial aircraft.
The 150 Airbus A220-300s ordered, which were once known as Bombardier’s C Series, can carry up to 160 passengers. According to officials, all 150 will be assembled at the Mirabel site by the nearly 5,000 employees there.
For Carney, however, who was joined Wednesday by Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette and federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, among other politicians, the optics of the deal between a European manufacturer and an Asian buyer all inside Canada fall into his government’s geopolitical strategy.
Aerospace, Carney said — indeed with Quebec at the heart of it — remains one of Canada’s most strategically important industries. It is one, he added, that comes up constantly in meetings with foreign leaders and international partners.
… John Gradek, an aviation expert and faculty lecturer at McGill University, told The Gazette that Airbus has invested heavily to expand the Mirabel facility, so could easily assemble more aircraft. The problem, he said, is whether suppliers can keep up. … Many components for the A220 come from a sprawling network of manufacturers across Quebec and abroad, he explained. Those suppliers, Gradek argued, are still struggling with labour shortages, production delays and limited capacity.
… “We’ve got underused capacity sitting idle because the supply chain isn’t able to fill the production lines,” he said.
Mélanie Lussier, chief executive of Aéro Montréal, pointed to a different problem in an interview with The Gazette.
She said the industry as a whole will require roughly 65,000 additional workers over the next decade to meet demand.
And recent immigration restrictions in Quebec have already pushed some skilled aerospace workers out of the province, she added. She pressed for more collaboration between all levels of government and sectors.

27 March
Airfare Is Just the Beginning
Expensive plane tickets are a preview of what could come next.
By Will Gottsegen
(The Atlantic) Walk into any American airport today, and you might end up in a security line that extends past the baggage claim. You might hear a muffled voice announcing over the intercom that your flight has—once again—been delayed. And you might have to pay even more for this experience.
Airfare has spiked since the start of the war in Iran, as airlines cope with rising jet-fuel prices and the new risks of flying in and around the Middle East. Business Insider found that the average price of a flight from one end of the United States to the other rose from $167 in February to $414 in mid-March. Outside the country, ticket prices for major routes connecting Europe and Asia have surged, per data from Alton Aviation Consultancy: The Hong Kong–London route is 560 percent more expensive than it was last month, and the Bangkok-Frankfurt route is up 505 percent. (Flights between the two continents would ordinarily pass through the Middle East.) And tickets are likely to stay expensive for some time. …
“Airfares are certainly the canary in the coal mine,” my colleague Annie Lowrey, who writes about economic policy, told me. “No other major consumer good or service I can think of is as sensitive to energy costs.” Jet fuel makes up roughly 30 percent of the cost of an airline ticket, and much of that increase is getting passed on to customers.
Airlines have always had razor-thin margins. Fuel is the industry’s largest operating cost and can represent about 25 percent of a company’s total yearly spending. American Airlines recently said that it will be forced to spend an additional $400 million this quarter. “If oil prices stay where they are today, that’s 11 billion [dollars] of expense for us,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said this week. He also suggested that, for the company to break even, it would need to raise ticket prices another 20 percent. That direct correlation—as fuel prices go up, so does airfare—helps explain why the Iran war’s effects on plane tickets have been so immediate. …

26 March
ICE agents take a more active role in airport security, but long lines persist ahead of the weekend traveler rush
(CNN) Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived at 14 major US airports four days ago to assist Transportation Security Administration workers as Congress keeps haggling over how to end the partial government shutdown that has driven mounting TSA staffing shortages and the longest security wait times ever.
But President Donald Trump indicated Thursday he is instructing the Department of Homeland Security to “immediately pay” TSA agents in a bid to reduce long lines at airports. … How soon TSA employees will get checks will depend on how quickly the internal review to pay them using funds from the bill can work, one person told CNN.
Shortly after Trump’s announcement, the stalemate on Capitol Hill began to shift as the Senate unanimously agreed during an overnight session to fund most of DHS, including the TSA. The bill still needs approval from the House before shuttered agencies within DHS can reopen.
As the situation remains uncertain, ICE agents continue to direct snaking security lines and pass out water bottles to tired travelers. It’s unclear whether the ICE agents deployed at Trump’s request to help manage the chaos have made a significant dent as wait times begin to tick up again as the weekend nears.

The Worst Airport in America
Traveling by plane anywhere is bad right now, but in some places, it’s worse.
By Ellen Cushing
(The Atlantic)…certain airports are more hated than others. Reagan, near D.C., because it has the most delays of any major airport; one in three of its flights was late in 2025, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Dallas, because it is the biggest—flight-missingly, leg-destroyingly big, bigger than the island of Manhattan, with an incredible 1.5-mile distance between security and the farthest gate. Meanwhile, Hartsfield-Jackson, in Atlanta, is the world’s busiest: On any given good day, more people than live in the entire country of Barbados trudge through it; this week, they were doing so very, very slowly, as security wait times crept up past two hours.
When someone posed the “worst airport” question on Reddit last year, the most upvoted response was about the one in Charlotte, North Carolina, which was built as a manageably sized regional airport but is now one of the busiest in the world, thanks to demographic and flight-pattern changes. Orlando has the most complaints about lost or mishandled luggage, according to an analysis of TSA data. And an evaluation of Department of Transportation data shows that Lincoln, Nebraska, and Toledo, Ohio, are tied for the longest delays among lower-volume airports. Apparently they have so few flights that any short delay can quickly turn into a long one. …
… Ultimately, all of this airport research took me to a dark place: Newark, New Jersey, whose airport has been found, variously, to offer the most stress, the worst food, the most travel disruptions, and the second-most delays (behind Reagan). On Yelp, where it has a lower rating than several nearby prisons, 1,100 one-star reviews refer to it with vocabulary such as chaotic, unacceptable, and hell on earth. The more than 30,000 people who took the data-analytics firm JD Power’s annual airport-satisfaction survey last year believe Newark to be the worst airport in North America,
… The truth is, all airports are bad. You’ve heard. They are unlovely and unloved, designed to be passed through, and doomed by decades of disinvestment. They are a vortex of everything annoying: confined spaces, limited options, bad Wi-Fi, overpriced food, fluorescent lighting, other people. They are the opposite of vacation, even as they are inextricably linked to it. And they lay bare the fragility of this modern life, how easy it is for everything to go wrong—right now, especially. The worst airport isn’t Atlanta, or Dallas, or Newark. The worst airport is whatever airport you are in.

25 March
How the War in the Middle East Is Affecting Flights to Europe, Asia . . . and Almost Everywhere
Extra layovers, longer routes, and increasing airfares—even travelers who aren’t flying anywhere near the conflict might feel the effects.
(AFAR) As the war in the Middle East continues, airlines around the world have been rapidly redrawing their flight maps. They are avoiding large swaths of Middle Eastern airspace and rerouting long-haul flights that normally pass through one of aviation’s most important crossroads; in some cases, they have been forced to cancel service altogether as conditions change on the ground.
The airspace closures add another major gap to an already fragmented map of global skies. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, much of that region’s airspace has been off-limits to international airlines. Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza has also periodically restricted flights across parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. Now, with Iranian airspace and neighboring countries and regions becoming increasingly risky or restricted, airlines flying between Europe, Asia, and Australia are left with fewer safe and available corridors to cross Eurasia.
Complicating matters further, some airports in the region, including Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Doha’s Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Qatar, have at times temporarily halted operations since the conflict began on February 28; they’ve had to pause arrivals and departures during periods of heightened military activity or security threats. Those shutdowns, even when brief, trigger cascading delays across airline networks.
Robert Reich: Flying Already Sucks. Trump Just Made it Even Worse.
How did he manage it?
1. Lines are getting longer at airports.
2. Air-traffic controllers are way understaffed and underpaid.
3. Ticket prices are soaring and flights are being cancelled because the cost of jet fuel is soaring.
4. Trump’s Transportation Department scrapped a Biden-era rule that would have required airlines to give cash refunds to passengers for significant travel disruptions and delays within the airlines’ control.
5. The Transportation Department is also reportedly planning to claw back other protections around passenger refunds, cut requirements for airlines to disclose junk fees, and roll back rules holding airlines liable for damaged wheelchairs.
This will be a boost to the bottom line of the airlines and a nice return on investment for Delta and United in particular, which contributed $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Republicans Reject Democratic Proposal to End D.H.S. Impasse
(NYT) Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have each formally rejected the other’s latest proposals to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown that has now lasted more than five weeks. Democrats on Wednesday sent a proposal with “common-sense guardrails” on federal immigration agents, which they have demanded be part of any agreement, but Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, immediately called it a nonstarter.
(NYT) Why Are Delays at Houston’s Bush Airport Worse Than at Others?
Lines were long at airports nationwide Tuesday amid T.S.A. staffing shortages, but passengers at Bush Intercontinental Airport waited more than four hours to pass through checkpoints.
(NYT) … As the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security reached 40 days, hundreds of T.S.A. officers have quit and many more have called out of work, straining resources during the spring break travel season. On Tuesday, Bush Airport reported that about 40 percent of its security work force did not show up — the highest such rate in the country.
“It’s a lack-of-pay issue, 100 percent,” said Johnny Jones, the secretary and treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 100, the union that represents about 4,500 T.S.A. officers in Texas. “When you have 40 percent of your work force not showing up, you’re in trouble. That’s a lot of people.”
This is the second government shutdown since October to affect T.S.A. officers, who will not be paid until Congress decides how to restore funding. D.H.S., the department T.S.A. is under, was removed from a spending package until Democrats and Republicans worked out a separate compromise with President Trump on the administration’s immigration crackdown after two Americans were shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minnesota.

24 March
U.S. officials probe staffing, fatigue, communication failures after Air Canada crash
(Globe & Mail) U.S. safety investigators are looking at whether factors such as staffing, fatigue and communication failures played roles in the fatal collision between an Air Canada Express passenger jet and a fire truck on the runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night.
Both Canadian pilots of the plane, Antoine Forest of Coteau-du-Lac, Que., and Mackenzie Gunther of Ontario, died when the Air Canada Express CRJ 900 carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal struck the emergency vehicle. The flight was operated by Jazz Aviation, a contractor to Air Canada.
the two controllers, who were expected to be interviewed on Tuesday afternoon, were in charge of vehicles and planes on the apron, as well as aircraft using the runways. This is common practice for midnight shifts but makes for a heavy workload, she said.
Who’s to blame for Air Canada crash at LaGuardia Airport? Here’s what we know so far
(National Post) The fire truck was not equipped with a transponder that would show the control tower its location and activate a runway warning system

2025

7 September
Chinese flying taxi takes to the skies in Africa as firms eye global roll-out
A Chinese-made pilotless electric air taxi completed its first test flight in Rwanda this week, as China’s aviation firms rapidly go global
(SCMP) A made-in-China automated electric air taxi took off in Africa for the first time this week, as a new generation of Chinese low-altitude aircraft attracts growing interest from global buyers.
The product on show was a pilotless electric take-off and landing vehicle (eVTOL) made by EHang Holdings, a Nasdaq-listed tech company from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
It took to the skies during the Aviation Africa Summit and Exhibition, a major industry event involving 34 countries that was held in the Rwandan capital of Kigali on Thursday and Friday.
25 April 2024
China green-lights mass production of autonomous flying taxis — with commercial flights set for 2025

13 June
Boeing experts and UK and US aviation officials join Air India crash investigation
Unexplained descent of Boeing 787 before deadly crash has cast fresh shadows over US aircraft manufacturer
Air India disaster: rescue teams with sniffer dogs comb site of deadly plane crash
Narendra Modi visited Ahmedabad crash site where at least 265 people died, with one passenger on Boeing jet surviving
The plane crashed less than a minute after takeoff on Thursday afternoon after flying to an altitude of barely 100 metres. It issued a mayday call and “crashed immediately after takeoff”, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

27 February
Elon Musk’s Genius Plan to Solve FAA Worker Shortage Is Beyond Belief
Concerns around air traffic safety have increased dramatically following several plane crashes.
(New Republic) Elon Musk suddenly wants to increase the size of the federal workforce.
“There is a shortage of top notch air traffic controllers,” Musk wrote in a post on X Thursday. “If you have retired, but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so.”
Musk’s desperate call to bring retired federal employees back into the fray after single-handedly undermining the security of every single government job is inane on its face. It gets even more so when considering the actual requirements for the job….
Although the solution proposed by the unelected bureaucrat is decidedly unserious, the problem straining air traffic control towers is anything but.
The New York Times reported in 2023 that nearly every air traffic control site in the country was understaffed, leading to the staffers in the high-stress position being overworked. After [the] deadly plane crash at the Reagan National Airport…the Times reported that its air traffic control tower had a staff of 19 controllers—as opposed to the 30 recommended by the FAA and controllers’ union.
As of September 2024, the FAA had 14,000 air traffic controllers in its employ, having surpassed its yearly goal to bring aboard 1,800 new hires. The hiring spree was implemented to reverse a “decades-long air traffic controller staffing level decline,” according to a post from the FAA.
But earlier this month, as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping layoffs, a whopping 400 FAA jobs were eliminated. According to the Trump administration, none of them were air traffic controllers.

26 February
The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer and Miles O’Brien
Why so many near collisions – and worse? Should the FAA be DOGE’d? Just the opposite.
My take on the state of aviation near collisions and worse.
American Airlines flight forced to abort landing at Reagan National Airport to avoid another plane
(CNN) An American Airlines flight arriving at Ronald Reagan National Airport was forced to abort its landing to avoid another aircraft Tuesday, officials said, less than a month after a midair collision killed 67 people near the same airport and roughly 90 minutes before a close call between a passenger plane and a private jet in Chicago.
Tuesday’s incidents came as officials are investigating a string of safety incidents in recent weeks, including the deadly midair collision over the Potomac River, a Medevac jet crash in Philadelphia and a regional airline crash off the coast of Nome, Alaska, that killed 10 people. And last week, a Delta plane crashed while landing in Toronto, flipping upside-down as a wing – engulfed in flames – broke away from the fuselage. All 80 people on board survived.

19 February
European aviation ‘dumbstruck’ by Musk’s takeover of US air traffic control
The billionaire’s people have marched into the Federal Aviation Administration, and Europeans are “freaking out.”
(Politico Eu) European aviation experts are aghast at the Trump administration’s decision to have Elon Musk’s employees investigate its troubled and understaffed air traffic control system following several high-profile air crashes.
In the aftermath of the Jan. 29 mid-air crash between a passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter over Washington that claimed 67 lives, Musk promised that his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team would look to make “rapid safety upgrades” to the country’s air traffic control sector.
And on Monday, U.S. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, who was recently appointed by President Donald Trump, announced the involvement of Musk’s employees in a post on X saying the team was expected to “get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system.”
… In addition to safety concerns, Musk’s involvement with the FAA also raised eyebrows as the federal agency sought to fine SpaceX last year for a series of alleged safety violations on two rocket launches in 2023. According to [Gauthier Sturtzer, a French air traffic controller and chair of the CGT union’s air traffic management committee], Musk “is not going to be helpful to the sector. He wants to serve his own interests by keeping the FAA away from space operations.” –

31 January
Disabled workers express fear and dismay after Trump’s claims about the F.A.A.
(NYT) Miles O’Brien lost his left arm in 2014, losing with it his private pilot’s license. A journalist by trade, he had been flying for nearly thirty years, and it had become his personal passion. …
Disabled pilot reacts to Trump’s comments on deadly crash and hiring of people with disabilities
CNN aviation analyst Miles O’Brien joins CNN’s Erin Burnett after President Donald Trump repeatedly suggested there was a link between the deadly collision of a passenger jet and military helicopter near Reagan National Airport and diversity hiring policies at the Federal Aviation Administration.
What It Takes to Make Flying Safe
Near misses and accidents have to do with the whole system of aviation management.
By Lora Kelley
(The Atlantic) Wednesday night’s deadly airplane crash was tragic—and, to many experts, not altogether surprising. The collision between a commercial airplane and a military helicopter in Washington, D.C., has led many people to take a closer look at the complex systems that commercial flying relies on, and the strain that some of those systems are under.

Washington Crash Renews Concerns About Air Safety Lapses
Clues emerging from the moments before an Army helicopter collided with a passenger jet suggest breakdowns in the system meant to help aircraft land safely at the busy Reagan National Airport.
(NYT) Clues emerging from the moments before the deadly collision Wednesday night between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet suggest that multiple layers of the country’s aviation safety apparatus failed, according to flight recordings, a preliminary internal report from the Federal Aviation Administration, interviews with current and former air traffic controllers and others briefed on the matter.
The helicopter flew outside its approved flight path. The American Airlines pilots most likely did not see the helicopter close by as they made a turn toward the runway. And the air traffic controller, who was juggling two jobs at the same time, was unable to keep the helicopter and the plane separated.

Vile!
Trump Blames D.E.I. and Biden for Crash Under His Watch
President Trump’s remarks, suggesting that diversity in hiring and other Biden administration policies somehow caused the disaster, reflected his instinct to immediately frame major events through his political or ideological lens.

30-31 January
The final seconds — and grim aftermath — of D.C. plane crash that killed 67
In seconds, the wreckage of each aircraft plunged into the icy Potomac River, the victims with it. All perished.
What we know about the plane and military helicopter crash in D.C.
An American Airlines plane with 64 people aboard collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over Washington. Salvage is starting and the NTSB is investigating.
(WaPo) Investigators have recovered a cockpit voice recorder and a flight-data recorder from the airliner and a single combined recorder from the helicopter — devices often referred to as black boxes. The NTSB is analyzing them
… Staffing levels were “not normal” inside Reagan National Airport’s control tower at the time of the collision, with no single controller dedicated to managing helicopter traffic, according to an air traffic safety report described to The Washington Post. The position of helicopter controller, which is typically staffed until 9:30 p.m., had been combined with a role overseeing active runway operations by the time of the crash at about 8:50 p.m., according to the report. Doubling up those roles can create challenges for an air traffic controller, especially if the airspace is busy.
14 from figure skating community killed in plane crash, six of them from Boston club

3 January
Boeing still needs a culture change to put safety above profits, according to the head of the FAA
A year after a panel blew out of a Boeing 737 Max during flight, the nation’s top aviation regulator says the company needs “a fundamental cultural shift” to put safety and quality above profits.
Mike Whitaker, chief of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in an online post Friday that his agency also has more work to do in its oversight of Boeing.
Whitaker looked back on his decision last January to ground all 737 Max jets with similar panels called door plugs. Later, the FAA put more inspectors in Boeing factories, limited production of new 737s, and required Boeing to come up with a plan to fix manufacturing problems.

2024

29 December
Jet crash disaster in South Korea marks another setback for Boeing
(AP) — A machinists strike. Another safety problem involving its troubled top-selling airliner. A plunging stock price.
2024 was already a dispiriting year for Boeing, the American aviation giant. But when one of the company’s jets crash-landed in South Korea on Sunday, killing all but two of the 181 people on board, it brought to a close an especially unfortunate year for Boeing.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and aviation experts were quick to distinguish Sunday’s incident from the company’s earlier safety problems.
Alan Price, a former chief pilot at Delta Air Lines who is now a consultant, said it would be inappropriate to link the incident Sunday to two fatal crashes involving Boeing’s troubled 737 Max jetliner in 2018 and 2019. In January this year, a door plug blew off a 737 Max while it was in flight, raising more questions about the plane.
Jetliner skids off runway and bursts into flames while landing in South Korea, killing 179

10 December
Boeing is building new 737 Max planes for the first time since workers went on strike
Boeing is resuming production of its bestselling plane, the 737 Max, for the first time since 33,000 workers began a seven-week strike that ended in early November.
The company said Tuesday that plane-building resumed at its plant in Renton, Washington, after going through a process of training workers and identifying and fixing potential problems.
Production and deliveries of Max jets and another airline plane, the 787 Dreamliner, have been stopped several times in recent years to fix manufacturing flaws.
Ever since a panel called a door plug blew off a Max operated by Alaska Airlines in January, the Federal Aviation Administration has capped Boeing’s production of Max jets to 38 per month. Boeing hopes to convince regulators that it has corrected quality and safety issues and can raise that number to 56 planes per month.

28 March
‘Shortcuts Everywhere’: How Boeing Favored Speed Over Quality
Problems have plagued the manufacturer even after two fatal crashes, and many current and former employees blame its focus on making planes more quickly.
(NYT) In February last year, a new Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max plane was on one of its first flights when an automated stabilizing system appeared to malfunction, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing soon after they took off.
Less than two months later, an Alaska Airlines 737 Max plane with eight hours of total flight time was briefly grounded until mechanics resolved a problem with a fire detection system. And in November, an engine on a just-delivered United Airlines 737 Max failed at 37,000 feet.
These incidents, which the airlines disclosed to the Federal Aviation Administration, were not widely reported. There were no indications that anyone was in danger, and it was not clear who was ultimately responsible for those problems. But since Jan. 5, when a panel on a two-month-old Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 jet blew off in midair, episodes like these have taken on new resonance, raising further questions about the quality of the planes Boeing is producing.
Under pressure to show regulators, airlines and passengers that the company is taking its latest crisis seriously, Boeing announced sweeping changes to its leadership on Monday. The chief executive, Dave Calhoun, will leave at the end of the year, and Stan Deal, the head of the commercial planes division, which makes the 737 Max, retired immediately. The company’s chairman, Larry Kellner, stepped down from that position and will not seek re-election to the board.

27 March
Flying in Canada is miserable – and airlines are fighting to keep it that way
I understand that some people enjoy the experience of being confined to tight quarters and treated like cattle, and will even pay great sums of money for the experience. But this is not a column about the unique kinks of consenting adults. It’s about the bottom-of-the-barrel standards that constitute the status quo when it comes to flying in this country, which is exorbitantly expensive and frequently unreliable, complete with a process that is itself hideously undignified.
Yet a consortium of airlines, including Air Canada, Porter Airlines and a number of global carriers, are fighting not just to maintain that status quo, but to set it back. In 2019, the group launched a legal challenge against then-new rules mandating that airlines had to offer specific compensation amounts for passengers who experienced cancelled or delayed flights, lost luggage, or were bumped from flights (up to $1,000, $2,100 or $2,400 respectively). Since then, the challenge has made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which began hearing the consortium’s appeal this past week.

9 March
United’s emergency landing in LA marks airline’s fourth safety incident this week
United flight 821 from San Francisco to Mexico City landed at Los Angeles international airport after crew reported hydraulics issue
In a statement, United said the Airbus A320, which was carrying 105 passengers and five crew, landed safely and passengers were scheduled to take a new plane to Mexico City.
The airline said that the plane had three hydraulic systems for redundancy purposes, and that according to preliminary information there was an issue with one of the systems, ABC 7 reported. The FAA said it will investigate.
Friday’s emergency diversion marks United’s fourth emergency this week, and the first not to involve a Boeing plane.

23 January
Atlantic Canada premiers want ‘reconsidered’ process for new Air Passenger Protection Regulations
(CTV) Atlantic Canada’s four premiers say proposed changes to Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations(opens in a new tab) could lead to a reduction of routes and increase in prices across the region.
In a letter to federal Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez, the Council of Atlantic Premiers ask for an ongoing review of regulations(opens in a new tab) to be “reconsidered.”
“We are concerned that the proposed regulatory changes are likely to mean even further increased costs for Atlantic residents as airlines look to recoup the costs of regulatory compliance,” writes council chair and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey. “It may also result in airlines becoming hesitant to continue, resume or provide service to regional markets, ultimately limiting regional air accessibility for passengers.”

2023

4 NovemberPassenger rights overhaul will barely dent bottom line, Air Canada says
Air Canada says the country’s passenger rights overhaul will hardly hurt its bottom line, though the full effect won’t be known until implementation next year.

31 October
Are Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations Working?
Since December 2019, the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) have protected passengers travelling to, from, or within Canada.

2022

28 December
Southwest Airlines flight cancellations continue to snowball
By DAVID KOENIG
(AP) — Families hoping to catch a Southwest Airlines flight after days of cancellations, missing luggage and missed family connections suffered through another wave of scrubbed flights, with another 2,500 pulled from arrival and departure boards Wednesday.
Exhausted travelers sought passage by other means using different airlines, rental cars, or trains — or they’ve simply given up.
According to the FlightAware tracking service, more than 91% of all canceled flights in the U.S. early Wednesday were from Southwest, which has been unable to recover from ferocious winter storms that raked large swaths of the country over the weekend.
The operational systems of Southwest have been uniquely [a]ffected, so much so that the federal government is now investigating what happened at the Dallas carrier, which has frustrated its own flight and ground crews as well.

20 August
How an aging fleet of Canadairs is keeping Europe’s wildfires at bay
Demand grows for Canadian-designed water-bombers amid worsening fire seasons
The amphibious, Canadian-made water-bombing plane has set the gold standard for aerial firefighting for decades. But despite its reputation as a “proven tool” among fire experts, low demand kept the plane out of production for nearly a decade.
Now, amid expanding wildfire seasons made worse by climate change, countries like France are lining up to replace their aging fleets after Canadair manufacturer De Havilland announced it would restart production with an updated design called the DHC-515.
De Havilland to manufacture line of firefighting planes in Calgary (31 March)

Toronto’s Pearson airport now 2nd worst in world for delays. Ottawa says travel woes on the mend
Transport minister blamed travel chaos on COVID-19 and labour shortage
On Friday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told the House of Commons transport committee that COVID-19 and a labour shortage within the aviation industry are to blame and that, with the government’s help, the travel chaos is dissipating.
“We are seeing significant improvements over the last two months,” he said.
But the chaos is far from over. Toronto’s Pearson airport, which had the most flight delays in the world for most of the summer, has only moved into second place, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. And, since May, more than 7,000 disgruntled travellers have flooded the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) with complaints related to flight disruptions.
The ongoing problems have raised questions about whether the government is doing enough to fix the problem, and if it should have done more before the chaos started.

‘It’s a mess and I’ve never seen anything like it’: global lost luggage crisis mounts
Some are calling it the summer of lost luggage as suitcases get caught in a conveyor belt-shaped vortex that only seems to grow
(The Guardian) The rate of baggage mishandled across the world is also on the rise: up 24% last year, with 8.7 suitcases per 1,000 international passengers not arriving on time.
Claims for stranded luggage have jumped 30% on 2019, according to insurer Mapfre SA, and amid high rates of delayed arrivals certain airports are reportedly seeing a tenfold increase in the amount of luggage arriving on the wrong flights. Elsewhere, some global luggage shipping services are claiming to have seen demand almost triple month-on-month as travelers opt not to check their bags. (20 July)

28-29 July
Toronto’s Pearson airport has a PR problem: It’s known as the worst airport in the world
Disgruntled travellers passing through Pearson are posting about their bad experiences on social media, complaining about long line-ups, flight disruptions and missing baggage.
“Toronto’s Pearson Airport is a special circle of hell. The worst airport experience ever,” tweeted a traveller from Florida last week, along with a photo showing a departures board with more than two dozen delayed flights.
The airport’s troubles have also been featured in major international publications this month, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the BBC.
The Airports To Avoid This Summer
Although international air travel has bounced back faster than expected from the pandemic, the industry is still yet to fully recover following all of the staffing shortages and surge of demands this vacation season. Airports have had exceptionally long queues this summer, with London’s Heathrow seeing luggage pile ups and even telling its airlines to stop selling summer flights. If you’re thinking of planning a trip away, it may be worth picking your departure and arrivals locations wisely, as some airports have been worse than others, as our infographic based on FlightAware data shows.
Canada’s Toronto Pearson International Airport topped the list as the worst airport to fly out of between May 26 – July 19 this year, with more than half of its flights being delayed. Frankfurt Airport in Germany fared little better, with 45.4 percent of its flights seeing setbacks. The UK is the only country to have two airports make it onto the list in this time period, both of which – Gatwick and Heathrow – are based in London. Meanwhile, Australia’s Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport placed ninth (34.2 percent) and the U.S. Orlando International Airport tenth (33.4 percent).
The travel chaos is partially because passengers travel with black suitcases, head of Frankfurt Airport says
The boss of Frankfurt Airport in Germany has blamed the chaos at airports on black suitcases, the Guardian reported on Friday, citing German media.
Stefan Schulte, the head of Frankfurt Airport, advised passengers to hand carry their belongings when possible and to use suitcases that are easy to spot. Black suitcases are so common, it’s “hard to distinguish them from each other,” he said, per the Guardian.
“Many people travel with black suitcases on wheels which makes identifying them very time-intensive,” added Thomas Kirner, a Frankfurt Airport spokesperson, per the Guardian.
Frankfurt Airport slashed 4,000 jobs during the pandemic and is struggling to cope with a surge in air passenger demand as restrictions ease. It has only managed to rehire 1,000 new ground service staff so far, Reuters reported on July 6.

22 July
Emirates to operate additional flight to London Gatwick with third daily service
This third daily flight will help serve high demand from customers travelling to and from London this summer. It will also provide additional seats to accommodate Emirates passengers affected by capacity adjustments on flights from London Heathrow, which will be made to help ease operational pressures at the airport.
14 July
Emirates statement on operations at London Heathrow

16 July
Turbulence on the Ground at Toronto’s Pearson Airport
(NYT Canada newsletter) These extreme backlogs have resulted in several interventions from the federal government and thousands of flight cancellations in Canada, while airports around the world are grappling with the same sort of problems as travel volumes rebound.
[Read: Understanding the Summer Air-Travel Mess]
On Tuesday, the chief executive of London’s Heathrow Airport said staff shortages had constrained the airport’s capacity, leading it to limit passengers for the summer. Dublin Airport floundered under the pressure of surging travel demand across Europe in the spring, and thousands of flights at airports in the United States were canceled before the Fourth of July.
… Some relief may be coming, with a cost of fewer flight options. Air Canada, the country’s largest carrier, said it was canceling more than 9,500 flights in July and August to cope with the travel strain.
… While in the United States, airlines can set their own mask rules, the Canadian government still requires masks for flights traveling from or within Canada. The government’s random coronavirus testing program was temporarily paused last month to relocate it off airport grounds, a move meant to reduce wait times on arrival.

13 July
The Government of Canada and air industry continue collaboration to reduce wait times at airports across Canada
(Transport Canada) The Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, the Minister of Health, the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, the Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Marco Mendicino, and the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, the Honourable Randy Boissonnault, issued this update today on progress being made by the Government of Canada and industry partners to reduce wait times and congestion at Canadian airports.
Minister Alghabra continues to meet with senior leadership of airports and air carriers of all sizes across the country

1 July
Understanding the Summer Air Travel Mess
Going into the Fourth of July weekend, with nearly 13 million people expected to fly on U.S. carriers, we look at the numbers behind the delays and cancellations and see what lessons can be learned.
On June 17, the Friday before the Monday Juneteenth holiday, nearly a third of flights arrived late, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking company. Between last Saturday and Monday ahead of the Fourth of July weekend, U.S. carriers already canceled nearly 2,500 flights. In a June 16 meeting, Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, told airlines that he’d be closely monitoring their performance. The very next day, his own flight from Washington to New York was canceled.
… Social media is filled with declarations that air travel is the worst it’s ever been. Indeed on some holiday weekends and stormy weeks it’s been astoundingly bad. As Mr. Sanders noted in his letter, airlines have canceled flights four times as often on high-travel weekends as they did in 2019. But the reality is that airline reliability was pretty terrible even before the pandemic.

29 June
Airlines must cut flights to ease travel issues: Trudeau airport boss
Amid delays, cancelations, lineups and lost luggage, “it’s clear that we need to restore balance in the logistical chain.”
(The Gazette) Montreal’s airport operator is urging airlines to cut flights and destinations this summer to cure the “unsustainable” travel headaches faced by passengers amid a bigger-than-expected surge in travel demand.

26 June
Interview with with Scott Keyes, the founder of the Scott’s Cheap Flights newsletter, about why air travel has been such a mess this summer.
Air Travel Is a Disaster Right Now. Here’s Why.
The U.S. seems to suffer from chronic Nothing Works Syndrome
(The Atlantic) The latest victim of acute NWS is air travel. Around the world, security lines are getting brutally long and cancellations and delays are spiking. The major carriers JetBlue, American Airlines, and Delta canceled nearly 10 percent of their flights last weekend, creating mayhem at major airports.

Ottawa announces new task force to improve passport wait times and backlogs
Many Canadians have camped out, waited for hours for passport services
The federal government has created a special task force to help tackle the major delays with immigration applications and passport processing that have left Canadians frustrated.
In a statement announcing the new task force, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government knows the delays are unacceptable and will continue to do everything it can to improve the delivery of the services in an efficient and timely manner.
Passport seekers face heartbreak, hop provinces as government promises help is on the way
The federal government has attributed the lines snaking around passport offices across the country, including in Vancouver and London, Ont., to an “unprecedented surge” in applications as travel opens up again after two years of pandemic restrictions.
The sheer level of demand isn’t the only issue. Families Minister Karina Gould, the minister responsible for passport services, told reporters in Ottawa on Thursday that 85 per cent of requests are for new passports, and of those, 43 per cent are for children, both of which entail a more complex application process.

21 June
It’s The Busiest Season For Travel & The Feds Say Work Still Needs To Be Done On Airport Delays
(Narcity) Transport Minister Omar Alghabra will be meeting this week with the CEOs of Canada’s six largest airports, airlines and various government agencies “to ensure ongoing collaboration,” according to a statement issued by Transport Canada on Monday, June 20.
They also note that this is “a global phenomenon” and that meetings are being held between government groups to find solutions to the bottlenecks affecting travel at various stages between checking in and actually getting onboard a plane.

Airlines tear at governments for ‘shambolic’ handling of COVID-19 pandemic
“The cost of government mismanagement was substantial. It devastated economies, disrupted supply chains and destroyed jobs,” Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, told an industry summit.
Recent delays have been widely blamed on labour shortages as an increasing number of people desert low-paid airport work for flexible working practices that prospered during the pandemic.
The head of host airline Qatar Airways cast doubt on the shift in labour trends.
“People got into a bad habit of working from home,” Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker told a news conference.
“They feel they don’t need go to an industry that really needs hands-on people,” he said, adding shortages in airport staff could restrict the post-crisis growth of airlines.

22 January
Airlines in Europe say they are flying near-empty planes as omicron derails travel. They say E.U. rules mean they can’t stop.
(WaPo) As the omicron variant derails travel plans around the world, airlines say strict European Union regulations are forcing them to fly near-empty flights — unnecessary and environmentally harmful flights that they argue they need to fly to save their long-term takeoff and landing slots at European airports.
Airlines must use a certain percentage of their designated slots at airports to hold on to them. But low demand during the pandemic has led airlines to fly near empty flights, often known as ghost flights, to meet the requirements. Lufthansa, a large German airline, has said it canceled 33,000 trips, or 10 percent of its winter flights, because of low demand but still anticipates needing to fly 18,000 “poorly booked” flights to secure its slots.

Rolls-Royce’s all-electric aircraft officially becomes the world’s fastest
Rolls Royce has announced that its all-electric ‘Spirit of Innovation’ aircraft officially became the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft. Two new world records set by the aircraft on 16 November 2021 have been officially verified by the World Air Sports Federation (FAI), which controls and certifies world aeronautical and astronautical records.
During the successful world-record runs, the company gathered important data for its future electric power and propulsion systems for all-electric urban air mobility (UAM) and hybrid-electric commuter aircraft. The company says the characteristics that air taxis require – such as the batteries – are very similar to what was developed for the ‘Spirit of Innovation.’

5G Will Not Make Your Plane Fall Out of the Sky
(New York) by Thursday, the story had already fizzled. As commerce trundled along unfazed, several airlines un-canceled their flights and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that at least 78 percent of the U.S. commercial fleet would be unaffected in any way by the 5G rollout. Some observers went so far as to label the issue “incredibly dumb.” The main remaining question was why it had even turned into a thing in the first place.

18 January
AT&T, Verizon delay 5G rollout after U.S. airlines warn of massive travel disruptions
CEOs of the largest U.S. airlines say service could interfere with aircraft landing instruments
(AP via CBC) AT&T and Verizon will delay launching their new 5G wireless service near key airports planned for this week after the largest U.S. airlines said the service would interfere with aircraft technology and cause massive flight disruptions.
The decision came Tuesday as the Biden administration tried to broker a settlement between the telecom companies and the airlines over the rollout of the new 5G service, scheduled for Wednesday.
7 a.m
Explainer: Do 5G telecoms pose a threat to airline safety?
(Reuters) – The chief executives of major U.S. passenger and cargo airlines have warned of a “catastrophic” aviation crisis this week as AT&T (T.N) and Verizon (VZ.N) deploy new 5G services.
They said the new C band 5G service set to begin on Wednesday could render a significant number of aircraft unusable, causing chaos for U.S. flights and potentially stranding tens of thousands of Americans overseas.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has warned that the new 5G technology could interfere with instruments such as altimeters, which measure how far above the ground an airplane is travelling. Altimeters operate in the 4.2-4.4 GHz range and the concern is that the auctioned frequencies sit too close to this range.  More

2021

3 August

DHL Express shapes future for sustainable aviation with the order of first-ever all-electric cargo planes from Eviation
– Companies take off together to electrify airspace
– Twelve zero-emission eCargo aircraft will form world’s first electric Express network
– First-ever fully electric plane “Alice” creates sea change in commercial aviation
– Alice’s first flight will happen later this year
Alice can be flown by a single pilot and will carry 2,600 lbs (1,250 kilograms). It will require 30 minutes or less to charge per flight hour and have a maximum range of up to 440 nautical miles (815 kilometers). Alice will operate in all environments currently serviced by piston and turbine aircraft. Alice’s advanced electric motors have fewer moving parts to increase reliability and reduce maintenance costs. Its operating software constantly monitors flight performance to ensure optimal efficiency.
The aircraft is ideal for feeder routes and requires less investment in station infrastructure. The Alice can be charged while loading and unloading operations occur, ensuring quick turnaround times that maintain DHL Express’ tight schedules. The logistics company plans to build several zero emission Alice feeder networks in the U.S., most likely starting in California.
DHL to deploy 12 redesigned Alice ePlanes from Eviation; testing begins this year
The Alice planes look almost identical, save for some missing windows and seats and an additional 100lbs capacity, to the passenger version of the Eviation Alice plane we’ve talked about in the past, amusingly calling it the “Tesla of Aviation.”

1 August
Can the ICAO Recover After Chinese Stewardship?
Brett D. Schaefer, Senior Research Fellow, International Regulatory Affairs and Danielle Pletka, Senior Fellow in Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
(The Heritage Foundation) Colombia’s Juan Carlos Salazar will have his work cut out for him when he takes over as Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO.

13 July
Association du transport aérien international
Montréal délaissé au profit de Genève
(La Presse) Trois ans après avoir annoncé qu’elle renforcerait ses activités à Montréal, l’Association du transport aérien international (IATA) revient sur sa position. Elle donnera moins d’importance à son bureau montréalais, siège social depuis sa fondation en 1945, au profit de son autre bureau principal, celui de Genève, en Suisse.
La perte de ses capacités se fera graduellement, mais de façon significative. Sans toutefois mettre en jeu le siège social de Montréal. « On ne va jamais fermer les portes de Montréal, comme on travaille notamment souvent avec des organisations telle l’OACI [Organisation de l’aviation civile internationale], affirme Markus Ruediger, porte-parole de l’IATA, en entrevue téléphonique. Mais on va réduire significativement le nombre d’employés. »

9 July
IATA to open Saudi office but denies it will be regional HQ
(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that global airlines industry body IATA had agreed to open a regional headquarters in Riyadh but the industry’s main trade association denied it would be a regional base in the latest evidence of sensitivities over the status of foreign business representation in the kingdom.
The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) late on Wednesday announced it had signed a “headquarters agreement” with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to open its “regional office in the kingdom”.
IATA, which represents some 290 airlines around the world, currently has its regional office in Jordan’s capital Amman.
Saudi Arabia is putting pressure on companies to move their regional offices to the kingdom, warning that from 2024 it would not award state contracts to those with regional headquarters elsewhere. read more

2020

22 September
IATA calls for COVID-19 testing at airports, says quarantine ‘killing’ industry
About 83% of air travellers from 11 countries said in an IATA poll they wouldn’t fly if there was a chance of being quarantined at destination.

17 September
John Cassidy: How Boeing and the F.A.A. Created the 737 MAX Catastrophe
The basic outlines of the Boeing 737 MAX tragedy are already well known—or should be well known. Even so, a detailed new report that the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure released on Wednesday morning is a remarkable document. In two hundred and thirty-eight pages of clearly written prose, it goes a long way toward explaining not only what went so wrong at Boeing but what has gone badly askew with the American corporation in general, and with American governance.
… As is now standard in corporate America, Boeing’s top executives received vast compensation packages that were tied to the company’s profitability and stock price. In 2018 alone, Dennis Muilenburg, who was then Boeing’s chairman and chief executive, took home $23.4 million in compensation, including $13.1 million in profit-related incentive payments and $7.3 million in stock. The mind-set of prioritizing the bottom line and the firm’s stock price permeated the top management. As a reward for “keeping to the MAX’s production schedule, Boeing gave Michael Teal, the former Chief Project Engineer on the 737 MAX program, restricted stock options after the airplane’s first flight in 2016,” the new congressional report notes.

27 August
(The Independent) History’s most famous aircraft is disappearing from the skies. The Boeing 747, which democratised and romanticised air travel for those who could not previously afford it, is now destined for life as a cargo workhorse or museum exhibit. Hugh Morris looks back on the original jumbo jet’s colourful history.

20 August
American Airlines halts flights to 15 U.S. cities due to weak demand because of COVID-19
Airlines were getting subsidized to maintain service to certain markets but that cash is about to expire so AA is pulling out.
American Airlines will drop flights to 15 smaller U.S. cities in October when a federal requirement to serve those communities ends.
The airline blamed low demand during the coronavirus pandemic, which has triggered a massive slump in air travel. Airlines and their labour unions are seeking billions in taxpayer relief.