Source: CAA The UK Civil Aviation Authority has published aviation statistics for the fourth quarter of 2021. Overall, 30.9 million passengers flew in and out of the UK between October and December this year (compared to 24.8 million in the previous quarter) on 315,202 flights (286,852 flights in Q3 2021). This represents a 55% fall in passengers compared to the same period in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic. The latest quarter again saw multiple changes to the UK’s international travel rules. At the beginning of October, the Green and Amber lists were merged into the ‘Rest of the World’ grouping, whilst double vaccinated travellers to the UK were no longer required to take PCR tests on arrival, but could opt [...]

Source: ALTA The Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) announces that the Brazilian law firm Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr. and Quiroga Advogados joins as Consulting Member. With offices in Sao Paulo, Campinas, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, New York and London, Mattos Filho offers a full-service and multidisciplinary service, with experience in more than 35 areas of Law, such as aviation, environmental, infrastructure, tax, labor, corporate, litigation and arbitration, which are relevant for companies in the airline sector to carry out business in Brazil. “On behalf of ALTA I am pleased to welcome Mattos Filho aboard. Having the firm as member will bring important know-how to ALTA and its members through his extensive in negotiations and regulation [...]

Source: ACI World Recognition for airports that prioritized listening to customers during the pandemic "The Voice of the Customer highlights the ongoing commitment of airports to understanding the evolving expectations of the end user, the travelling public, in these challenging times," said ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira Airports Council International (ACI) World has today announced the recipients of The Voice of the Customer, a recognition that celebrates airports that have continued to prioritize listening and adapting to customers during the pandemic. This year, over 200 airports have been recognized around the world. For a second year running, the delivery of The Voice of the Customer recognition is sponsored by Amadeus. View recognized airports To qualify, an airport member must have [...]

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation took action to protect aviation consumers by issuing fines to an airline and an online ticket agent for violating federal statutes and the Department's aviation consumer protection rules. DOT fined the airline Air China $300,000 for tarmac delay rule violations and fined ticket agent FlightHub Group $300,000 for misrepresentations on its website and in online advertising. Both entities were also ordered to cease and desist from future similar violations. "DOT will hold airlines and ticket agents accountable when they treat consumers unfairly," said U.S. Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg. "These fines should serve as a warning to all airlines and online ticket agents that the Department will take [...]

Source: ACI The ACI Intelligence Hub will leverage the most extensive collection of airport traffic and financial data  Airports Council International (ACI) World has launched the ACI Intelligence Hub, an innovative new platform allowing users to explore airport traffic and financial data in a self-serve and interactive manner. The Intelligence Hub will allow users to browse, extract or visualize the airport industry's most extensive collection of traffic and economic data, using the most up-to-date data from airports around the world and benefiting from ACI's direct reach to airports. Users will be able to interact with passenger, cargo and aircraft movement data in multiple modules. The platform will initially feature three modules available through subscription with a fourth one planned to [...]

Source: ICAO ICAO and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) have completed new digital air cargo technical specifications guidance that will help to accelerate the transition towards safer and more resilient supply chains, while making important contributions to COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. The digital innovations will permit the air transport sector to transition away from long-standing paper-based documents used to facilitate the movement of global air freight, promoting a contactless air cargo environment and greater cross-border trade resilience in the face of future pandemic threats. In line with the recommendations of the ICAO Council’s Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART), the specifications will help reduce physical contact among international trade and transport professionals, and in so doing better [...]

Source: US Department of Transportation DOT to issue new research topics for this year's SBIR Solicitation, totaling over $2 million. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program Fiscal Year 2022 Phase I solicitation on Monday. The SBIR Program awards contracts to small businesses across the country to spur research and commercialization of innovative transportation technologies. This year, research topics focus on artificial intelligence, intelligent road systems, material safety, equity, climate change, and more. A complete list of research topics can be found here. The SBIR Program incentivizes domestic small businesses to pursue Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) work that has the potential for commercialization. The program awards contracts in two key phases, with the possibility [...]

Source: EUROCONTROL The EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM) in close cooperation with air navigation service providers DSNA, ENAIRE, ENAV and Skyguide and supported by airspace users, has finished a first set of trials to dynamically reduce restrictions for flight planning to ensure more direct, more sustainable flights. By dynamically relaxing selected restrictions for more than 2,500 flights, per flight an average of 44 kg of fuel has been saved and 138 kg CO2 emissions reduced. These initial results confirm that this improved measure could contribute significantly to lowering aviation’s environmental impact. The NM’s “dynamic RAD live trials” have been designed to validate both the concept and the feasibility of dynamically managing restrictions in such a way that they could temporarily be disabled [...]

Source: AFA-CWA The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO (AFA) representing over 4,600 Flight Attendants at Spirit Airlines and 2,900 Flight Attendants at Frontier Airlines, released the following statement on the proposed merger: "AFA-CWA represents Flight Attendants at both Spirit and Frontier. We were notified of the merger moments before the announcement hit Wall Street and the media. Our first priority is to determine whether this merger will improve conditions for Flight Attendants just like the benefits the companies have described for shareholders and consumers. Our support of the merger will depend on this. "As a practical matter, our union Constitution and Bylaws provides a detailed process for this review with the AFA leadership from each airline."

Source: US Department of Transportation U.S. airline industry (passenger and cargo airlines combined) employment increased to 728,150 workers in December 2021, 20,049 (2.83%) more workers than in November 2021 (708,101) and 21,340 (2.85%) fewer than in pre-pandemic December 2019 (749,490). The December 2021 figure is the highest industry headcount since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. scheduled service passenger airlines employed 445,092 workers in December 2021 or 61% of the industry-wide total. Passenger airlines added 8,926 employees (6,312 full-time equivalent employees or FTEs) in December for an eighth consecutive month of job growth dating back to May 2021. United Airlines led scheduled passenger carriers, adding 6,491 employees. U.S. cargo airlines employed 283,051 workers in December, 39% of the industry [...]