Source: European Parliament After a decade of negotiations MEPs and the Belgian Presidency of the Council have agreed on new EU rules to optimise flight routes, reduce flight delays and cut CO2 emissions. A provisional agreement was reached on Wednesday morning between Parliament, led by rapporteurs Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, Romania) and Bogusław Liberadzki (S&D, PL), and Council negotiators on the reform of the so-called Single European Sky rules. Better performance The agreed text introduces performance plans for air navigation services to improve network management of EU airspace, with binding targets and incentives to make flights more efficient and environmentally friendly. An independent advisory Performance Review Board would be set up to help Commission and member states take decisions on the implementation of these [...]

Source: US DOT U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced a new proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that would ensure airline passengers who use wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity. The proposed rule would require that airlines meet rigorous standards for accommodating passengers with disabilities safely and with dignity.  The proposal will set new standards for prompt, safe, and dignified assistance, mandate enhanced training for airline employees and contractors who physically assist passengers with disabilities and handle passengers’ wheelchairs and specify actions that airlines must take to protect passengers when a wheelchair is damaged during transport. Notably, the proposed rule also would make it easier for DOT to hold airlines accountable when they damage or delay [...]

Source: ICAO At the occasion of today’s International Day Commemorating Air Crash Victims and their Families, ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano has issued the following statement: "Safety is and has always been the top priority for aviation and ICAO. This has resulted in remarkable progress achieved by international air transport over the decades of its development. However, despite these advances, aircraft accidents remain a sobering reminder of the persistent need to continue progress towards our zero fatality goal. The ICAO Council established 20 February as the International Day Commemorating Air Crash Victims and their Families in coordination with associations representative of victims and their families to provide governments and industry with an annual reminder of the onus upon them to improve [...]

Source: ALTA Four hundred and fifty-one point six million air passengers is not just any number, it is a historic number for aviation in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. It represents 52.9 million additional passengers, up 13.3% compared to 2022 and a strong 3.9% above 2019 levels. This figure sets a record for the region as, until 2020, the region had been on a steady growth trajectory since 2010, which was abruptly interrupted by the pandemic. This milestone resumes the growth path. The Caribbean showed the best percentage increase in 2023, with a 20% growth in total passengers, 15% in flights and 16% in seat capacity compared to 2022; the LAC Air Passenger Traffic Report, developed by the [...]

Source: IATA The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced the conclusions of a workshop jointly hosted at EASA's headquarters to combat incidents of GNSS spoofing and jamming. The workshop's high-level conclusion was that interference with satellite-based services that provide information on the precise position of an aircraft can pose significant challenges to aviation safety. Mitigating these risks requires short-, medium- and long-term measures, beginning with the sharing of incident information and remedies. "GNSS systems offer tremendous advantages to aviation in increasing the safety of operations in a busy shared airspace," said EASA Acting Executive Director Luc Tytgat. "But we have seen a sharp rise in attacks on these systems, which poses a [...]