Source: ICAO To help countries better prepare for future pandemics, ICAO contributed to a new initiative that was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide guidance on integrated planning for “responding to any respiratory pathogen such as influenza or coronaviruses.” The new Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Initiative, or PRET, incorporates the latest tools and approaches for shared learning and collective action established during the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent public health emergencies. Through the initiative, WHO will use a mode of transmission approach to guide countries in pandemic planning, given that many capacities and capabilities are common among groups of pathogens. PRET answers the call for technical guidance and support for promoting and strengthening integrated preparedness and [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced strong demand growth in air travel for March 2023. Total traffic in March 2023 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) rose 52.4% compared to March 2022. Globally, traffic is now at 88.0% of March 2019 levels. Domestic traffic for March rose 34.1% compared to the year-ago period. Total March 2023 domestic traffic was at 98.9% of the March 2019 level. International traffic climbed 68.9% versus March 2022 with all markets recording healthy growth, led once again by carriers in the Asia-Pacific region. International RPKs reached 81.6% of March 2019 levels while the load factor at 81.3% exceeded the March 2019 level by 10.1 percentage points. “The calendar year first quarter ended on a [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for March 2023 global air cargo markets showing a continued decline against previous year’s demand performance. This trend began in March 2022. Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), fell 7.7% compared to March 2022 (-8.1% for international operations). This was a slight improvement over the previous February’s performance (-9.4%) and half the rate of annual decline seen in January and December (-16.8% and -15.6% respectively). At this point, it is unclear if this is a potentially modest start of an improvement trend or the upside of market volatility. Irrespective of this, March performance slipped back into negative territory compared to pre-COVID levels (-8.1%). Capacity (measured in available cargo tonne-kilometers, [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed the agreement by AT&T Services, T-Mobile, UScellular, and Verizon to extend until 1 January 2028 the voluntary mitigation measures for 5G C-band transmissions at 188 US airports. These mitigation measures, which were put in place in January 2022, concurrent with the rollout of 5G C-band operations at or near US airports, include lowering the power of 5G transmissions and had been set to expire 1 July 2023. However, while the agreement is a welcome stop-gap development, it is by no means a solution. The underlying safety and economic issues around 5G C-band deployments by telecommunications services providers (telcos) have only been kicked down the road. "Airlines did not create this situation. [...]

Source: FAA Just in time for the busy summer travel season the FAA has activated 169 new routes along the East Coast that are more direct, saving passengers time, airlines fuel and increasing safety. "These significant improvements to our national airspace system are just in time for summer and will help travelers get to their destinations more efficiently," said Tim Arel, the chief operating officer of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization. "The new routes will reduce complexity and redistribute volume across all available airspace. I’m proud of the FAA and industry’s strong collaboration on this project to get it done." The direct routes will shave off 40,000 miles and 6,000 minutes of travel time annually from being shorter in distance. The [...]

Source: FAA As part of the FAA's ongoing commitment to address aircraft noise, the agency is asking for public comment on its Noise Policy Review (NPR). The agency published a Federal Register Notice (FRN) to solicit comments and will hold virtual webinars. The NPR will look at these key items and more based on input received from the public and stakeholders. The FAA's current use of DNL or Day-Night Average Sound Level as the primary noise metric for assessing cumulative aircraft noise exposure. If and how alternative noise metrics may be used in lieu of or in addition to DNL to better inform agency decisions and improve FAA's disclosure of noise impacts. The community's understanding of noise impacts and how to better manage and respond [...]

Source: US DOT U.S. scheduled passenger airlines reported a 2022 after-tax net profit of $1.6 billion, gaining after two consecutive annual after-tax losses and a pre-tax operating profit of $7.9 billion, gaining after two consecutive annual pre-tax losses. U.S. airline financial reports are filed quarterly with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). See the tables that accompany this release on the BTS website for additional 2022 annual (Tables 1-6) and fourth-quarter (Tables 7-12) financial results. 2022 Annual Results for All 25 Scheduled Passenger Airlines After-tax net income $1.6 billion profit in 2022 Compared to $2.8 billion loss in 2021 Pre-tax operating profit/loss $7.9 billion profit in 2022 Compared to $17.3 billion loss in 2021 Total 2022 operating revenue: $211.2 billion Share of total [...]

Source: ICAO ICAO’s latest global survey on the status of licensed aviation personnel by gender reveals that the participation of women holding positions as pilots, air traffic controllers, and maintenance technicians has increased on an overall basis from 4.5% globally in 2016, to 4.9% in 2021. The percentage of women pilots in service increased from 3.6% to 4.0% globally, with the highest increases being observed in the Asia Pacific and Latin America/Caribbean regions. North America scored highest globally with 4.6% women pilots, followed by Africa and Europe with 4.1% and 4.0%, respectively. The percentage of female aircraft maintenance engineers and technicians rose from 2.7% to 3.0% worldwide, with increases being seen in all regions except the Middle East and Africa. [...]