Three U.S. airlines on Wednesday warned of higher fuel costs in the third quarter due to a jump in crude prices, adding to pressures the industry faces from expensive labor contracts.
25.08.2023 - 13:45 / skift.com / Delta Air Lines / United Airlines / Delta
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Thursday it might delay some space launches to minimize disruption to commercial air travel and provide “equitable” access to airspace near launch sites.
Space launches have often snarled air schedules, especially in congested Florida airspace. Officials are worried about a repeat of last summer’s air travel woes — when more than 50,000 flights were canceled in the United States and hundreds of thousands of others delayed — in the face of rising demand and airline and flight control staffing shortages.
The FAA said it would consider factors like number of flights and passengers affected when deciding whether a commercial space launch should go ahead or the scheduled time changed. The FAA will also look closely at launches around holidays or major events like the Super Bowl.
Airlines for America, which represents major carriers, praised the FAA for the move. It said planned launches have sometimes been scrapped at the last minute, resulting in hours of restricted airspace and wasted emissions as planes waited at their gates.
Airlines expect 145 space launches in 2023, an increase of 222 percent since 2020.
A March 11 space launch in Florida was highly disruptive to air travel, the airline group said in a memo seen by Reuters.
Four major U.S. carriers reported approximately 99,000 incremental flight delay minutes, impacting 303,000 customers. The memo added “the launch resulted in an additional 227,000 gallons of fuel burn for three of the four U.S. carriers” or an additional $630,000 in fuel cost and 4.9 million pounds of CO2 emissions.
The FAA has taken other steps to try avert travel woes this summer including agreeing to a request by Delta Air Lines and United Airlines to temporarily cut up to 10% of flights at congested New York-area and Washington airports this summer because of an air traffic controller shortage.
Major U.S. airlines previously cut about 10% of scheduled flights this spring to address performance issues. Last summer, air traffic control staffing was a factor in delays of 41,498 flights from New York airports, the FAA disclosed in March.
.
Three U.S. airlines on Wednesday warned of higher fuel costs in the third quarter due to a jump in crude prices, adding to pressures the industry faces from expensive labor contracts.
Jack Ieronimo was one of the people on a United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Rome, Italy, that made headlines after passengers said they were stuck onboard for seven hours without taking off.
When travelers buy an airplane ticket, they’re often made aware of the carbon emissions from their trip. Google Flights and some airlines give fliers an estimate when they check fares, and carriers like British Airways and Qantas offer customers the option to buy carbon offsets or contribute to a “climate fund” in the booking process.
More than 890 flights have been canceled and more than 1,200 are delayed as Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s northwest coast as a Category 3 hurricane early Wednesday morning.
There is a shortage of a critical skilled labor group needed to keep America’s airlines flying: Pilots, particularly captains, are in short supply and that’s resulting in fewer flights to some of the smallest cities across the country.
The deadly wildfires on the island of Maui are likely to affect visitor — and airline — demand to the island for the “foreseeable future,” analysts at T.D. Cowen said Friday.
Airlines around the world are ripping up schedules and bringing in new flights to cope with a COVID-triggered trend in corporate travel for executives like Jerome Harris – the scrapping of one-day business trips in favour of longer stays.
Mesa Airlines said late Saturday it is finalizing an agreement to operate regional flights for United Airlines after an announcement it will wind down flights for American Airlines early next year.
United Airlines, Alcohol Wipes and Finding New Customer Touch Points: Some passengers want to talk to people. Some do not. United Airlines wants make sure they all have a choice.
In hindsight, we should have known the mess that was air travel in 2022 was coming. Airlines kicked off the year canceling tens of thousands of flights amid the surge in Omicron variant cases that kept crews at home, and travelers — unfortunately — on the ground.
U.S. airline profits are set to come under pressure in 2023 as they look to shell out more cash to retain pilots amid worries about the impact of a potential recession on travel demand.
U.S. and European airlines will benefit from pent-up demand for travel to China after its recent border reopening, but route approvals, fresh Covid-19 testing rules and not enough large aircraft remain barriers to rising sales, analysts and industry officials say.