Flight Safety Information May 30, 2016 - No. 105 In This Issue Egypt hires deep-search ship to seek lost airliner EgyptAir Crash: Why Don't More Airlines Stream Black Box Data? 40 flights including PM's aircraft diverted due to bad weather in Delhi Ben Gurion: the world's most secure airport? Egypt warns of hackers jamming GPS signals in Cairo airport Daallo Airlines blast: Somalia sentences two to life in prison Qatar minister: We cannot afford to compromise on aviation safety American Airlines: 70,000 People Have Missed Flights Due To The TSA Airline Executives Gather at IATA Convention and Look for Answers Russian-Chinese passenger jet to take on Boeing & Airbus Egypt hires deep-search ship to seek lost airliner Egyptian authorities hired a deep ocean survey and recovery company to join the hunt for wreckage of the EgyptAir jet that went down over the eastern Mediterranean last week as new satellite evidence emerged to help narrow down the likely crash site. Egypt's civil aviation ministry signed the agreement Friday with Deep Ocean Search Ltd., according to a statement from France's air accidents bureau, BEA, which is part of the investigation. A DOS's vessel will join the Laplace, a French Navy ship set to arrive in the area over the weekend and deploying specialist technology to pick up telltale "pings" from the Airbus Group SE A320's black-box flight recorders. European and U.S. satellites captured emergency distress signals from the doomed EgyptAir Flight 804 minutes after it fell off radar on May 19, the U.S.'s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday. A device known as an emergency locator transmitter, or ELT, began radioing an automatic distress message at 2:36 a.m. local time, Lieutenant Jason Wilson, an operations support officer at NOAA, said in an e-mail. That could help indicate a crash area with a 5-kilometer (3.1 mile) radius. Regarded as key to determining what brought down Flight MS804 while en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board, the data and voice recorders - actually colored orange - are detectable only from within a few miles, and are likely to run out of power in about three weeks. The Egyptian-led committee that's investigating the downed plane has begun studying information from Greek air traffic control about the accident and more information on the radar that tracked the plane before it went down "is expected to be received," the BEA said in a statement. The BEA is involved because Airbus is based in Toulouse and the flight left from Paris. DOS is based in Mauritius, staffed by veterans of the French Navy and has recovered precious metals from a ship sunk in World War II in the mid-Atlantic at a depth of 5,150 meters (about 17,000 feet), the company said on its website. The area where the EgyptAir flight went down is thought to be more than 3,000 meters deep. The Laplace, named after celebrated French mathematician and astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace, will carry three Detector 6000 underwater listening systems supplied by the Alseamar unit of Paris-based search specialist Alcen, a veteran of air-crash searches that also works with defense and oil-industry clients. Two officials from the BEA are traveling on the Laplace. The probes, shaped like torpedoes and dragged beneath the ship, have an "extremely long detection range," according to Alseamar, being able to detect pings from black boxes 5 kilometers away. Egypt said Thursday the deployment of more specialist gear would "help speed up" the search effort. Among previous projects, Alseamar worked on the recovery of the black boxes from a Flash Airlines Boeing Co. 737 that crashed into the Red Sea shortly after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh in 2004, killing all 148 passengers and crew. Last year's loss of an Airbus A321 operated by Russia's Metrojet, apparently blown up over Sinai by a terrorist bomb, killing 224, posed relatively fewer challenges, with the flight recorders easily found in the desert landscape. The Egyptian-led investigation team will still need to narrow down the location of the MS804 wreck to bring the French technology to bear. Previous attempts to find the jet using a submarine were hampered by the lack of a well-defined search area and the depth of the water where it seems to have come down. Experts remain unclear about what destroyed the Airbus. While human remains so far recovered indicate a catastrophic incident such as a bomb, bodies can also be ripped apart when an aircraft disintegrates following a structural failure, or hits the ground or sea at high velocity. A string of error messages sent automatically minutes before the A320 plunged into the sea indicated that smoke had been detected beneath the cockpit and in a lavatory, and that windows next to the co-pilot's seat may have been broken, together with unspecified issues with flight computers. While those readings might be explained in terms of a bomb blast, they could equally have resulted from a fire and associated electrical failure. Commander Benjamin Chauvet, a spokesman for the French navy, said in Paris Thursday that the search zone remains too wide to quickly home in on the black boxes. Waters in the area are also particularly polluted, forcing searchers to sift through unrelated debris, he said. Signals from the A320's emergency locator transmitter may have identified an area with a 5-kilometer radius, the state-owned Ahram Gate website said, citing Ayman Al Moqadem, Egypt's air-accident investigation chief. An aircraft ELF emits a radio signal - separate to the flight recorder pings - detectable by satellite in the event of a crash, though the beacon wouldn't normally function underwater. http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20160529/NEWS02/160529092 Back to Top EgyptAir Crash: Why Don't More Airlines Stream Black Box Data? In their quest to uncover what caused an EgyptAir jetliner's fatal plunge into the Mediterranean Sea this month, searchers are conducting a costly, time-consuming hunt for the jet's black box data recorders. But in an age where digital data can be easily transmitted and stored remotely, the use of black boxes to record critical flight data increasingly strikes many experts as antiquated. In fact, the technology already exists to stream the aircraft's information to a ground computer or virtual "cloud" - it just hasn't been widely adopted. Why are airlines balking? The biggest barrier, industry observers say, is cost. FLYHT Aerospace Solutions in Canada provides an on-demand black box streaming service at about $100,000 per plane, including hardware and installation. The company says it has over 50 customers and is already installed in about 400 planes. Canada's First Air is the only airline to say publicly it is using the FLYHT system. The system doesn't continuously send data to ground-based computers. Instead, it activates in the event of an abnormal occurrence, then quickly sends a torrent of data to the airline for analysis and to apply corrective action. "In the event something goes wrong, we can provide quicker insight into what happened," said Graham Ingham, a former Skyservice Airlines manager who now works for FLYHT. "We can start piecing the puzzle together quicker, so (the airline) can lay to rest some of the conspiracies that are out there." FLYHT's technology called Automated Flight Information Reporting System is installed in the avionics bay of an aircraft. FLYHT The streaming devices are similar to the black box hardware that has been used in aircraft for decades. Those devices consist of a cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder - each of which can provide indispensable information, including ambient noises and the flight's airspeed, altitude and direction, in the event of an accident. FLYHT's program - dubbed the Automated Flight Information Reporting System - essentially duplicates the information that's typically found in the flight data recorder. Many more commercial airliners are equipped with a technology called Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which provides some data - though less than FLYHT's system - to the ground in real time. During an emergency, FLYHT's system will automatically send back crucial flight-related data as well as provide the plane's position in real time - particularly helpful if the flight is on a transoceanic journey where flight control systems can lose track of it. If a plane does crash, the data can help searchers pinpoint a more specific search location, Ingham said. It also could help investigators determine whether a catastrophic event such as an explosion occurred, he said, as the data received would likely show a loss of cabin pressure. The plane would continue to send data just as long as the aircraft still had power, he added. Ingham stressed that streaming copious amounts of data to ground-based computers does not make the technology cost-prohibitive. Airlines must also pay a "few dollars" per minute to access the data, but that would amount to a "minimal" cost, he said, because an emergency doesn't typically last long. And he doesn't believe the airlines would need to pass the costs on to consumers. "It is not very often that an aircraft is in a position that would require it to live stream the black box," Ingham said. "Airline travel is very safe these days and continues to get better." It isn't known how many planes are equipped with streaming technology to provide black box quality data to computers on the ground, but it's believed to be a small fraction of the commercial aircraft fleet, observers say. Qatar Airways announced last year it would introduce the technology into its fleet via the British satellite telecom company Inmarsat. Other airlines are having to weigh whether the technology makes sense because crashes are so rare and have fallen to their lowest levels in recent years. In 2015, there was one crash for every 3.1 million flights worldwide - the safest year on record, according to the International Air Transport Association. Airlines for America, the trade group for the nation's air carriers, declined to comment on the need for live streaming of the data since there is no formal proposal in front of the FAA to require it. Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and author of "Cockpit Confidential," said real-time tracking of commercial jets is useful, but real-time streaming of data is "fraught with complications." "It'd be ... not especially useful except in those very rare instances when the black box recorders can't be found," he said in an email. "You have about 16 million commercial flights operating each year, virtually none of which disappear. Is this really the best way to spend our air safety dollars?" Related: Terrorism Can't Be Ruled Out, Foreign Minister Says Smith said there are also questions about who would maintain the streamed data and where it would be kept. (In the case of FLYHT, the data is sent to a secure server and belongs to the airline, Ingham said.) Jim Hall, who served as the National Transportation Safety Board chairman from 1994 to 2001, said black boxes still have a purpose because they can be retrieved by independent investigators without the worry they would be tampered with or altered. "If there's that much information being streamed, who gets it?" Hall asked. "If it's a black box, it's supposed to be in the hands of the investigators." In addition to streaming, Hall has suggested getting cameras inside cockpits, which pilot unions have opposed, and using ejectible recorders that would float, making it easier to find and recover them in the event of a crash at sea. "The biggest problem with the black box now is that they can sink with the plane to the bottom of the ocean," Hall said. "So it can take weeks and millions of dollars to find it." Investigators are still looking for the fuselage and black boxes of EgyptAir Flight 804 after it crashed May 19 with 66 people on board. Nor have searchers found the fuselage or black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 since it went missing in March 2014. The cost of the search operation for the plane in a remote section of the Indian Ocean is reportedly at $130 million, making it the most-expensive search in aviation history. The Air Line Pilots Association, International, the world's largest pilot union, told NBC News that the two accidents "underscore the importance of equipping all aircraft with tracking technology that can pinpoint location in near real time." Spurred by the MH370 mystery, more planes are due to get such technology after the U.N.'s aviation agency in March approved a proposal for all newly designed aircraft to carry tracking devices that can transmit their location at least once a minute in an emergency. That won't go into effect until 2021. The recent uptick in instances of missing planes and black boxes could force airlines to re-examine live data streaming sooner than later, said aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia. "It'll happen," he said. "The technology change is outpacing regulatory change." http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/egyptair-crash/some-airlines-stream-black-box-data-cost-keeps- others-offline-n580966 Back to Top 40 flights including PM's aircraft diverted due to bad weather in Delhi Aircraft lands at IGI Airport in New Delhi as dust envelops the sky . Photograph: Arvind Yadav/ HT Around 40 domestic and international flights were diverted at Delhi airport till 2 AM to other nearby airports due to thebad weather in the national capital. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flight was also diverted to Jaipur after it could not land in the national capital due to bad weather. Modi was on his way back from Karnataka after addressing a public meeting in Devangere. Squalls and dust storms accompanied with light rains lashed the national capital this evening. Light rains hit the capital city at around 9 PM. A dust storm blowing at a speed of 92 km per hour hit Palam observatory, while it hit Safdarjung at a speed of 52 km per hour, MeT said. The flights were diverted to airports such as Luknow and Jaipur, among others, airport sources said. "Due to bad weather over @Delhi_Airport all departures are put on hold. #AI539 MAA (Chennai)-DEL diverted to #LKO & #AI115 ATQ (Amritsar)-DEL diverted to #JAI," national carrier Air India said in a tweet. On May 23 more than 20 flights to the national capital were diverted and many were delayed due to adverse weather conditions as a dust storm accompanied by light rains had swept Delhi on that day. On the next day (May 24) airlines had urged the Civil Aviation Ministry to help put in place a mechanism for providing weather updates "well in advance", after more than two dozen flights to the national capital were diverted on Monday due to inclement weather conditions. A host of issues, including about weather forecast system, were discussed during a meeting of executives from domestic airlines and airport operators with Ministry officials. Sources said the airlines sought the Ministry's help to have a system at the major airports whereby they can get information about "weather conditions well in advance". Getting an update at the earliest would help in minimising disruptions to flight schedules, they added. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/27-flights-including-pm-s-aircraft-diverted-due-to-bad-weather-in- delhi/story-vrCik1SQs3WwmvBO3RZsWO.html Back to Top Ben Gurion: the world's most secure airport? Tel Aviv, Israel (CNN)As security concerns mount at international airports, more security officials are turning to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport to understand what it does differently. The airport, considered one of the safest in the world, has layers of security, only partially visible to the 16 million passengers who pass through every year. No flight leaving the airport has ever been hijacked, and there has not been a terrorist attack at the airport since 1972, when three members of the Japanese Red Army killed 26 people and wounded dozens more in a shooting rampage. The security begins in the Airport Security Operations Center, located near the airport. The small room, staffed 24/7, monitors every flight in Israeli airspace, including transit flights and nearby aircraft. Each flight, each passenger, and each member of the flight crew are checked long before arriving in Israeli airspace. There is never a moment without pressure. An off-course aircraft or a flight without proper security clearance is flagged immediately. Dvir Rubinshtein, manager of the operations center for Israel's Ministry of Transportation, estimates that 10 flights a day are flagged and checked. Since Ben Gurion is Israel's only major international airport, shutting down the airport would effectively cut off Israel from the air. "There is, every day, a situation where we have such concerns [about a flight]," said Rubinshtein, "and we check that and verify that everything is security cleared." Computer failure causes delays at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport JFK delays: Computer outage causes headaches Next month, Ben Gurion airport will host visitors from 40 different countries to discuss airport security, officials say. Interest in Israeli airport security has grown after the attacks in Brussels, the crash of MetroJet Flight 9268, and now EgyptAir Flight 804. Ben Gurion is a relatively small airport -- the airport handles about 20% of the passengers of London's Heathrow International Airport and 15% of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which just signed a cooperation agreement with Ben Gurion. Some of the security measures employed at the airport are not scalable to larger hubs, but "some fundamental principles and some best practices can be deployed in other parts of the world," said aviation security expert Shalom Dolev. "It's not a copy and paste because it's not a situation where one size fits all." Critics have accused both Israel and the United States of racial profiling as part of their aviation security procedures. Dolev says it is risk-based security. Palestinians and Arabs passing through Ben Gurion say they are more likely to be stopped, searched, and questioned. Last year, Israel's High Court of Justice refused to ban racial profiling in a case brought by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The court did leave the door open for the group to file a case in the future. Security expert Dolev says the Israeli tactics are risk-based security and don't amount to "profiling." In the United States, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has touted its evolution from a "one-size-fits-all security screening approach to a risk-based, intelligence-driven strategy." But that strategy, which includes a Behavior Detection and Analysis program that the agency says is scientifically substantiated, has long been criticized by passengers, security analysts and civil liberties advocates as flawed and discriminatory. The American Civil Liberties Union sued for records related to the program in 2015 to gauge the program's effectiveness. "Most of the countries are actually coming here often to see how Israel is dealing with security aviation and the threats from terror aviation," Rubinshtein said. In February, Israel issued a security directive to airlines flying to Israel. The directive adds security checks to each flight. "The circles of threat are further expanding to insiders working at the airports," said Dolev. "Insiders that are working at resorts and may have access to the luggage of passengers, insiders that may work at airports or even in cabin crew. And last but not least, the phenomenon we are facing since the early-90s of suicide pilots." Asked what makes Israel different, Dolev says, "We are more flexible, more dynamic to respond to emerging threats and respond effectively." http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/28/travel/ben-gurion-worlds-safest-airport-tel-aviv/ Back to Top Egypt warns of hackers jamming GPS signals in Cairo airport Egyptian authorities have compared the jamming attacks to those believed to be conducted by North Korea on rival South Korean navigation systems Concerns over air travel security have been raised following EgypAir flight's recent crash. Pilots were warned by Egyptian authorities about hackers attempting to launch GPS signal jamming attacks at Cairo airport. An internal alert was sent out to airlines by Egyptian authorities, specifying that signal jamming activity was identified in Cairo airport. The source, however, could not be identified. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the jamming attacks. It is believed that hackers have attempted to tamper with the electrical equipment of planes, when approaching to land at the airport. The alert published in the internal Flight Service Bureau said: "Egypt notified airlines that GPS jamming is a concern to arrivals and overflights, and warned against conducting RNP/RNAV arrivals or approaches. The jamming was announced on 24 May, and is centred on Cairo airport; the source is unknown." Egyptian authorities have compared the jamming attacks to those believed to be conducted by North Korea on rival South Korean navigation systems. GPS signal jamming attacks are considered a significant threat given that GPS jamming devices are fairly readily available for purchase for less than £100 ($146). Consequently, such attacks involve targeting and blocking the navigation systems of airlines, naval operations or even mapping software on smartphones. Britain's air force recently used signal jamming attacks to cripple the communications network of the extremist group IS (Isis). The "black ops" operation involved an RAF crew deploying targeted signal jamming attacks on the Daesh stronghold of Sirte, located on the Mediterranean coast. Coincidently, EgyptAir's Flight MS804, which crashed on 19 May, is believed to have gone down into the Mediterranean Sea. Egyptian authorities have deployed search teams to investigate the crash and recently found emergency signals from the crashed flight. Authorities claim that the signals could help investigators locate the plane's parts on the sea floor. The Paris to Cairo flight carried 66 passengers. It is still not clear what caused the flight to deviate and crash. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/egypt-warns-hackers-jamming-gps-signals-cairo-airport-1562693 Back to Top Daallo Airlines blast: Somalia sentences two to life in prison A military court in Somalia has sentenced two men to life in prison for masterminding a bomb attack on a Daallo Airlines passenger plane in February. Eight other people, including a woman, were sentenced to between six months and four years in prison. The blast, shortly after take-off from Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, killed the bomber and left a hole in the plane's fuselage. Somalia's militant Islamist group al-Shabab said it carried out the attack. However, it admitted at the time that it had failed in its attempt to bring down the plane. The verdicts were the first in connection with the blast. A former security official at the main airport in Mogadishu, Abdiwali Mahmud Maow, was given the life sentence, along with Arais Hashi Abdi, who was tried in absentia as he had evaded arrest. The two were convicted of being members of al-Shabab. The other eight were convicted of helping to plan the attack, but not of membership of the al-Qaeda-linked militant group. None of the plane's 74 passengers or crew was killed. The explosion on the Daallo Airlines Airbus 321 flight happened about 15 minutes after take-off, when the plane was at around 11,000ft (3,350m) and the cabin was not yet fully pressurised. It was able to make an emergency landing at Mogadishu airport, aborting its flight to Djibouti. Daallo Airlines flies regularly from its base in Dubai to Somalia and Djibouti. Somalian forces have long been fighting al-Shabab which carries out regular attacks in its quest to establish an Islamic state. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36411555 Back to Top Qatar minister: We cannot afford to compromise on aviation safety More must be done to improve aviation safety as the number of travelers across the Middle East continues to rise, Qatar's Minister for Transport has said. Speaking at the Third Middle East Aviation Safety Summit in Doha this week, Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti told delegates that most member countries in the region have "invested heavily" in improving safety standards, but there is still a long way to go. "Such deliberations assume paramount importance as there has been a remarkable increase in the number of daily flights over the last decade within the Middle East and also towards other areas," he is quoted as saying in the Gulf Times. The meeting, which involved delegates from 12 MENA nations, was organized by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) at the invitation of the regional office of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). It comes as an investigation is underway into why an EgyptAir plane flying from Paris to Cairo went down suddenly last week, killing the 66 people aboard. Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said at the time that the A320 was more likely to have been brought down in an attack than from a technical malfunction, though no one has claimed responsibility for the crash. Lack of progress in the region Immediately before the summit, members of ICAO's Regional Aviation Safety Group also met in Doha to discuss safety and security improvements in the region. Qatar's Minister of Transportation and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti speaks at the summit A draft report from the meeting highlighted concerns about a lack of progress on safety-related issues over the past year. The ICAO's Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program (USOAP) - which was launched in 1999 to provide independent inspections of aviation safety procedures in countries worldwide - stated: "It was highlighted that the average Effective Implementation (EI) rate for the MID Region had not improved over the last year, and that implementation of most Corrective Action Plans (CAPs) had not started," the report said. Low regional scores The report noted that five states in the region - Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and Syria - have been inspected and found to have USOAP effective implementation (EI) scores below 60 percent. This is a cause for concern, as the global average is currently 62.62. However, it also noted that the EI rate in the Middle East region as a whole (68.23 percent) was still higher than the world average. Qatar scored an average 62.6 percent in its most recent USOAP audit in 2013. It rated significantly higher than the global average in several areas, including operations (86 percent) and airworthiness (80 percent), but fell down on areas like accident investigation (33 percent) and air navigation services (44 percent.) http://dohanews.co/qatar-minister-we-cannot-afford-to-compromise-on-aviation-safety/ Back to Top American Airlines: 70,000 People Have Missed Flights Due To The TSA American Airlines is not thrilled with the recent trend of TSA lines and slowdowns, and the company claims that delays in screening have caused 70,000 people to miss their flights this year. An additional 40,000 bags did not make it to their destinations due to the TSA. American thinks that the TSA isn't doing enough to ensure that lines don't get out of control. American, the world's largest airline, wants TSA to create a senior internal role focused on traveler concerns, said American Airlines Group Inc Senior Vice President for Customer Experience Kerry Philipovitch. The request comes days after Neffenger shook up TSA's management, removing the head of security operations, Kelly Hoggan. Philipovitch also recommended that TSA consider reinstating a risk-based screening program that it canceled last year because of high-profile lapses. In the program, officers trained to detect irregular behavior would pull unsuspicious travelers randomly into "PreCheck" lanes that can process people faster, as they do not remove their shoes and other belongings. Ridiculous. The TSA claims that they need more staff to fix these issues, but there's no hard proof that this will solve the problems. After all, this is the same organization that spent $1.4 million on an app...that could have been built in 10 minutes. http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2016/05/29/american-airlines-70000-people-have-missed- flights-due-to-the-tsa-n2169933 Back to Top Airline Executives Gather at IATA Convention and Look for Answers Industry seems more stable now but investors worry about signs of trouble ahead Airlines seem to be flying high these days, but familiar problems are on the horizon. More than 200 airline executives gather in Dublin in the coming week for the annual event hosted by the International Air Transport Association. The airline industry has finally shaken off its boom-and-bust past, says the head of the world's largest carrier, but investors aren't buying it because familiar signs of trouble loom on the horizon. Global air fares are falling as carriers add ever more aircraft, and low oil prices, which helped airlines land record profits of $33 billion last year, are inching higher. In addition, terrorism fears are weighing on bookings and, even as more passengers take to the skies, growth is stalling in some regions. It's a challenging mix for the 200-plus airline executives gathering in Dublin this week for the industry's annual jamboree hosted by the International Air Transport Association, a big trade group. The message they'd like to deliver echoes that of American Airlines Group Inc. Chief Executive Doug Parker in a well-publicized speech in March. "We have an industry that also can be a real business like other businesses," said Mr. Parker, who has spearheaded much of the consolidation that's allowed airlines to become more efficient, and last year earn more than their cost of capital for the first time. "The airline business has been fundamentally and structurally transformed and the valuations do not reflect such a transformation," he said. "They're not even close." Investors have shrugged and headed for the exits, dragging an index of global airline stocks down 6.4% since the start of the year. U.S. carriers have been hit hardest, with Mr. Parker's American shedding a quarter of its value even as it poured profits into stock buybacks. Demand isn't the problem. Global passenger numbers rose 7% in the first quarter from a year earlier, driven largely by growth among carriers in Asia and the Middle East. Fliers are paying less, with global fares down an average 4% through April and are particularly weak on trans-Atlantic flights and in the U.S. Average U.S. domestic fares haven't risen in more than a year and airlines don't expect them to stabilize before the end of 2016. Hunter Keay, airline analyst at Wolfe Research LLC, last week boosted his airline investor sentiment gauge to 4, on a scale of 1 to 10, having pegged it at 1 or 2 for much of the year. "This is the 2016 version of good news, sadly," he said of the recent raise. The executives gathered in Dublin have few levers to pull to soothe disgruntled investors or those passengers facing long security lines at airports this summer. Airlines can cut flights to gain more control over fares. Such U.S. carriers as Delta Air Lines Inc. have recently announced plans to trim capacity after the Labor Day holiday in September. In Europe, British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group SA and Deutsche Lufthansa AG have also scaled back. Executives have to be careful in Dublin. Antitrust laws bar them from discussing or coordinating fares in most markets. Comments made at last year's IATA meeting in Miami form part of a class-action lawsuit lodged against four U.S. carriers, which all deny the charges. Cheaper jet fuel has been the biggest driver of higher profits, but prices have been rising since January. Still, the airline industry should deliver strong earnings this year, said Peter Morris, chief economist at aviation consultant Ascend Worldwide Ltd. Many carriers in Europe and Asia are only starting to see the benefit from cheaper fuel as costly fuel hedges, made before crude tumbled, are replaced by ones made at more favorable rates. "There have been a number of negative developments that have come up, but they don't override the underlying achievement for profitability," Mr. Morris said. Also on the Dublin agenda is the prospect of a new cost headwind as regulators consider making carriers pay for carbon dioxide emissions. Airlines are exempt from the global climate change deal struck in Paris last December, but pressure has been mounting on politicians and regulators to curtail the CO2 output from commercial flights. Environmental groups fret that the airline industry's rapid growth could undermine other climate change initiatives unless limits are imposed. The International Civil Aviation Organization, an arm of the United Nations, is trying to secure agreement on a mechanism to limit the industry's C02 output without curtailing growth. ICAO members pledged to improve the fuel efficiency of commercial aircraft by 2% a year and to see that any industry growth beyond 2020 won't increase pollution. ICAO representatives convened this month to help bridge differences between member states about what the system might look like. Exactly how much of an airline's carbon emissions will need to be offset is still being negotiated. IATA estimates that the airline industry's annual bill would be around $2.8 billion compared to projected profits this year of $36 billion, a forecast expected to be updated this week. http://www.wsj.com/articles/airline-executives-gather-at-iata-convention-and-look-for-answers- 1464427803 Back to Top Russian-Chinese passenger jet to take on Boeing & Airbus Moscow and Beijing are to sign a deal to produce a new wide-body passenger aircraft by end of June, reports Life News citing Russian ministerial sources. A cabin crew member of Russian carrier Aeroflot poses in front of a Sukhoi Superjet 100 airplane © Pascal RossignolEurope gets its first modern Russian-made airliners The project is part of a reported $13 billion aviation cooperation deal signed in 2014 during President Vladimir Putin's visit to China. The long-haul plane will be developed in Russia and assembled in China. A special engineering center will be created in Russia to undertake technical and electronics production. The plane's engines will be produced by Rolls Royce and GE. The production of the fuselage and the assembly of the airplanes will take place in China. The new aircraft will be a development of the Russian-designed IL-96, according to a source from Russia's Ministry of Trade and Industry. The 250-280 seat planes will have a range of 12,000 kilometers. The first aircraft are expected to be completed by 2023 and to go on sale in 2025. The new deal will become a platform for a joint venture between Russia's United Aircraft Corporation and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, known as Comac. The cost of the plane is estimated at $200-260 million which is similar to the American Boeing 787 Dreamliner, said Managing Director of Air Transport Observer magazine Maxim Pyadushkin. According to him, it's too early to talk about what could happen in 2025, but the new plane will face tough competition from Airbus and Boeing. The competition between Airbus and Boeing has been characterized as a duopoly in the large jet airliner market since the 1990s. The two rivals are relentlessly struggling over market share. In 2015, Boeing was beaten by its European rival in terms of future orders. Airbus has claimed 57 percent of the overall market by units ordered, with 1,036 aircraft. The company has enjoyed strong sales in recent years, particularly for the latest version of its popular A320 narrow- body jet. Meanwhile, in terms of production Boeing was ahead of Airbus. It delivered 762 planes last year making $125 billion compared with Airbus's 635 aircraft, earning the firm $91.6 billion. https://www.rt.com/business/344830-russia-china-joint-plane/ Curt Lewis