Re-routing Flights
Global airlines including British Airways, Qantas, KLM and Singapore Airlines are re-routing flights to avoid parts of Iran-controlled airspace, and all US carriers have been told to avoid the area.
Flight paths over the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman are being re-routed over concerns for the safety of commercial airlines after Iran used a surface-to-air missile to shoot down a US drone on Wednesday.
The incident prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue an emergency order temporarily banning carriers flying over the area.
The FAA said flight tracking devices showed the nearest civil aircraft was operating within around 45 nautical miles of the unmanned aircraft when it was shot down, according to Reuters.
“There were numerous civil aviation aircraft operating in the area at the time of the intercept,” the FAA said.
It added: “The threat of a civil aircraft shootdown in southern Iran is real.”
Link: https://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?c=setreg®ion=2&m_id=s~~AY!m~AT_&w_id=36317&news_id=2037967
June 5th: Just one day after the U.S. government announced it would no longer allow Americans to travel to Cuba via ship, cruise lines are changing their itineraries and cancelling planned stops to the island.
Royal Caribbean was the first to announce itinerary changes, according to Seatrade Cruise News; its June 5 and June 6 sailings will no longer stop in Havana as originally planned, the company announced in a statement late Tuesday evening.
Perhaps the biggest announcement, however, came from Virgin Voyages—a hotly anticipated new cruise line launching next year that said its maiden voyage would sail to Cuba.
Link: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/cruise-lines-halt-travel-to-cuba-following-new-travel-policies
Tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness, for nothing has to stay as it is.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during her commencement address at Harvard University. In her speech, Merkel warned against the perils of isolationism and nationalism, pushed for action on climate change and advocated to never “describe lies as truth and truth as lies.”
A group of Alitalia pilot and cabin crew unions said they would strike June 24, delaying a planned walk out until after the latest deadline for a formal bid for the bankrupt carrier.
Defining a plan to rescue and relaunch Alitalia, which declared bankruptcy two years ago, has been fraught with complications. In the latest twist, the Italian government announced May 3 that railway company Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) had until June 15 to present a plan for the relaunch, extending a previous April 30 deadline.
That was the latest delay to the process that has been slowed down by the Italian government’s wish to keep at least part of the airline in Italian hands. It wants to use a revamped “new” Alitalia as part of a multi-modal transport strategy that will boost the country’s tourism.
The FNTA—which brings together the ANPAC, ANPAV and ANP unions as well as the Confael Trasporti Assovolo association—said May 14 they had met to work out a common policy and a series of actions to support the relaunch of the new Alitalia.
They had been planning to stage a 24-hour strike May 21, but following the latest delay decided that striking on that day would be “untimely and inopportune” so they pushed back the planned action to June 24, after the latest deadline. Flight controllers belonging to the FAST CONFSAL union will also join in that strike, they said.
FS is set to lead the relaunch in which the Italian state and US carrier Delta Air Lines are also taking part but Italian deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio, who is also economic development minister, said April 30 that new offers from investors to join the relaunch plan were still coming in.
Transport minister Danilo Toninelli said May 10 that the government was working toward the new June 15 deadline and giving the “complicated” Alitalia dossier “the attention it deserves.”
Helen Massy-Beresford, helen.massy-beresford@aviationweek.co.uk
In other trade news, the game of brinkmanship between the US and China keeps escalating, and it looks like China may be ready to play the ace up its sleeve: Rare earth metals. China’s top economic planning agency indicated the country may be poised to curb exports of rare earths. Chinese state media also published this dire notice to Washington: “Don’t say we didn’t warn you.” Rare earth metals are key to manufacturing technology like smartphones, speakers and tablets, as well as items vital to weapons systems, like lasers, radar, sonar, night vision systems and jet engines. They aren’t actually rare, but they are difficult to mine safely, and China basically has the market cornered. About a third of the world’s rare earth deposits are found there, but the country controls more than 90% of production. And restricting their trade could be a serious game changer.
Link: cnn.com
Beijing now has 2 civilian airports: Beijing Capital International Airport (3 terminals, the 2nd busiest airport in the world, 2nd only to Atlanta Airport) and Beijing Nanyuan Airport (1 terminal).
The new Beijing Daxing International Airport is expected to be the world’s largest airport upon completion. Covering 1.4 million square meters, the terminal will be about the size of 200 standard football fields.
The first-phase construction will complete on June 30, 2019 and the new airport is due to open on September 30, 2019.
The new airport is expected to serve an initial 45 million passengers a year with an eventual capacity of 100 million.
The new airport will feature:
1. Minimal walking distances – The distance between the transport hub and airport terminal center is less than 600 meters or 8 minutes’ walk.
2. A ground transportation center where passengers can be transferred to Beijing in about 30 minutes by such transportation methods as high-speed rail, metro, expressways, Beijing Airport Bus routes and local buses.
3. Fast baggage delivery – The aim is for the first luggage item to appear on the carousel within 13 minutes of landing.
Beijing Daxing International Airport will be the world’s first airport to have two floors each for departures and arrivals. Foreign airlines such as American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have planned to operate in the new airport and open flights to the United States.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who’s declared a war on the city’s pollution, this week announced plans to transform the bridgeway linking the historic Trocadéro square with the Eiffel Tower into a “green corridor” reserved for pedestrians by 2024.
Hidalgo, whose mission to “pedestrianise” the historic centre of the French capital has already led to the banning of cars along large parts of the banks lining the Seine river, said that: “We’re really aiming for a high pedestrian target (…) We’re going to have a splendid garden where we can hear the birds sing,” she said when she announced the €72 million project on Tuesday. Work is set to start at the end of 2020 or the start of 2021.
Link: https://www.france24.com/en/20190522-paris-hidalgo-create-green-corridor-giant-garden-between-trocadero-eiffel-tower#_=_
Google has severed business ties with Huawei, in a stunning move that could threaten the smartphone maker’s global ambitions.
The U.S. tech giant has decided to stop licensing its Android operating system to the Chinese telecommunications firm, in order to comply with a U.S. trade blacklist.
CNBC runs through what that means if you own a Huawei phone right now, or are looking to buy one in the future.
Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/20/what-google-android-move-means-if-you-own-a-huawei-phone.html?__source=twitter%7Cmain
World’s best airport has new $1 billion shopping, entertainment hub with indoor waterfall.
Singapore Changi Airport, ranked the No. 1 airport in the world, is opening to the public a new shopping and entertainment hub called the Jewel, on April 17.
Inspired by Singapore’s reputation as a “city in a garden,” Jewel features a sprawling indoor forest, 280 retail shops and restaurants and the tallest indoor waterfall in the world. The complex cost $1.7 billion SGD, or nearly $1.3 billion US, to build.
Take a look inside:
The centerpiece of Jewel is the Forest Valley, a tropical four-story garden with a large plant collection.
Walking trails lead guest to Canopy Park, a separate section opening in June 2019, which features activities like a 160-feet suspended bridge with glass floor, a bouncing net (to jump up and down on), a walking net (82 feet high above the greenery), a hedge maze, a mirror maze and slides.
In Jewel’s Rain Vortex, another self-contained section, there is the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, which is over 130 feet high. The water cascades from an oculus in the roof. (Previously, nature park Gardens By The Bay, also in Singapore, held the title of world’s tallest indoor waterfall at 115 feet.)
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/12/photos-jewel-changi-airport-in-singapore-has-tallest-indoor-waterfall.html
Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/singapore/articles/timelapse-video-worlds-best-airport-changi-singapore/
Le Parisien reported that the main pilots union in France, SNPL, has called off a strike scheduled for May 14-19
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