Airports, airplanes and TSA news

[weatheriscool]

Extraordinary bird-shaped airport spreads its wings in China
By Adam Williams
March 20, 2024
https://newatlas.com/architecture/lishui-airport-mad/

Never a studio content to play it safe and produce predictable designs, MAD Architects draws inspiration from the natural world for its upcoming Lishui Airport, which takes the form of a large white bird ready to take flight.

Lishui Airport is currently under construction on a hilly wooded area in China's Zhejiang Province. It's slated to be completed by the close of 2024, though looking at the construction photo provided, there's still a lot of work to do before its landscaping looks as lush as the renders.

"Lishui, a 'forest city' in southwest Zhejiang Province, is renowned for its lush greenery and valleys," said MAD's press release. "Its first airport is positioned as a domestic regional airport with an anticipated annual passenger throughput of one million, located in the hilly terrain 15 kilometers [9.3 miles] southwest of the city. The planning and design try to respect the original site while ensuring accessibility, highlighting the characteristics of a mountain airport, and aiming to inspire tourism.

[weatheriscool]

Government approves Alaska-Hawaiian airline merger
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/17/business ... index.html

According to the article, the carriers "agreed to protect the value of frequent flyer rewards, maintain existing service on key Hawaiian routes to the continental United States and inter-island regions, ensure competitive access at the Honolulu airport and provide travel credits or frequent flyer miles for disruptions that are the fault of the airline."

This is one of the few mergers in which everyone involves benefits.

FOR ALASKA: Hawaiian has international routes to Japan, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand that Alaska really needs if they want to grow. Hawaiian is also a widebody carrier whereas Alaska is all narrowbody.

FOR HAWAIIAN: Once you leave the West Coast Hawaiian only has six cities they service: Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Austin, Boston and New York. Alaska has hundreds. By merging the two airlines you only have to be ticketed on one carrier and deal with one frequent-flyer system to go from, say, Chicago to Honolulu. If that only means you have to drag that case of pineapples you bought at the Honolulu Airport across one airport rather than two or three, that's gotta be worth it.

FOR PASSENGERS: dealing with ONE airline to get you where you need to be is way easier than dealing with two.

[weatheriscool]

Are automated systems ready? FAA to replace meteorologists at key traffic centers

Source: USA Today

The FAA announced it will end its over 40-year-old partnership with the NWS, effective on April 20, according to a news release by the National Weather Service Employees Organization. The termination will remove the on-site meteorologists at each of the 21 U.S. Air Route Traffic Control Centers who provide weather forecasting support to help prevent aviation accidents in lieu of a 24/7 accessible software.

………

"The FAA and NOAA are working on a path forward on the interagency agreement," the FAA said in a statement to USA TODAY. "The weather safety of our national airspace remains our shared top priority and there will be no change in service that will impact this goal."

The National Weather Service Employees Organization said the move "will endanger flight safety across the National Air Space for the traveling public and airline industry crews" and that due to understaffing, "this new directive will increase risk" in a letter to U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/n ... 900358007/

[weatheriscool]

23 airports controlled from one locale as small airfields meet the future
By David Szondy
January 25, 2025

Indra Group has taken multitasking to the next level, signing an agreement with Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS that has the company providing air traffic control for 23 Norwegian airports from one central location in Bodø, Norway.

Nowadays we often get so fixated on things like air taxis and electric jets that we overlook that there are other major trends in the field of aviation. One of these is how small airfields are evolving to meet future needs. That may seem like a very niche thing, but if you open up Google Maps on someplace like Norway and search for airfields you'll find a surprising number that isn't even exhaustive because it overlooks a lot of the smaller ones that are basically landing trips that they shoo the cows off of.

These smaller airfields are extremely important not only because of the access that they provide to remote areas for things like medevac services, they also have the potential for taking pressure off the larger airport hubs that have become the norm since the late 1970s. The dependence on a few large centers to handle most of the world's passenger traffic and flight operations has become increasingly overloaded, so alternatives are being sought.

https://newatlas.com/aircraft/indra-air ... -location/

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

FAA Employees Say Trump and Musk's Purge Is a 'Threat' to Air Safety

Source: Rolling Stone

-snip-

Rolling Stone spoke with a fired FAA employee who was among a handful of employees working on an obstacle impact team at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City. The team evaluates many tens of thousands of potential new hazards — such as new buildings, windmills, and especially cranes — to inform flight procedures each year.

The obstacle impact team was already understaffed before it was gutted. “There are currently four people remaining over there to do the work of 15 people,” they say, adding: “The danger to the national airspace can’t be understated. This is a very real threat to the American flying public.”

-snip-

Though Musk and the White House claim their job cuts relate in no way to anyone involved with airline safety, Rolling Stone separately spoke with a second terminated FAA employee whose job was ensuring that pilots are medically able and certified to fly. It’s a vital role, especially given the ongoing airline pilot shortage.

“We were already behind,” says the terminated FAA employee. “The pilots already complained that there’s a shortage in getting their medical certification [approved]. It’s just going to be put further behind now.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... 235271233/

[weatheriscool]

'A team from SpaceX is being brought in to overhaul the FAA's air traffic control system'

"A team from Elon Musk’s SpaceX is visiting the Air Traffic Control Command Center in Virginia Monday to help overhaul the system in the wake of last month’s deadly air disaster in Washington, DC, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced. The news comes after CNN reported that the Federal Aviation Administration fired hundreds of probationary employees who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure."

"The exact number of workers losing their jobs is unknown, but the union representing them said it was in the 'hundreds.' The Trump administration is in the process of trying to eliminate thousands of federal employees as it works with Congressional Republicans on a massive tax cutting bill that is said to favor mostly corporations and the wealthy."

https://www.theverge.com/news/614078/fa ... f-shortage

[firestar464]

"move fast and break lives lolololololol"

[weatheriscool]

Layoffs hit FAA, including employees tasked with producing air traffic navigation maps

Source: ABC News

February 21, 2025, 5:40 PM

The Trump administration's mass layoffs across federal agencies have hit the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has terminated over 100 probationary employees. That includes some of those who work on the team responsible for producing air traffic navigation maps, multiple sources told ABC News.

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), which represents over 11,000 FAA employees, said 132 probationary employees were terminated. "We believe all of these employees are critical not only to the frontline safety workers, but to the entire aviation ecosystem," PASS National President Dave Spero told ABC News in a statement.

The FAA and the U.S. Department of Transportation have insisted no critical employees were let go. Overall, the FAA employees about 45,000 people.

Some of the employees impacted were part of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) en route charting group, which is responsible for maintaining and updating Enroute Navigation Charts used in the National Airspace System and by air traffic controllers around the country, sources told ABC News. Those terminations were communicated via email early Saturday morning.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/layoffs ... =119060253

[weatheriscool]

Whisper's "UltraQuiet" propulsion system to power acrobatic glider
By Loz Blain
April 24, 2025

Last time we checked in with Whisper Aero, we found this aviation-focused company deep into a side quest, building and demonstrating a leaf blower that moves 40% more air, using 40% less power, and making half the perceived noise of a range of standard blowers.

The company certainly wasn't founded to build garden tools – but then, what better way to demonstrate a very nifty new way of pushing air? And it was clearly a great business move; Whisper has since signed some sort of licensing deal with Stanley Black & Decker, which plans to get it into a range of consumer products. That could be a handy revenue stream as Whisper pursues its core vision: quieter electric aircraft.

Whisper Co-Founder and CEO Mark Moore, formerly an aerospace engineer at NASA, first showed up on our radar back in 2010 with his own electric aircraft concept, the Puffin – a deeply disturbing, single-person, tail-sitting eVTOL designed to fling a pilot through the air head first in a Superman-style prone position.

https://newatlas.com/aircraft/whisper-a ... on-glider/

[weatheriscool]

United Airlines cutting 35 flights per day from Newark Airport as problems persist

Source: CBS News

Updated on: May 3, 2025 / 11:27 PM EDT

Delays persisted Saturday at Newark Liberty International Airport. There were at least 377 delays and 82 cancellations throughout the day, according to FlightAware. This comes a day after United Airlines announced it'd be cutting 35 flights per day from Newark due to persistent equipment and staffing issues.

"It's now clear – and the FAA tells us – that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead," United CEO Scott Kirby said. "It's disappointing to make further cuts to an already reduced schedule at Newark, but since there is no way to resolve the near-term structural FAA staffing issues, we feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers." "That's a short term fix," former NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said. "You can't get controllers into the pipeline quick enough."

Some arriving flights were delayed Saturday afternoon by more than three hours, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Departures were delayed up to 45 minutes. An FAA spokesperson blamed the problems on equipment issues, runway construction and staffing shortages in Philadelphia, where the traffic control center overseeing Newark's airspace is located. Airlines have been working with passengers to reschedule or refund tickets, but questions are starting to emerge about whether Newark will be able to handle the high volume of flights this summer.

"As a passenger it is frustrating"

There have been over 800 delays and 150 cancellations at Newark since Tuesday, authorities said. Late this week, 20% of air traffic controllers in Philadelphia walked off the job, frustrated with equipment outages and staffing shortages, a source familiar with the situation told CBS News. The Philly air traffic control center oversees the airspace in Newark.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/problems-a ... -saturday/

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Newark air traffic control loses radar again Friday morning, FAA confirms

Source: NBC New York

The FAA confirmed yet another instance of air traffic controllers briefly losing radar in the early morning hours of the day. According to the federal agency, the outage occurred around 4 a.m. and last approximately 90 seconds.

"There was a telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport airspace," the FAA shared in a statement.

Hours later, a ground stop was put in place until at least 11:15 a.m. due to taxiway construction. On top of that stoppage, the FAA's traffic monitoring program showed that incoming flights were being delayed by nearly two hours.

This comes a week after controllers in Area C of the Philadelphia TRACON, which guides flights in and out of Newark, lost all communication on April 28 with the pilots bound for that airport — a near-disaster that is now under investigation.

Read more: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/new-jersey/n ... y/6258096/

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Cavorite X7 makes history with first fan-in-wing transition flight
By Joe Salas
May 17, 2025

https://newatlas.com/aircraft/horizon-c ... s-history/
Horizon Aircraft just made aviation history, becoming the first eVTOL to achieve a stable wing-borne flight transition using a fan-in-wing design with its "large-scale" Cavorite X7 demonstrator. The best part is that this particular aircraft is meant to be just that, a conventional aircraft – that just happens to be able to take off and land vertically like a helicopter.

It works by having 14 fans embedded within the wings. Five per main wing with a pair in each forward canard. Horizon designed a clever patented mechanism that allows the wing surfaces to slide open for vertical lift from the battery-powered fans, and slide closed as the X7 transitions to forward winged-flight, like a normal plane, with a gas-powered turbine engine powering the rear push-prop.

[weatheriscool]

Air traffic control staffing problems spiked over the weekend, raising concerns about growing disruption

PUBLISHED OCT 27, 2025, 4:00 AM ET
By Zoe Sottile, Aaron Cooper, Pete Muntean

A flight takes off past the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on October 8. Nathan Howard/Reuters

Air traffic controller staffing shortages worsened over the weekend as the nation's government shutdown hit its fourth week, leading to delays and anxiety, and experts say it won't get better until air traffic controllers get paid.

More than 50 staffing shortages have been reported since Friday morning, causing delays from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, according to an operations update. Controllers are considered essential workers, so they must work during the shutdown, but are not being paid.

Flights for Los Angeles International Airport were temporarily halted Sunday because of a staffing shortage at the Southern California TRACON, which handles flights arriving or departing. At Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, staffing issues caused a ground delay Sunday that was expected to last until midnight.

Since October 1, there have been at least 264 instances of staffing problems reported at FAA facilities. That's more than four times the 60 that reported problems on the same dates last year. ... Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday controllers are "wearing thin" and calling in sick as they continue to go without pay for what is difficult, complex work.

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Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/27/us/air-t ... t-shutdown

[weatheriscool]

Trump official threatens to ground all flights before Thanksgiving in shutdown standoff

By Nicole Charky-Chami
Published November 3, 2025 12:05 PM ET

Transportation chief Sean Duffy threatened to ground all U.S. flights amid the ongoing shutdown, warning "we'll shut the whole airspace down."

As the stalemate drags into the second month, it's adding more potential risk to the aviation system and putting a further strain on air traffic control staffing shortages, Duffy said in an interview Monday with CNBC.

“If we thought that it was unsafe, we’ll shut the whole airspace down,” Duffy said.

https://www.rawstory.com/flights/

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

US to slash air traffic by 10% at 40 airports amid shutdown


Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed on Wednesday that he would order a 10% reduction in scheduled air traffic at 40 major airports starting Friday unless a deal to end the federal government shutdown is reached.

The shutdown, now in its 36th day, has forced 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers to work without pay. This has worsened staff shortages, caused widespread flight delays and extended lines at airport security screening.

We had a gut check of what is our job," Duffy told reporters, explaining why he made the decision.

Reuters earlier reported the plan.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... 025-11-05/