- Newark ATC shifted to Philadelphia TRACON
- Airport slots reform in Australia and Europe
- FAA electronic flight strips delayed again
- Diverging views on eVTOL future
- Protesters disrupt European airports
- Archer’s vertiport plans face governance uncertainty
- Giant aircraft for wind turbine blades
- TSA liquids rule could last until 2040
- News Notes
- Quotable Quote
Newark Air Traffic Control Shifted to Philadelphia TRACON
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) long-planned effort to reduce chronic air traffic delays in the New York/New Jersey region was implemented successfully on July 28, with little fanfare. The plan shifts control of New Jersey arrivals and departures from the greatly under-staffed New York TRACON (N90, on Long Island) to the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control Facilities (TRACON), located at that airport.
The move had been opposed by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and is being denounced by several New York House and Senate members, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Those seven legislators hope to enact legislation to un-do the TRACON shift. Doing that would be bad for air travel in the most congested U.S. airspace, which is implicated in the large majority of all U.S. airline delays.
The long-planned move shrinks the amount of air traffic handled by the very understaffed N90, moving not only Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) traffic but also that of four other New Jersey airports: Caldwell (CDW), Linden (LDJ), Morristown (MMU) and Teterboro (TEB). Altogether that is likely one-third of what under-staffed N90 was responsible for. To be sure, N90 is losing some controllers to Philadelphia TRACON: 14 who volunteered, plus 10 who are temporarily re-assigned. Nine other N90 controllers formerly dealing with Newark approach will be trained to manage other N90 approaches and departures, easing the chronic shortage that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Inspector General report last year pegged at a mere 54% of the standard minimum of 85% fully certified controllers.
A JetBlue spokesperson was widely quoted as predicting near-term disruptions and delays. But Politico Pro (Aug. 2) quoted an unnamed airline executive (probably from JetBlue) as follows: “[D]oing nothing to fix the most chronically understaffed and also busiest airspace in the system was not an option. Long term, this is the most effective solution.”
Airlines for America is also on board with this change, telling Politico: “The staffing and training issues at N90 have been a persistent problem for over a decade. We commend the FAA for their efforts to address these issues and also the controllers for answering the call to action.”
For background information on long-standing N90 dysfunction, see the following articles in previous issues of this newsletter:
Airport Slots on the Agenda in Australia and Europe
I’ve long had concerns about using assigned runway slots as the way to address cases where the demand for runway space exceeds runway capacity. The situation cries out for a market-based solution, such as variable pricing, but instead we have what is closer to an airline runway-use cartel at major airports. Opportunities for change have arisen in Australia (bankruptcies of two small airlines that could not obtain slots at Sydney Airport—SYD) and in Europe (airport concerns vis-a-vis airline power).
AviationPros.com recently posted the airline view in a short piece called “A History of Airline Slot Allocations.” The title alone is a Freudian slip, since it is supposed to be airport slot allocations, but current practice was invented by (and for) the major airlines. The International Air Transport Association propounded the IATA “Worldwide Airports Slots Guidelines” decades ago, apparently hoping elected officials would see it as some kind of widely approved regulation rather than one trade association’s bid for control. When the system began, incumbent airlines were grandfathered in, and newcomers had to hope a few slots would become available. To dress this up a bit, the guidelines include a “use-it-or-lose-it” provision under which an airline must use a slot at least 80% of the time to keep it. (Why not 90% or 95% if this were actually meant to prevent hogging slots?)
At any rate, the Australian government on Aug. 5 issued a competitive tender for a new slot manager for Sydney Airport, aimed at creating a system that would free up more take-off and landing slots. The tender includes “increasing transparency” and “dealing with any potential conflicts of interest in slot allocation.” That process will likely take more than a year before we have actual proposals to debate.
The European Commission has launched a “fitness check” for several key pieces of aviation legislation, including the 1993 EU Slot Allocation Regulation. While IATA seems to be preparing an all-out defense of its “worldwide slot guidance,” ACI Europe, representing most of Europe’s airports, says the 30-year-old slot regulations are no longer fit for purpose. In contrast to IATA, Europe’s low-cost carriers (easyJet, Ryanair, and Wizz) would like the slot system to be opened up. Ryanair is calling for airport pricing based on market principles, while Wizz Air “would support an airport fee setting system which is as free as possible.” To be clear, in these comments they are addressing the current EU Airports Charging Directive, rather than the slots guidelines, but the two are directly related if landing (and takeoff) fees are to be market-based—as an alternative way to ration scarce runway space.
When I argue for runway pricing as an alternative to slot allocation, I’m always told that allocating by price would favor the legacy airlines, rather than the low-cost carriers (LCCs). But think back to your Economics 101 course. For an airline to break in at a previously inaccessible airport, what counts is the marginal cost of a number of new landing and take-off opportunities. To a legacy carrier with numerous slots, its least-valued ones might not be worth paying a premium for, whereas for the LCC gaining access for several flights a day at a major airport might well be worth more than that.
And as for the ICAO policy that airport and air traffic control user fees be “cost-based,” a runway pricing system should dedicate all its revenues to the capital and operating costs of the airport, which might lead to reductions in one or two other airport revenue sources, such as terminal space rental charges.
The 2007 study on airport congestion pricing that I co-authored is still relevant, in case you are interested in exploring this idea in more depth.
Electronic Flight Strips for Control Towers Slip Further
On July 17, the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report on the slow progress of FAA’s program to equip U.S. airport control towers with electronic flight strips (to replace traditional paper flight strips physically handed from one controller to another). The bad news is that instead of only 89 towers scheduled to receive this improvement by 2028, there will now be only 49 towers equipped by 2029. Report AV202031, “FAA Has Begun to Deploy TFDM, but Cost Growth Has Resulted in Significant Program Changes and Delayed Benefits,” is available online.
Replacing paper strips with electronic ones was part of FAA’s 1983 Advanced Aviation System (AAS) program that planned to equip 150 to 250 airport control towers by 2000. That plan died with the termination of AAS as hopelessly over-budget in 2000. Several subsequent pilot projects came to naught, but finally FAA included electronic flight strips in a new tower console called Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM). A contract with Lockheed-Martin (now Leidos) was to equip 89 towers with TFDM by 2028. Alas, Covid slowed things down, and the cost of needed software escalated. In recent years, due to the delays and cost increases, FAA has scaled back the program. First, only 49 control towers will get TFDM instead of the planned 89. Second, only 27 of them will get the full version that includes surface management functions, while the other 22 will get only the electronic flight strips. The 40 medium-sized airports cut from the program include busy sites such as Anchorage, Burbank, Hartford, Honolulu, New Orleans, Norfolk, Ontario, Orange County, Sacramento, San Juan, and Richmond.
This is pathetic, once you realize that electronic flight strips are in use today worldwide. Nav Canada, the world’s second-largest air navigation service provider (ANSP), developed an in-house prototype in 1998. After field tests, an operational version was certified in 2003. By 2006, it had been installed in all Canada’s control towers and TRACONs, and by 2009, it was in all Nav Canada facilities, including general aviation airport towers. And that’s not the end of the story. Nav Canada’s NAVCANstrips are now sold to other ANSPs and are in use in Australia, Dubai, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Please note that they were developed and tested in-house, but I presume the actual production was contracted out. Many other ANSPs in Europe use electronic flight strips, which are available from several commercial electronics vendors. A good reference on this is available from the Eno Center for Transportation.
Widely Differing Looks at eVTOL Future
In its July 29-Aug. 11 issue, Aviation Week provided its second annual forecast of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL), and electric short take-off and landing aircraft (eSTOL) vehicles. The headline tells the main story: the forecast eVTOL volume is twice what it projected in 2023. For 2030, the projection is 2,000 eVTOL deliveries and an in-service fleet of 2,000, with the eCTOL and eSTOL at 500 combined. For 2040, the forecast is 12,000 deliveries and 9,000 eVTOLs in service (presumably assuming some retirements of early eVTOLs by then). For 2050, with many more aircraft aged out, deliveries are projected at 33,000 and an in-service fleet of 19,500.
For reasons discussed in previous issues of this newsletter, I see these in-service numbers as unrealistically high, due to the limited range and payload of battery-electric eVTOLs and the still-opaque business models that would justify large numbers of customers.
A far more sobering set of concerns was articulated by speakers at a June 19 conference in London, organized by Revolution.aero and summarized in a June 26 article in Aviation Daily, “ATC Practicalities, Costs Will Limit eVTOL Operations, Panel Says.” Air traffic control was identified as a key hurdle. Specifically, Fabrice Kunzi of Skygrid explained that far more air vehicles in a much smaller space will be beyond the capabilities of current ATC systems to handle. Needed will be a largely automated system with much smaller separations among vehicles—which currently does not exist.
Richard Ellis of NATS Services agreed and noted that once such a digital system is in place, it will need to cope with “off-normal situations” by handing that piece of the problem to the existing ANSP. Juliana Kiraly of Eve Air Mobility gave the example of commercial helicopter service in Sao Paulo, in which only seven helicopters can fly at the same time due to ATC system limitations. She also noted fares of $470 per passenger in those successful commercial services, far more than any estimates I’ve seen from eVTOL developers.
And in a July article about Joby and Lilium ideas for future vehicles, consultant Sergio Cecutta noted that “carrying four passengers on flights of several hundred miles [e.g. on hydrogen-electric versions of current eVTOLs] does not present a compelling business case. He also notes that current small eVTOLs do not have space or payload capacity to include a lavatory, which makes several-hundred-mile flights impractical as a business proposition.” (Aviation Daily, July 19, 2024)
These kinds of concerns help explain why I’m dubious about these Aviation Week projections.
Protesters Disrupt European Airport Operations
Late July saw multiple attempts by anti-fossil-fuel organizations in Europe to disrupt airport operations. The most successful protests interrupted flight operations at both Cologne/Bonn and Frankfurt airports, where protesters cut through perimeter fencing and glued themselves to runways and/or taxiways. The organizations responsible were Oil Kills and Stay Grounded, which aim to reduce or eliminate as much air travel as possible.
Aviation Daily (July 25) reported demonstrations at other European airports, as follows:
- Finland: Protesters blocked security screening at Helsinki Vantaa Airport but were moved by police to “the front of the airport.”
- Norway: Protesters cut through the fence and got onto Oslo Gardermoen airport property but were removed by police before doing anything else.
- Spain: Protesters tried to glue themselves to the tarmac at Barcelona Airport but were intercepted by police before they succeeded.
- Switzerland: Protesters blocked roads leading to the Geneva and Zurich Airports.
- UK: Protesters were arrested on the perimeter road outside London Heathrow Airport.
That protesters in several of these cases were able to cut through airport fences and get onto runways and taxiways indicates that post-9/11 security measures may have been downgraded in practice, if not in law, at some European airports. The interior minister of the state of Hesse, where Frankfurt Airport is located, has called for a review of German airport security policy, taking aim at airport operator Fraport. The company responded by saying that the airport’s 30 kilometers of perimeter are “secured by technical system and regularly patrolled,” but that clearly did not stop protesters from getting through and gluing themselves to the tarmac. They could have been terrorists aiming to blow up an airliner full of passengers. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser supports two-year jail terms for those penetrating airport perimeters.
The United States is fortunate, thus far, in not having militant anti-air-travel groups such as those targeting airports in Europe. But that may well change. The Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration should increase their emphasis on airport perimeter security and related threats to airports. Any weak links in airport security could just as easily lead to intrusions by terrorists instead of anti-air-travel extremists.
Archer’s Vertiport Plans Face Governance Uncertainty
By Marc Scribner
Advanced air mobility (AAM), especially electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, has been a subject of a great deal of buzz. Questions about business model viability and commercial deployment timelines have been growing and will continue in the years ahead—especially with missed milestones such as Volocopter’s failure to be certified in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics as planned. In the United States, FAA and eVTOL developers aim to showcase novel air taxis at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Recent public releases suggest how this might take place, but AAM deployment plans also face significant uncertainty surrounding the governance of vertiports.
In the August issue of his invaluable and entertaining newsletter Aviation Intelligence Reporter, Andrew Charlton highlighted a recent report finding that 883 vertiports are planned or in progress around the world. In North America (primarily the United States), 55 vertiport projects have been identified at conventional airport or heliport sites while 49 new-build sites have been selected in urban areas. That more than half of the planned or in-progress vertiports are located at existing aviation facilities reflects the near-term strategies of AAM developers, which have begun to flesh out details of their initial deployment plans.
On Aug. 8, leading eVTOL developer Archer Aviation released its planned initial AAM network in Los Angeles. The initial network focuses on connecting airports in the metro area, with the company naming Los Angeles International (LAX), Hollywood Burbank, Long Beach, Orange County, Santa Monica, and Van Nuys as vertiport sites to be served by Archer’s Midnight eVTOL aircraft. This is notable because four of those six airports are served by Southwest Airlines and three by United, and both carriers have entered partnerships with Archer for airport shuttle service.
Beyond airports, Archer says it is working with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams to examine multiple potential vertiport sites to serve the team’s Woodland Hills training complex and the 300-acre Hollywood Park entertainment district surrounding SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. SoFi Stadium is scheduled to host eight World Cup matches in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027, and will be known as LA Olympic Stadium during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Bryan Bernhard, Archer’s head of growth and infrastructure, told Aviation Week reporter Ben Goldstein that typical travel times from those airports to SoFi stadium are an hour and a half owing to heavy highway congestion. “Now you have the ability to cover that trip in 10 min. in an eVTOL, be able to see the game with your family and then jump back in the Midnight and get home super quickly,” said Bernhard (Aviation Daily, Aug. 19).
Archer is also in talks with the University of Southern California (USC) to convert existing campus heliports to vertiports. This would support USC’s interest in providing easier access to campus academic, sports, and medical facilities in the future. Bernhard says heliport-to-vertiport conversions will save time compared to new-build vertiports. Defining the local air traffic concept of operations and electrifying existing heliports is expected to take 18 months, versus up to 24 months for new vertiport construction.
Archer’s announcement about its planned Los Angeles vertiport network came just weeks after it revealed its launch plans for the San Francisco Bay Area. In the Bay Area, Archer has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kilroy Realty Corporation to develop a network anchored by Kilroy’s 50-acre Oyster Point biotechnology campus in South San Francisco. The initial network would be composed of four other vertiports in Livermore, Napa, Oakland, and San Jose, and aims to reduce 60- to 90-minute travel times to 10-20 minutes.
Archer’s main competitor, Joby Aviation, so far has not detailed its initial deployment plans in the United States, although—like most of the AAM industry—it is expected to begin service by leveraging current aviation infrastructure at airports and heliports. In April, the company announced a partnership with Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to develop an air taxi network and manufacturing facilities in the Persian Gulf city.
At least in the United States, focusing primarily on upgrading existing heliports to eVTOL vertiports in the early stages of deployment makes sense. For one, it’s significantly more cost- and time-efficient, which will in principle allow AAM companies to generate some revenue for their increasingly impatient investors. This emphasis on cash flow is especially important for vertically integrated developers such as Joby that plan to manufacture their own eVTOLs and then operate air taxi networks themselves, rather than sell at least some of their production aircraft to third-party carriers, as Archer and others plan to do.
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the development of new-build vertiports relates to uncertain governance. While FAA has authority over aviation safety and airspace management, ground infrastructure is largely the domain of state and local governments—especially in the case when the project is not federally funded. Most significant are land-use regulation and construction codes, which vary state-to-state and locality-to-locality.
If the status quo of state and local governance wasn’t challenging enough, one AAM company is lobbying state legislators to make vertiport development even more challenging. As I discussed in June 2022 edition of this newsletter, Hyundai Motor Group’s eVTOL subsidiary Supernal has been shopping around a poorly written bill that appears to ban public-private partnerships and other beneficial arrangements in vertiport development. Supernal’s lobbyists assured me this wasn’t the case, but my close reading of the legislative text suggests otherwise.
Fortunately, the rest of the AAM industry has joined together to oppose Supernal’s legislation and offer constructive policy alternatives. Organized by the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in Dec. 2023, the “AAM Prepared” advocacy campaign provides state policymakers with important background information, as well as a model bill aimed at reducing state and local policy uncertainty as it relates to AAM. While it is too early to gauge success, the AAM industry and AUVSI’s legislative advocacy appears to be having a positive impact against Supernal’s misguided vertiport lobbying effort.
For AAM to deliver on its promised benefits, policy consistency and clarity is needed. These challenges will not resolve themselves on their own, so a concerted and unified effort by relevant stakeholders is critical. The groundwork has been laid, but whether it will prove sustainable or effective remains to be seen.
Giant Aircraft Planned to Haul Very Long Wind Turbine Blades
A startup company called Radia has thus far raised $100 million to research and design the world’s largest aircraft. Called Windrunner, its sole purpose would be to transport wind turbine blades up to 105 meters (344 feet) long. Blades this long are currently used only for offshore wind facilities, but the larger blades generate significantly more electricity when the wind is blowing. Transporting blades that long by rail or highway poses many challenges for onshore wind farms; hence the air transport idea.
The Windrunner design calls for the wingspan and height to be comparable with existing very large cargo and passenger aircraft. Only the length would set records, at 356 ft., 105 ft. longer than the Boeing 747-8. Hence, Windrunner should be operable from large commercial airports, though there are few if any such airports near the rural locations where most wind farms are. CEO Mark Lundstrom told Aviation Week that the Windrunner could use “semi-prepared airfields that could be built within the perimeters of onshore wind farms,” presumably at the wind farm’s expense.
As with numerous eVTOL startups, this project faces several challenges. First is raising the additional $300 million for the next phase of Windrunner’s development, which may or may not include construction and flight testing. Second is FAA certification as a Part 25 cargo aircraft. Newcomers to aviation typically don’t understand either certification’s likely duration or its cost. Third, of course, is a viable business model.
Radia already has relationships with Aeronova, to work on designing the wing and engine pylons, and with Leonardo to assist with design of the fuselage. It also has a contract with AFuzion for assistance with aviation safety engineering and support for FAA certification.
I think Radia’s largest risk is the business model. First, assuming there is a potential market for one Windrunner, the project has no way to benefit from economies of scale in production, and this would be true even if there were eventually a market for two or three of them. Second is the risk of cuts in current federal and state subsidies for wind farms, on which the economics of wind farms are heavily dependent. Third is local opposition to wind farms, especially due to their noise impacts. The larger the turbine, the louder the noise and the further it reaches. That is one reason why super-long wind turbine blades are currently used only on offshore wind farms.
Windrunner is a fascinating aircraft design concept, but it looks like a very risky business proposition to me.
Liquid Container Rule May Persist Until 2040, TSA Says
Writing on TravelPulse, Rich Thomaselli reported dismaying news from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The latest carry-on luggage screening technology uses Computed Tomography (CT) which can identify different kinds of liquids in various-size containers. This CT screening technology was first introduced at some European airports in 2022. TSA has also begun to deploy CT scanners at some U.S. airports. But, with about 2,000 screening lanes at 430 airports, TSA says it may take until the year 2040 before all those lanes are equipped with the new scanners.
Thomaselli quotes a TSA spokesperson saying that until all U.S. screening lanes are CT-equipped, the current rule about limiting liquid containers in carry-on bags to 3.4 ounces will remain in force. “We are anticipating that it may not be until 2040 that we have CT units fully deployed across the nation and have the capability of changing the requirement across the system,” the TSA spokesperson said.
This strikes me as bizarre. There are various ways in which air travelers can be informed about which lanes are equipped and for which the 3.4-oz. rule no longer applies. For example, since the screening rules are already different for lanes used for PreCheck, CT scanners could be installed first in those lanes, adding a bit more value for travelers who sign up for PreCheck. Or, at airports with separate concourses with their own TSA lanes, CT scanners could be installed one concourse at a time with appropriate signage.
The slow rollout of CT scanners is very likely a TSA budget problem, so airlines and the airports that serve as their major hubs might be willing to chip in to get their screening lanes equipped early—e.g., Atlanta (Delta), Charlotte (American), Newark (United), etc. In fact, that’s what happened as part of the process of equipping the large new terminal at Salt Lake City International Airport in 2019. As reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, the old screening equipment in the existing terminal was judged to be not worth moving, but TSA did not have the $10-15 million to pay for new screening equipment. So the airport board and Delta Air Lines agreed that the airport would come up with the money. As SLC Executive Director Bill Wyatt explained to the reporter, “TSA has to own the equipment, so we buy it, and then we gift it to them, along with a maintenance contract.” The article noted that Delta had faced similar situations at other airports and resolved them the same way.
To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, “A foolish uniformity is the hobgoblin of TSA minds.” U.S. airlines and air travelers should challenge this foolish CT scanner uniformity. TSA should change the liquids rule wherever and whenever CT scanners are installed.
FAA Announces NOTAMs Backup System
A year and a half after the Jan. 2023 nationwide outage of the obsolete and user-unfriendly Notice to Air Missions (NOTAMs) system, FAA announced that a backup system is in place. However, the content of the system and its organization still leave a great deal to be desired. On June 25, a Southwest flight departed, incorrectly, from a closed runway at Maine’s Portland International Jetport. The flight crew saw a NOTAM about the runway being closed on weekends through the end of July, but they missed—among 31 other NOTAMs—a notice regarding closures on weekdays until 5:45 AM. They departed at 5:43 AM. As has always been the case, the NOTAMs packet contained a jumble of unrelated notices, with no prioritization between trivial and very safety-critical ones. The entire NOTAM creation and dissemination process is still in need of major redesign.
Argentina’s Reform Government Legalizes Cabotage
In July, the reform government of President Javier Milei issued a decree deregulating airfares and legalizing the provision of domestic and international air service by non-Argentine air carriers. The cabotage provision applies “under conditions of strict reciprocity,” the government announced. Aviation Daily (Aug. 1) reported that the decree followed recently signed agreements between Argentina and Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay. The new regulations also allow more competition for airport ground handling services, formerly provided almost exclusively by government-owned Intercargo.
Two Drone Companies in Same Airspace Over Dallas
FAA announced on July 30 that both Alphabet’s Wing and Zipline will be able to operate their drones in the same airspace in the Dallas area. Both will use an Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) platform. It enables the drones to fly pre-defined flight plans in airspace below 400 feet and away from aircraft carrying people. Flights were expected to begin sometime in August, according to an account in Politico (July 30). The two operators conducted thousands of test flights in the Dallas area last year, under FAA supervision. Wing’s drones can carry packages weighing up to 2.5 lbs. Zipline’s P2 drones can carry up to 8 lbs. The recent FAA reauthorization law requires FAA to publish its draft regulation on beyond visual line-of-sight drone operations by September and issue a final rule 16 months later.
Investors Returning to Airport Acquisitions
In an article headlined “Airports Are Once Again a Favorite,” Infrastructure Investor’s Zak Bentley cited air travel growth and recent airport transactions that indicate revived interest in commercial airports by airport companies and infrastructure investment funds. Airport Council International expects 2024 global passenger numbers to exceed 2019 levels by 6%. In recent transactions, Vinci Airports bought a 50% stake in Edinburgh Airport for £1.27 billion. IFM Investors teamed with Vinci Airports to help build a new airport in Poland. And Asterian Industrial Partners bought a 49% stake in 2i Aeroporti (which owns stakes in seven Italian airports) for €800 million.
Low-Cost Carriers Surpass 2019 Volume
In its Aug. 12 issue, Aviation Daily reported that the four largest LCCs—Allegiant, Frontier, Southwest, and Spirit—each surpassed its 2019 number of flights in the first half of 2024, with Frontier and Spirit both leading the way with 25% more flights in July 2024 than July 2019, pre-pandemic. Spirit in July joined the LCC trend of adopting higher-priced seats in the front of its cabins, in hopes of raising its average revenue per passenger, as Frontier has done this year. And in mid-August, relative newcomer Breeze Airways added 18 new routes, including service at five new airports, including Newark.
Florida Airport P3 Working with Goldman Sachs
Airglades International Airport (AIA) has commissioned Goldman Sachs to assist with financing its development. The plan is to convert the general aviation airport into an air cargo facility for perishable goods primarily imported from Latin America. Airglades’ application to the Airport Investment Partnership Program (AIPP) is awaiting final approval by FAA. The planned operator of the airport, following FAA approval of the public-private partnership (P3), is Avports.
What Can an ATC Utility Do that a Government ANSP Cannot?
The short answer to this question is sell commercial products and services. The most recent example is Airways New Zealand’s thriving business in providing control tower simulators to other ANSPs. Airways recently delivered its 70th tower simulator to Croatia Control. NavCanada has a whole line of ATC equipment that it has developed in-house and sells to other ANSPs, including a system that provides electronic flight strips. And Germany’s DFS has a joint venture with Frequentis to provide remote digital towers to other ANSPs.
AENA Selling its Stake in Mexico’s GAP
Infralogic reported (Aug. 5) that AENA, the world’s second-largest airport operator, is selling its one-third stake in Aeropuertos Mexican Pacifico, the publicly traded company that owns 15% of GAP (which operates 12 commercial airports in Mexico’s Pacific region). They include Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Los Cabos, and Puerto Vallarta. GAP also owns a majority stake in MJB Airports Limited, which runs Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport and also holds the concession for Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.
“Junk Fee” Regulation Blocked by U.S. Appeals Court
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit blocked the implementation by U.S. DOT of new regulations requiring airlines to disclose more information about what the Biden administration termed “junk fees”—such as fees for checked bags or seat selection. Major U.S. airlines filed suit arguing that the new rules “likely exceed DOT’s authority and will irreparably harm airlines.” The DOT responded to the court’s decision by saying that “Nothing in the court’s decision prevents airlines from voluntarily complying with this common-sense rule.” What a concept: let competition determine the outcome!
Vinci to Upgrade Dominican Republic Airports
Aerodom, a subsidiary of Vinci Airports, will use a recent refinancing to upgrade the six airports it operates in the Dominican Republic, according to Infralogic (July 31). In July, Aerodom paid the government $775 million to extend the duration of its P3 concessions to 2060. The largest of the airports, Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo, will get a new $250 million passenger terminal, along with improvements to the existing terminal and an expansion of its solar energy facility.
Skykraft to Provide Space-Based ADS-B for Papua New Guinea
Australian company Skykraft has signed an agreement with the government of Papua New Guinea to provide space-based ADS-B services to that country’s ANSP, Niusky Pacific. The system’s coverage will include both the domestic and oceanic flight information regions.
Lufthansa Studies Best Cities for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM)
The largest German airline, along with Roland Berger Associates, analyzed 42 cities in Europe and the United States for suitability for AAM service such as would be provided by eVTOLs. From the standpoint of terrain, Amsterdam, Charlotte, and Orlando scored best. In terms of airspace, the top scorers were Dublin, Monaco, and Vienna. A favorable regulatory climate led to Los Angeles, Miami, and Paris as best, due to “pro-active AAM-focused agendas,” according to Aviation Daily (July 18). Weather-wise, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Diego scored best for having moderate weather 95% of the year. Infrastructure top-scorers were Marseille and Stuttgart. Finally, time-saving potential was highest for Charlotte, Orlando, and Rome—when compared with transit. But compared with driving, time savings were generally “minimal.” Oh, well.
Montenegro Assessing P3 Proposals for Two Airports
In a process dating back to 2019 (but interrupted by the pandemic), Montenegro has narrowed down proposed airport developer/operators to three: Corporacion America Airports, Incheon Airport, and Aeroports de Paris/TAV Airports. The 30-year P3 concession would be for the country’s two largest airports: Podgorica and Tivat. As reported by Infralogic (Aug. 13), the government aims to make its decision by the end of 2024.
Volocopter Fails to Provide Commercial Flights at Paris Olympics
German eVTOL startup Volocopter had planned to offer commercial flights in its VoloCity two-person eVTOL during the 2024 Paris Olympics. The original plan assumed that a network of Paris metro area vertiports would be in operation by then and that its air vehicle would be certified to carry paying customers by then. Only one vertiport was completed in time, and the eVTOL had not been approved for carrying passengers. So Volocopter had to settle for a set of demonstration flights during the Olympics, as reported by Aviation Daily (Aug. 12).
WSJ Video Shows AI Remote Tower Capabilities at London Heathrow
I am repeating this link, by request, for those who missed it several months ago. It’s about 12 minutes long, and it shows how very far ahead of FAA the ANSP for the U.K. is, when it comes to remote/digital tower technology implementation.
“There’s a difference between what we’re doing today—what we’re seeking approval for today from the regulators—and where we’re expecting, or at least promising, this would go. What I don’t know is how we get from operational frequencies achieved by helicopters today, to what it is that we are envisioning [with eVTOLs]. If we could release the airspace and just have it be a non-constraint overnight, physics still matters. And getting these vehicles up and down and turned over, passengers in and out, and cleaned—these are real constraints that all of a sudden start to bite in ways we can’t get rid of with digitization.”
—Fabrice Kunzi, SkyGrid, in Angus Batey, “ATC Practicalities, Costs, Will Limit eVTOL Operations, Panel Says,” Aviation Daily, June 26, 2024