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Grounding lasted 45 minutes; technical system issues have been resolved. The United grounding lasted from 6:45 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET. United Airlines Holdings Inc. grounded its flights in the U.S. and Canada Friday morning because of technical problems. The grounding lasted from 6:45 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“This morning we experienced technical system issues that impacted our operations and have since been resolved. All systems are now working normally and we are working diligently to get customers to their destinations,” the company said.
Excerpt from WSJ
The aviation-safety regulator sends a letter to carriers pointing out potential risks
U.S. air-safety regulators want airlines to stay on top of potential safety issues like employee fatigue as carriers race to keep up with a surge in demand for flights.
Regulators haven’t seen any alarming trends emerge in data collected from airlines, Federal Aviation Administration officials said, but this week the agency alerted industry groups to potential problems that could lead to incidents or accidents. Carriers have been bringing back furloughed workers, taking planes out of storage and adjusting flights with consumers returning to air travel.
“While we are all excited about the burgeoning recovery of passenger traffic, airlines should look across their operations for additional ways to increase predictability and provide stability to the system. More certainty reduces safety risks,” FAA chief Steve Dickson said in a Thursday letter to industry groups.
In a memo that accompanied the letter, the FAA recommended that carriers remain vigilant about possible fatigue-related errors among front-line employees and distractions for pilots, such as discussions in the cockpit about the pandemic.
Excerpt from WSJ
Carrier sees bookings slow and cancellations rise in August as Covid-19 surge continues
Southwest Airlines Co. LUV 2.01% said the recent surge in Covid-19 cases is causing bookings to slow and cancellations to rise, showing how quickly the Delta variant is denting economic activity.
The airline said Wednesday that while demand for the key Labor Day weekend remained healthy, the recent slowdown would make it difficult to turn a profit in the third quarter, excluding the impact of government payroll assistance. That is even after a fare sale designed to stoke the return of business traffic in the fall.
Southwest’s move reverses airline executives’ bullish tone just a few weeks ago, with rising Delta-variant infections prompting the cancellation of festivals and trade events such as the New York Auto Show planned for later this month.
Some consumers are reconsidering activities like travel and eating at restaurants as the surge leads certain retailers and municipalities to reimpose mask mandates.
Excerpt from WSJ
A supporter says we’re ready for a new leap in aviation. A critic says there won’t be enough passengers.
The supersonic Concorde jet made its last commercial passenger flight on Oct. 24, 2003. The Anglo-French plane was a wonder to watch, but could never overcome its high costs and concerns over its noise.
Is supersonic travel ready for its next act?
In June, United Airlines Holdings Inc. said it would buy 15 small supersonic jets being developed by Boom Technology Inc. Boom hopes to fly a scaled-down prototype of the so-called Overture jets later this year, with the full-size jet ready by the end of the decade.
Boom says the jets would be able to fly at Mach 1.7, or 1.7 times the speed of sound, enabling passengers to fly from London to Newark, N.J., in 3½ hours; it currently takes over six hours. A flight from San Francisco to Tokyo would take six hours, down from over 10 hours.
Excerpt from WSJ
Regulator faults aerospace giant after surveyed employees reported interference and transparency issues on safety matters
The Federal Aviation Administration is launching a broad review of how Boeing Co. BA 0.25% employees handle safety matters on the agency’s behalf after some company engineers said they face undue pressure, according to an agency letter and people familiar with the matter.
An FAA survey conducted this year found 35% of a small sample of certain Boeing employees reported problems including pressure and hurdles to transparency, according to an Aug. 19 agency letter to Boeing. Some surveyed employees, who are part of a group empowered by the agency to assist its work, said they encountered difficulties in being transparent with regulators, according to the letter, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. aviation regulators have long relied on aerospace-company employees to act on their behalf for performing certain tasks, such as signing off on certain safety assessments or approving aircraft for delivery. The problems cited by Boeing employees in the survey “indicate the environment does not support independence” of those who are empowered to act on the agency’s behalf, according to the letter, which was signed by Ian Won, acting manager of the FAA’s Boeing oversight office in the Seattle area.
A Boeing spokeswoman said the company takes “these matters with the utmost seriousness” and is working to bolster the independence of its employees who work on the FAA’s behalf.
Excerpt from WSJ
SYDNEY—After the coronavirus pandemic grounded air travel, many of the thousands of aircraft that were parked at storage facilities around the globe seemed destined for the scrap heap.
That hasn’t happened. Instead, aircraft owners are junking fewer planes than just before the pandemic.
About 440 large commercial jetliners were scrapped in 2020, a roughly 15% decline compared with 2019, according to aviation-analytics firm Cirium. This year, the number of aircraft being junked is currently some 30% below last year’s volumes, said Rob Morris, Cirium’s global head of consultancy.
The slow pace highlights the challenge airlines face as they navigate out of the coronavirus pandemic. Domestic travel is returning faster than international in some markets, but the pace of the recovery will differ from region to region, and airlines must retain the ability to ramp up quickly. Airlines struggling to afford new aircraft may also need to keep older models for longer.
Another factor: prices for spare parts are low because many planes are grounded and don’t need extra components. Aircraft owners generate revenue from parts taken out of scrapped planes, so they may wait until demand for spares rises before junking their planes.
Excerpt from WSJ
United Airlines wants to bring back faster-than-sound travel by the end of the decade with a plan to purchase 15 supersonic jets developed by Boom Technology. Here’s what the Overture planes might look like. Image: Boom Supersonic
People say they hate being stuck for hours on a narrow plane seat, but they haven’t usually been eager to pay for the experience to fly by faster. Just ask the operators of the Concorde.
On Thursday, United Airlines announced a deal to buy 15 Overture supersonic passenger jets from Boom Technology. The 88-seat aircraft, designed to fly at 1.7 times the speed of sound, versus 0.8 times for subsonic jets, is scheduled to enter service around the end of the decade.
Buzz around the potential return of supersonic travel—18 years after the retirement of the Anglo-French Concorde project—has been audible in the aviation industry for years. United’s vote of confidence will likely make it a notch louder.
The idea is that many of the problems that made the Concorde a money-losing proposition—only 14 entered commercial service between 1976 and 2003—can now be mitigated. Some backers believe that more efficient designs could bring ticket costs in line with a regular first-class fare, compared with the Concorde’s roughly 10% premium.
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United Airlines' announcement that it plans to buy 15 supersonic aircraft from the startup Boom Supersonic is raising questions about the future of ultra-fast plane travel. In this video, WSJ speaks with an industry analyst to better understand what’s next for faster-than-sound air travel.
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