The World of Aviation

Private plane operators have seen a “considerable uptick” in enquiries from passengers eager to travel to or from China, in an attempt to avoid infection with coronavirus, and navigate around international travel bans.

Boeing has asked for a key tax break to be suspended to end a 16-year, tit-for-tat trade war with Airbus. The Seattle-founded planemaker will hope the unexpected concession will stop the European Union imminently imposing tariffs on US goods, and comes a week after the US imposed strict tariffs on Airbus.

Airbus’ defence and space division will cut more than 2,300 jobs worldwide before the end of 2021. The company blamed a flat market and postponed defence contracts for the redundancies, but maintained that the underlying outlook “remained solid”.

The global airline industry will need around 804,000 new civil aviation pilots in commercial and business aviation and for civil helicopters over the next 20 years.

Boeing found debris that could cause potential safety risks in the fuel tanks of “several” grounded 737 MAX aircraft in Seattle, an internal memo leaked to Reuters reveals. Vice president Mark Jenks told employees the presence of material, thought to have been left behind by maintenance workers, was “absolutely unacceptable”.

Coronavirus has caused China’s share of the global aviation market to slump from third to 25th, new analysis by travel data provider Official Aviation Guide has revealed.