The EU sees slim airline-industry margins as a policy success and "we want to keep it that way," European Commission director for aviation Filip Cornelis has declared. Speaking at IATA's ongoing Wings of Change event in Rome, Cornelis said airlines' slim profitability had been a deliberate consequence of policy and "we like that, because it means there is competition," adding: "We are proud of that and want to keep it that way."

Nevertheless, presenting the EU's viewpoint as it begins a new political cycle with a new Commissioner, he recognised the changed geopolitical environment and the need to increase competitiveness within the European economy, including by taking steps to help the continent’s airlines. Following the European parliamentary elections of June, there is as yet no EU Commissioner for transport, but Ursula von der Leyen has been re-elected as the EU Commission president and appears likely to continue the same general approach as in her first term. She has said this means a focus on implementing policies that have been adopted but are not yet fully operational or working as they should.

"We don't need new measures," Cornelis argues, "but we do need to focus on implementation." For airlines and aviation, this means boosting SAF production because "there we see investment is still to be done," says Cornelis. Airlines have complained that within a few years' time SAF demand will outstrip supply. Cornelis adds that a sustainable transport plan will be produced to promote the production of SAF, particularly e-SAF.

However, he also notes that the message from the Commission president is that "we will stay the course on greening," meaning there is unlikely to be any relaxation on issues such as the incoming SAF mandate. The Commission will also look at factors that impact external competitiveness for the continent's airlines. It will complete work on a strategy to combat carbon leakage, whereby airlines flying into the bloc from outside can avoid abiding by Europe's stringent climate measures and undercut local competitors.

The Commission, Cornelis says, "will consider taking action to alleviate that potential handicap," which will work alongside pushing for a global level playing field on a sustainable aviation policy "that is higher than it currently is." A further dimension is support for the aeronautical industry that designs and builds low-carbon aircraft. Cornelis also mentions work on "upgrading" air services legislation, including a "fitness check" on airport regulation which will encompass changes to the rules governing slots and ground handling, as well as infrastructure funding.

Passenger rights is a further area the incoming Commission is likely to examine afresh, having last looked at the issue over a decade ago. Regarding the Single European Sky programme, he states: "I think it's not dead... We definitely need to work on improving and expanding [air traffic management] capacity," this being "in my view the main challenge for the coming years." He highlights the need for a greater use of AI and automation in managing Europe’s airspace. The European parliament is set to decide on the incoming transport commissioner imminently, perhaps within the next few days. Cornelis expects that the position will be taken by Greece's Apostolos Tzitzikostas.

The US Department of Energy has granted GE Aerospace, Boeing and NASA access to government-owned supercomputers to jointly study the aerodynamics of installed open-fan engines on aircraft in simulated conditions. GE is leading the project to model integration of an open fan with an aircraft wing design, the US engine maker says, noting that Boeing, NASA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will collaborate in the effort. The objective is to optimise engine design for "additional efficiency, noise and other performance benefits", GE adds. CFM International – jointly owned by GE and Safran – targets at least 20% better fuel efficiency versus the Leap with its open-rotor-based technology demonstrator programme RISE (revolutionary innovation for sustainable engines) for a potential future narrowbody engine. Noise has been a main challenge of unducted fan designs so far. Safran chief Olivier Andries said at the RISE programme's launch in 2021 that noise had been reduced to the Leap engine level in the French manufacturer's open-rotor studies and ground tests at the time. Under the new project, GE and its partners have been awarded 840,000 supercomputing hours through the Department of Energy's INCITE (innovative and novel computational impact on theory and experiment) programme. Studies will use the Aurora supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, near Chicago in Illinois, and the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, for the project. Frontier and Aurora are the world's second and third fastest supercomputers, both capable of crunching data at more than a quintillion calculations per second, GE notes. "Advanced supercomputing capability is a key breakthrough enabling the revolutionary open-fan engine design," states GE general manager for future of flight technology, Arjan Hegeman, noting that "airplane integration is critical" for the concept.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has called for the resumption of direct flights between China and India at a meeting with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in a sign of warming ties between the two countries. “We should strive to make practical progress in resuming direct flights, sending journalists to each other, and facilitating visas as soon as possible,” says Wang on 18 November in Rio De Janeiro, where the two met on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Wang calls for both sides to “enhance mutual trust through dialogue and communication, and properly handle differences with sincerity and good faith, so as to push the bilateral relations back to the track of stable and healthy development as soon as possible”, states a readout from China’s foreign ministry. “The consensus between India and China far outweighs the differences. The two sides should view bilateral relations from a strategic perspective, properly handle relevant issues with a more positive attitude, and not let specific differences define the relationship between the two countries,” adds Jaishankar. There are currently no direct flights between the two most populous countries in the world after they were suspended in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to that, there were 64 flights weekly flights between the two countries November 2019 schedules data shows.