American Airlines pilots seeking a new contract with the US major have voted in favour of authorising a strike. The Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents American's 15,000 pilots, says its membership voted "overwhelmingly" to approve the strike authorisation. The pilots voted throughout the month of April. "The strike authorisation vote is one of several steps APA has taken to prepare for any eventuality and use all legal avenues available to us for contract improvement and resolution," APA president Ed Sicher states. "The best outcome is for APA and management to agree on an industry-leading contract – achieved through good-faith bargaining – benefiting our pilots, American Airlines and the passengers we serve." APA members on 1 May intend to engage in "informational picketing" at "all 10 of the airline's major hubs". The union's board in November 2022 voted to reject a proposed tentative agreement for American's pilots. The Fort Worth-based carrier says on 1 May that it remains "confident that an agreement for our pilots is within reach and can be finalised quickly". The carrier adds: "The finish line is in sight. We understand that a strike authorisation vote is one of the important ways pilots express their desire to get a deal done and we respect the message of voting results. "Importantly, the results don’t change our commitment or distract us from working expeditiously to complete a deal. We remain focused on completing the handful of matters necessary to reach an agreement our pilots deserve." American is currently in direct negotiations with the APA, the carrier notes. An actual strike by American's pilots is not an imminent threat. Before a strike by APA members can commence, the US National Mediation Board must first offer the parties an opportunity to arbitrate the contract dispute. If either side declines the arbitration, both parties enter a 30-day cooling-off period, after which self-help – such as a labour strike or a lockout enacted by management – could be authorised only if a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) is not established. Under the terms of the US Railway Labor Act, if a dispute substantially threatens essential transportation in any section of the USA, the National Mediation Board notifies the US president, who may establish a PEB, which investigates the dispute during a 30-day period and advises the president and issues recommendations. The two parties subsequently can accept the PEB's recommendations, negotiate their own agreement or, after 30 days from the issuance of the PEB to the president, exercise self-help, unless the US Congress takes action. Members of Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) throughout May likewise will be voting on the authorisation of a potential strike, with the results of the vote tallied at the end of that month. United Airlines is also negotiating with its pilots over terms for a new contract. Delta Air Lines and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) on 1 March 2023 disclosed that they had agreed a new working agreement which includes more than $7 billion in cumulative pay increases over four years for the carrier's pilots.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has activated 169 new air traffic routes along the country’s East Coast.
The routes, the agency says, are "more direct, saving passengers time, airlines fuel and increasing safety". The FAA adds that the direct routes will "shave off" 40,000 miles and 6,000 minutes of travel time annually due to the shorter distances involved. "The change helps prevent delays by giving the agency more capacity to direct traffic to specific routes based on the aircraft’s destination," it says. "When weather occurs, controllers will also have more flexibility. Finally, fewer converging points and more simple flows enhance safety." The new routes operate primarily above 18,000 feet in altitude along the East Coast, as well as offshore areas over the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. The FAA says it has "sunset the legacy routes built when aircraft largely relied on ground-based radar, limiting the directness of routes, instead of GPS". Tim Arel, chief operating officer of the FAA’s air traffic organisation, states: "These significant improvements to our national airspace system are just in time for summer and will help travelers get to their destinations more efficiently." "The new routes will reduce complexity and redistribute volume across all available airspace. I’m proud of the FAA and industry’s strong collaboration on this project to get it done." The FAA says it has worked for over seven years with the industry to develop and implement the new flightpaths.

UK leisure airline Jet2 is investing in a sustainable aviation fuel production facility that will provide the carrier with 200 million litres over a 15-year period. The Fulcrum NorthPoint facility is being developed by California-based Fulcrum BioEnergy in northwestern England, and will use waste-to-fuels technology to turn non-recyclable household refuse into 100 million litres of SAF annually. Production is set to begin in 2027 and consume 600,000 tonnes of non-recyclable household waste annually. Fulcrum's technology has already been deployed at its first commercial-scale facility in the US state of Nevada. The project received £16.8 million ($20.2 million) from the UK Department for Transport's Advanced Fuels Fund earlier this year, Fulcrum notes. Jet2 has not revealed how much it is investing in the project. Each Airbus A321neo, soon to be the most-common aircraft in Jet2’s fleet, can hold around 12,900 litres of fuel, according to the manufacturer, implying that the agreement is equivalent to around 86 fully refuelled aircraft per month. "The announcement means that Jet2.com, the UK's third-largest airline, will receive a significant volume of SAF produced at the plant once in operation," the carrier states. "The SAF is expected to achieve net emissions reductions totalling around 400,000 tonnes of CO2 for Jet2.com over the 15-year period of the agreement." SAF will be delivered directly to Manchester airport using the existing jet fuel pipework infrastructure, rather than being transported via the road network. It is forecast to achieve lifecycle emissions reductions of around 70% compared with conventional aviation fuel, potentially even becoming carbon-neutral in the future. "This significant investment into Fulcrum NorthPoint's Sustainable Aviation Fuel production in the UK shows not only how seriously we take that responsibility, but also how committed we are to taking tangible actions to address it," states Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy. "Not only will this action help to lower our climate impacts, but it represents a major step forward in our transition to net zero too."