US Federal Aviation Administration acting chief Billy Nolen told lawmakers that the agency has implemented “over 60% of the requirements” mandated by Congress in late 2020 intended to improve aircraft safety certification and regulatory scrutiny for manufacturers in the wake of two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes. Lawmakers voiced concerns about the ongoing implementation on 8 March, during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Nolen and the senators observed that 157 people died nearly four years earlier on 10 March, 2019, during the Max aircraft crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. Referring to this grim anniversary and the subsequent 18-month congressional investigation of FAA oversight of Boeing that resulted in the 2020 certification law, the committee’s ranking Republican senator Ted Cruz says “aviation safety regulations have been written in blood”. Thanking the relatives of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crash victims for their “advocacy for aviation safety”, Nolen says the FAA is “hiring new talent who understand the safety implications of new and innovative technologies” as required by the legislation enacted in 2020, called the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act. This agency recruitment, he adds, includes a goal of hiring 300 new aircraft safety personnel by September. Since the passage of the 2020 law, he says the FAA has boosted the staff assigned to provide safety oversight of Boeing from 82 to 107. Boeing declined request for comment. The committee plans to schedule several additional hearings as US lawmakers every five years pass an FAA reauthorisation bill to set funding and priorities for the agency. Committee chair senator Maria Cantwell says that FAA workforce training and recruitment “will be a very big part of the discussion” before the current FAA legislation enacted in 2018 expires on 30 September. The FAA faces a backlog implementing numerous rules, senator Ted Budd noted, adding that some pending rules were mandated by Congress more than a decade ago. Addressing this slow pace, Nolen referred to the “methodical” rulemaking processes including cost-benefit analysis and public comments, adding that despite this “we continue to look for ways to streamline our own internal processes”. Requirements set by the 2020 aviation safety law include that FAA must conduct greater of oversight of organisation delegation authorisation (ODA) units that designate parts of information gathering for the certification process to engineers employed by airframers, including an independent review of Boeing’s safety culture and ODA process. The law also requires greater protection and encouragement for whistle-blowers who raise concerns about safety during a certification process by authorising “civil penalties against aviation manufacturer supervisors who interfere with or place undue pressure on other employees who are empowered to act as FAA designees” during the ODA process.

Singapore-based lessor Avation has indicated that the oversupply of ATR 72 aircraft available to lease has reversed sharply and will not be fixed in the near future. Speaking during its recent earnings call, the lessor’s chief commercial officer Soeren Ferre says that at the beginning of 2022 the market for the turboprops was “actually very soft” as passenger traffic had not recovered, and there were units repossessed from some carriers that had not been placed. “The situation we are in today is basically now we have a shortage of ATRs. All of our ATRs are now spoken for because they have been sold or are being placed with new operators,” he says. Fleets data shows that Avation has three ATR 72s that are not on lease, but executive chairman Jeff Chatfield expects that they will be accounted for soon. “Our preference is to lease the remaining aircraft. We may sell one because clearly there is interest in it, but we certainly would like to lease the others,” he says. Ferre adds that interest remains strong, especially given that the rival De Havilland Canada Dash 8 is no longer in production. “We are getting about two calls a week from existing airlines or start-up airlines that are looking for ATRs because basically that is the only aircraft in this category that can do the job.” The shortage is not likely to resolve over the next two years, Ferre adds, as only 35 ATR 72s are currently being produced this year, which will increase to 40 in 2024. Avation has two more ATR 72-600s on order that are due for delivery in 2024, and purchase rights on a further 28 of the type out to June 2027. The lessor has 14 ATR 72-600s and five -500s leased to 10 airlines based in Australia, Asia and Europe. Avation also has in its portfolio eight Airbus A320 family jets, five A220-300s, one A330-300 and a Boeing 777-300ER.

The US Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the proposed merger between Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways, alleging that it would reduce ultra-low-cost fare options and incentives for airlines to compete, including on 40 routes operated by both of those carriers. The DOJ, along with attorneys general for the District of Columbia, New York and Massachusetts, filed the complaint on 7 March in Massachusetts federal district court. Merging Spirit with JetBlue, US attorney general Merrick Garland said that day during a press conference, would remove incentives for airlines to compete with Spirit’s ULCC prices. The deal, valued at $3.8 billion, would create the fifth-largest US carrier by capacity. “Spirit’s own internal documents estimate that when it starts flying a route, average fares fall by 17%,” Garland says. “And an internal JetBlue document estimates that when Spirit stops flying a route, average fares go up by 30%.” The complaint alleges that the deal would also “make it easier for the remaining airlines to co-ordinate to charge travellers higher fares or limit capacity”, citing the “Northeast Alliance” codeshare between JetBlue and American Airlines focused on New York and Boston. “JetBlue is doubling down on consolidation, seeking to acquire and eliminate its main ultra-low-cost competitor, depriving travellers of yet another choice,” the DOJ states. JetBlue and American already face an antitrust lawsuit from the DOJ seeking to end the codeshare. When asked during the press conference whether that codeshare was a deciding factor spurring the lawsuit to block the Spirit merger, Garland says: “This merger will exacerbate the problems caused by that alliance”. In a joint statement responding to the DOJ challenge, JetBlue chief executive Robin Hayes and Spirit chief Ted Christie reasserted their argument that the merger would enable the combined airline to compete against US mainlines. “We believe the DOJ has got it wrong on the law here and misses the point that this merger will create a national low-fare, high-quality competitor to the Big Four carriers which – thanks to their own DOJ-approved mergers – control about 80% of the US market,” Hayes states. The New York-based carrier says it has committed “to divest all of Spirit’s holdings in Boston and New York, as well as five gates and related assets at Ft Lauderdale, to allow for allocation to other ultra-low-cost carriers”. JetBlue states that a settlement with the state of Florida to resolve antitrust concerns would add frequencies from Florida airports to 35 markets and add “nearly 50 new routes that are not currently served by either JetBlue or Spirit”. The DOJ argues that airport slot divestitures are not a reliable remedy, principal deputy assistant attorney general Doha Mekki said during the press conference, because airlines that purchase the divested slot may not fly the same route to address competition concerns. The proposed merger would leave Frontier Airlines as the top ULCC in the market, as Spirit’s Airbus fleet would be converted following the acquisition to include JetBlue’s in-flight services. Frontier lacks those amenities and relies instead on ancillary revenue, enabling it to offer a simpler consumer experience for travellers seeking ULCC ticket prices.