The US Federal Aviation Administration says that its associate administrator for aviation safety Ali Bahrami will retire at the end of June, when his deputy Chris Rocheleau will become interim associate administrator while the agency chooses a full-time successor. Bahrami's retirement hints at an ongoing trend of stricter federal oversight of Boeing's 737 Max aircraft programme because he oversaw the certification of that aircraft after becoming associate administrator in 2017. Fatal Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 led to the deaths of 346 people, kicking off ongoing scrutiny about the effectiveness of the FAA's aircraft certification process and its oversight of Boeing. The families of some people who died in 2019 during the crash of a Max jet owned by Ethiopian Airlines have called for Bahrami's resignation, accusing him of enabling the two fatal crashes through lax safety oversight of Max jets. "FAA engineers privately told us Bahrami was a problem because of his bias to protect Boeing," Michael Stumo, whose daughter died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, says. "Bahrami’s departure is needed for the FAA to regain credibility, escape capture by industry and put safety first." The group of families has also called for the resignation of Boeing chief executive David Calhoun, a Boeing board member who succeeded Dennis Muilenburg as head of the company months after the crash in 2019, arguing that fresh leadership is needed to increase the airframer's focus on engineering. The crash victim families also seek the resignation of FAA administrator Steve Dickson, who was confirmed in 2019 with a mandate from the US Senate to increase safety oversight in the wake of the Max crashes. Dickson insists the Max aircraft are safe following his decision to recertificate them in November 2020. The US Department of Transportation's top inspector, however, commenced a new investigation in April scrutinising how the FAA both grounded and recertificated Max jets. Dickson, who has a five-year term through 2024, said on 20 April during a virtual discussion hosted by the International Aviation Club of Washington that he values "consistency of leadership for the agency" and will lead the FAA "as long as I'm effective". Bahrami will leave the FAA after a total of 30 years with the agency in both engineering and leadership positions. From 1979 to 1989 he worked as an engineer at McDonnell Douglas before its purchase by Boeing. "[Bahrami] has devoted his career to aviation safety, and we thank him for his dedication to this important work," the FAA says. His successor Rocheleau has served as FAA chief of staff and deputy assistant administrator for policy, international, and environment. Boeing faces renewed scrutiny from both Congress and the FAA about the safety of 787 and 737 family aircraft manufacturing. These problems are separate from the automated flight controls that contributed to the fatal Max crashes but reflect ongoing public pressure for greater aircraft safety.

China has postponed an airshow, which was to be held in Shanghai 16-18 June, amid a recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the southern Guangdong province. "Due to the repeated outbreak of the recent epidemic, some enterprises scheduled to participate in the exhibition cannot come to Shanghai from high- and medium-risk areas," the organisers of the Shanghai International Aerospace Technology and Equipment Exhibition 2021 (Air Expo Shanghai) said in a notice dated 1 June. It adds: "Given the instability of the epidemic, the specific dates and venue of the exhibition will be announced later." According to its website, Air Expo Shanghai caters to the civil, commercial and general aviation sectors, and has the support of China's major airlines – Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and privately owned Juneyao Airlines – as well as local authorities and enterprises, including Comac, AVIC and the Shanghai Airport Authority. The airshow was last held in 2019. China is rolling out mass testing across Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, which saw a spike in Covid-19 cases since 21 May, state media Xinhua reported on 30 May. The same report cites Chen Bin, the vice-director of Guangdong's provincial health commission, as saying that all the locally transmitted Covid-19 cases found in Guangzhou's latest resurgence are linked to the B1617 variant, which was first reported in India. On 1 June, Xinhua reported that Guangzhou has implemented "closed-off management" on 38 sub-districts within the city; local residents are subject to strict quarantine measures and must stay indoors. Data shows that tracked flights into Guangzhou Baiyun International airport and Shenzhen Bao'an International airport, both in the Guangdong province and among China's five busiest airports by traffic, showed a marked decline after 28 May. From 29 May to 1 June, an average of 350 flights arrived at Guangzhou each day, and 360 at Shenzhen, levels last seen around mid-February, during the Lunar New Year period when authorities discouraged travel to limit the spread of Covid-19. Over 1-20 May, Guangzhou received an average of nearly 540 flights each day and Shenzhen, around 420.

ACI Europe has warned that the continent's airports face a summer of chaos as resurgent passenger numbers combine with the need for extensive Covid-19 document checks, creating massive congestion. The airports group says there will be "an unprecedented operational challenge" if, as it expects, passenger numbers triple to around 125 million in August. Although such a number would still be below pre-Covid levels, a confluence of factors means that airports may struggle to cope with the surge, ACI warns. Crucially, space at airports is constrained by the need to allow social distancing, reducing capacity and increasing passenger processing times. ACI adds that airlines' current plans indicate a concentration of activity on peak periods this summer, "more than last year or even more than in summer 2019 at some airports". The need to perform additional passenger checks at airports to verify Covid-19 test certificates, vaccine information, passenger locator forms and quarantine documents is the greatest challenge facing European airports this summer, in ACI's view. Testing documents vary depending on the holders' point of origin and destination, and are based on non-standardised rules for different countries across Europe – creating a swathes of paperwork. "In addition, they are being carried at multiple times both at departure and upon arrival, most of the time manually – resulting in inefficiencies and considerably slowing passenger processing time. For example, checks on Covid-19 tests upon departure are currently duplicated or even triplicated at 77% of Europe’s airports," notes ACI. This echoes recent statements from IATA warning of the consequences of heightened health checks on airport processing times. During its press briefing on 27 May, IATA's director general Willie Walsh said airport transit times had already increased by around 1.5h on average, most of it occurring on arrival, despite passenger levels remaining in the doldrums. Should manual checks continue to be required as traffic levels recover, "airports won't cope", warned Walsh, adding: "A digital solution is absolutely critical". IATA is urging governments to adopt a common standard for vaccination, testing and certification processes, and is pushing for such an effort to be adopted by the G7 at the group's meeting later this month. Adoption by the G7 would cover almost 30% of global travellers, Walsh said. Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, notes that while airports are "desperate to see their facilities coming back to life", the levels of uncertainty and complexity in preparing for the restart are "just mindblowing". "With each passing day, the prospect of travellers enduring widespread chaos at airports this summer is becoming more real," he states. "We absolutely and urgently need governments to step up advance planning on the full range of issues involved – and work more closely with airports and airlines.” The group is urging European governments to lift travel restrictions for vaccinated, tested and recovered travellers, as well as issue digital Covid-19 certificates by 1 July. Authorities should also work towards ensuring that Covid-19 checks are not duplicated during the travel journey and that checks take place as early in the passenger process as possible, as well as provide additional staffing at airports.