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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday that a panel of experts had determined a software glitch in some Boeing 737 Max flight computers poses no safety concern, clearing the way for approval of a larger version of the best-selling narrow-body jet.  The decision removes a late obstacle to certification of the Max 10, the largest variant of the 737 Max family, which has been delayed for years. It should also ease concerns at airlines that fly the Max 7, which uses the same software and was certified by the FAA in August.  The FAA said the determination by the Corrective Action Review Board that met in Seattle on Friday was based on the fact that “pilots retain full control of the aircraft and the indications to the flight crew are clear and unambiguous.”  The FAA said earlier this week it was delaying certification of the Max 10 until it completed an analysis of the software issue, which could prevent pilots from accessing automated flight guidance during an unusual landing scenario.  Boeing said it “will continue to follow the lead of the FAA as our engineers work on the next software update.” Boeing added it is working directly with airlines to formalise a procedure that will allow pilots “to re-enable automated vertical navigation should this situation occur.” Aviation officials now believe the Max 10 could be certified as soon as later this month.  The issue could also have affected Southwest Airlines because the same software is used on the newly certified Max 7 airplane. Other large airlines, including Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, that have ordered the Max 10 could also have been impacted by a lengthy delay.  Jefferies said in a research note the decision allows the Max 10 to be certified before the end of the year and estimated Boeing has nearly 1,500 Max 10s on order from airlines.The FAA said one software version can increase pilot workload during a go-around, when a pilot aborts a landing attempt, applies power, and climbs to make another landing attempt. 

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday that he hoped an announced delay in certification of Boeing Max 10 planes would be "a matter of days, not weeks or months"."We still expect to receive the first 15 Max 10 aircraft in the spring of 2027," he said during a conference in Warsaw.The US Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday it will hold off certifying Boeing's long-delayed 737 Max 10 until a newly disclosed software issue is resolved, the latest setback to the planemaker's efforts to bring the largest version of its best-selling jet to market.O'Leary told Reuters that despite the latest hurdle, he was happy with the delivery of 29 Boeing aircraft over the summer and he saw "signs of real progress being made on quality and on production".The Irish airline is Boeing's largest European customer.Ryanair said on Tuesday it would base three additional aircraft at Warsaw-Modlin airport, increasing its fleet there to nine aircraft as part of a $300mn investment aimed at supporting an expected doubling of passenger numbers.The airline will also add 18 flights from Warsaw's Modlin and Chopin airports during the winter season.The company also said it was considering Poland as one of the locations for a new engine shop, with a decision expected by the end of the year.O'Leary was generally optimistic about the demand for air travel, but said that jet fuel costs would push summer 2027 fares up by 15% to 20%."We're optimistic for the future, but there's lots of short-term challenges, most notably what will happen with (Donald) Trump and the Republicans in the midterm elections in November," he told Reuters in an interview."We want to see a resolution of the war in Ukraine. We want to see a resolution of the war in the Middle East. We'd like everybody to get back to peace, love and air travel." 

China has banned for 40 days civil aviation from a large airspace off Shanghai without specifying the reasons, according to a notice to aviators published by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).The aviation notice (NOTAM) announcing the access restriction was posted online on March 27 at 1150 GMT and took effect a few hours later.It will remain in place until May 6 and affects an area twice the size of Taiwan a few hundred kilometres north of the island, covering 73,000sq km in total.China has not provided any explanation for the ban as of April 8, but "there is no possible use other than military" for this type of airspace restriction, maritime security expert Benjamin Blandin told AFP."It could be to fire missiles, carry out air exercises, etc. We don't know," he added.This is "the very first time" that China has restricted access to its airspace in a way that is "so sudden, geographically extensive, prolonged over time, and so poorly documented", according to Blandin, a researcher at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR).Aviation and defence consultant for Aviation NXT, Xavier Tytelman, also believes that the restriction is "out of the ordinary" in terms of its size, duration and the lack of any limits on altitude, either high or low.NOTAMs are intended to inform aviators of unusual circumstances affecting certain airspaces.They are generally issued ahead of military exercises or during exceptional events such as fires or volcanic eruptions.In this particular case, it means that "the government is reserving a zone for itself," said Tytelman.Restricted access applies to civil aviation but not necessarily to military planes, helicopters or drones.The ban covers two zones over the Yellow Sea, between China and South Korea, and three others straddling the Yellow Sea and East China Sea, between China and its neighbour Japan."Normally this is announced weeks or months in advance, and there are explanations and justifications," said Blandin, adding that the reserved airspace is limited in altitude "to allow the passage of commercial aircraft".The areas closed to civil aviation are separated by an air corridor about 100 kilometres wide, allowing access to Shanghai from the Yellow Sea."Access denials"According to a Taiwan senior security official, China is taking advantage of the United States being distracted by the Middle East war to expand its active military presence and conduct harassment in the Indo-Pacific.China aims to deter the US's allies in the region and weaken the US's military influence in the Indo-Pacific, he said.For Blandin this NOTAM is part of a "continuing series of access denials" and "bolsters China's strategy of nibbling away at the land and sea borders of its neighbours" over the past 15 years.Tytelman, a former flight navigator for the French navy, expects this type of operation to be repeated in the months and years to come, in order to "lower our guard before an aggressive action." 

Venezuela on Monday rejected a US terrorist designation of an alleged drug cartel as a "ridiculous lie" amid a major American military buildup in Caribbean waters."Venezuela categorically, firmly, and absolutely rejects the new and ridiculous lie from the Secretary of the Department of State, Marco Rubio, who designates the alleged Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organisation... to justify an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.Washington's listing of the "Cartel de los Soles" (Cartel of the Suns) as a foreign terrorist organiSation officially took effect on Monday, opening the door to new forms of US pressure on leftist President Nicolas Maduro.US President Donald Trump's administration alleges that the shadowy group is run by Maduro. No evidence has been made public to support the accusation of Maduro's involvement in the group.The designation is part of a US campaign against drugs and illegal immigration from Latin America.The US has deployed the world's largest aircraft carrier and other military forces in Caribbean waters as part of the Trump administration's anti-drugs campaign, but officials in Caracas suspect that the United States is mounting an operation to topple Maduro, Venezuela's leftist leader.US forces have killed at least 83 people in air strikes on boats accused of ferrying drugs in international waters since September, according to an AFP tally of publicly released figures. But no evidence has been made public that drugs were in the boats.However, with a major military presence now deployed in the Caribbean, including an aircraft carrier, the FTO designation will give legal cover for more pressure on the Venezuelan authorities.The Cartel of the Suns is responsible for "terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere," Rubio said on November 16.The Trump administration has been vague about how far it is willing to go in Venezuela, but the huge military build-up and regular killings of people in small boats have rattled nerves -- and prompted concerns in Washington that the US military may be breaking the law.On Saturday, six airlines announced they were canceling flights to Venezuela due to safety concerns.The US Federal Aviation Administration on Friday urged civilian aircraft in Venezuelan airspace to "exercise caution" due to the "worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela."

The Federal Aviation Administration resumed traffic at Reagan Washington National Airport on Tuesday after briefly halting operations because of a bomb threat against a United Airlines plane.The FAA said operations were resuming after earlier issuing a ground stop due to a reported security issue. Passengers were removed from the plane, and the aircraft was moved away from the terminal while authorities investigated.A person briefed on the matter said a bomb threat had been made against the plane and in an abundance of caution the plane was being checked.United referred questions to the FBI. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Reagan Airport is just five miles from the White House and U.S. Capitol and the FAA imposes special security restrictions around the airspace.FlightRadar24, a flight tracking site, said the issue was prompted by an unconfirmed threat against a United flight that had arrived from Houston.More than 190 flights have already been delayed at Reagan Airport, according to FlightAware.

The shortage of air traffic controllers keeping watch over America’s skies prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to embark on a massive recruitment drive.Now, the FAA has another problem: There are not enough instructors to teach all those new recruits the ropes.Teachers at the FAA’s training academy in Oklahoma City, mostly retired former controllers in their 60s, are increasingly required to work from 7am to midnight, powering through with endless cups of coffee they pay for themselves.Although a new labour contract has boosted instructors’ pay and benefits somewhat — many work part time, earning about $46 an hour — their daily grind isn’t getting any easier as an influx of fresh recruits into the academy has put additional strain on teachers, according to shift schedules and emails obtained by Bloomberg News and interviews with eight current academy instructors who requested anonymity as they’re not authorised to speak to the media.July saw the highest number of academy students in the FAA’s history (550), and August and September could top that. Schedules obtained by Bloomberg News show a sharp rise in the number of double shifts required for instructors, most of whom who are employed by the federal contractor Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), not by the FAA. They teach aviation basics, complex air-traffic scenarios and other courses during the recruits’ two months of training.On March 6, for example, just six of the 105 instructors who teach one facet of the academy curriculum and were on duty that day had a double shift. A preliminary schedule for September 2, distributed in late August, showed 42 instructors from the same group assigned to doubles. (That figure could change slightly as schedules get finalised.) While some instructors request double shifts, in order to make as much money as possible in a short period of time, others refuse.“Due to the surge in hiring for the last 4-5 months of FY25, we will be averaging significantly higher student requirements,” Richard Klumpp, a program management senior director at SAIC, said in a July 30 email viewed by Bloomberg News. “We have way more work than we have instructor availability in September thru mid-December.”In the email, Klumpp also expressed his “concern” in having enough instructors “to help reduce the doubles load on the team.” That load results in some instructors “walking around like zombies,” according to one instructor. A spokesperson for SAIC declined to comment.Some of the instructors who spoke to Bloomberg News said they decline to work double shifts out of concern for their physical and mental health. (At least one teacher at the academy is well into his 80s.) Many of them said they don’t need the extra money, as they earned six-figure salaries before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56 for air traffic controllers and are financially secure. They teach because they enjoy the job and the camaraderie among instructors, or simply to ward off boredom.“Most of the people who work choose to, it’s not because they have to,” said Andrew Hudson, a financial adviser who works almost exclusively with air traffic controllers. “These people just don’t want to sit around all day.”The FAA was short about 3,900 certified air traffic controllers at the close of its 2024 fiscal year in October, and has said it anticipates it will hire about 2,000 controllers this fiscal year after speeding up the hiring process and boosting salaries for trainees. It expects to hire at least 8,900 controllers through 2028, but admitted in a recent workforce report that “the number of instructors at the FAA Academy creates a practical limit” on the number of trainees that can move through the system.US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said he wants to plug the gaps in instructors amid the surge of trainees by using teaching assistants and other “expert educators” who aren’t former controllers. Those other instructors will begin work in a few months after getting hired and trained. The FAA has research showing they can perform the job just as well as former air traffic controllers, but declined to share it.Several longtime instructors, though, said those substitutes can’t provide the know-how that only comes from years of experience as a controller. Academy classes include basic tabletop exercises with model planes along with more technical instruction on the FAA’s air-traffic tracking and management system, known as ERAM. The FAA is also reviewing the academy curriculum, and could make changes that would reduce the number of instructors required for some courses.Some instructors have recently quit, others are considering doing so, and replenishing the ranks isn’t easy as there’s often little incentive for retired controllers to commute back and forth every few months from, say, Florida or New York, to Oklahoma City. Although instructors say they enjoy teaching the next generation of controllers, persuading former colleagues to ditch their grandkids and golf courses to join them can be a significant recruitment challenge.The previous collective bargaining agreement between SAIC and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union that represents 317 academy instructors, provided a $60 daily reimbursement for those who didn’t live in Oklahoma City. But that amount only went so far, leading many instructors to rent an apartment in Walnut Gardens, about a 30-minute drive to the FAA Academy.The new labour agreement raises the daily reimbursement to $90 in January and provides 3% wage increases annually over the three-year contract, which works out to an additional $1.40 or so per hour from the $46.73 per hour many instructors earn now. (Those who teach basic courses make less.) The IAM called it a “major step forward” but said “we still have some work to do to help us recruit and retain instructors while improving quality of life for a workforce that has carried a heavy load to meet the mission.”Instructors who work double shifts often don’t get to sleep until 1am, then might need to get back up around 5am to get to the academy during rush hour for a morning class, or another double shift. Many admitted that it’s impossible to give students their“The thing nobody knows about us is we’re all voluntary — we do not have to be here,” one instructor said. “I can quit today and I’m done.”