US FAA plans new round of talks with airlines to cut flights
May 15 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration plans a third day of talks on Friday with airlines to temporarily reduce flights at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport after completing an intensive day of discussions seeking to reduce delays, officials said on Thursday.
The FAA held four rounds of individual meetings with air carriers to win concessions to cut flights at specific times amid a series of equipment outages, runway construction and staffing issues plaguing the airport have caused travel chaos.
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
The global environmental award hit by accusations of greenwashing
Earlier this year natural soap company Dr Bronner's decided that enough was announced that it was quitting B Corp, the global certification scheme that honours companies for having high standards when it comes to their social and environmental Bronner's, a California-based, family-run business with 323 employees, had been a member for 10 it said that the accreditation wasn't strict enough, and it accused the international organisation that runs it, B Corp, of being too quick to allow some of the world's largest companies to join. It accused the scheme of "enabling greenwashing and purpose washing by multinationals". Dr Bronner's singled out its continuing opposition to coffee capsule brand Nespresso getting B-Corp certification in 2022. Nespresso is owned by Swiss food giant Nestlé.In 2020 Nespresso was hit by accusations that some of its coffee suppliers in Guatemala were employing young children. It responded to the scandal at the time by saying that it "had a zero tolerance of child labour" and would act "immediately".Announcing that it was leaving B Corp, Dr Bronner's said in a statement that it was "unacceptable to us" to be lumped in "with large multinational CPG [consumer packaged goods] with a history of serious ecological and labour issues".It added: "The integrity of the B Corp certification has become compromised and remaining certified now contradicts our mission."In response, a Nespresso spokesman tells the BBC that its B Corp certification is "an acknowledgement of our long-standing commitment to sustainability, particularly our efforts to support coffee farmers… and a result of rigorous B Impact Assessment covering all environmental and social aspects of our business and supply chain". The B Corp scheme was founded in 2006, and now has more than 9,600 members across 102 countries and 161 industries. The "B" stands for the word "beneficial", and gaining accreditation can help companies attract more environmentally and socially conscious customers.B Lab declined to answer how many member firms are multinationals, but it said that more than 96% are small and medium-sized while it has defended Nespresso's membership, next year it is introducing new "more rigorous" certification applicant firms can obtain B Corp certification if they achieve at least 80 points out of a total 200 across a number of environmental and social criteria. So they can be weak in one area, but make up for this in points system will end from 2026, and be replaced with minimum requirements across seven key areas that it labels – purpose and shareholder governance; fair work; justice, equity, diversity and inclusion; human rights; climate action; environmental stewardship; and government affairs and collective addition, third-party verification of companies' performances is being introduced, and firms will also have to show that they are continuing to improve standards. "This is really a sign to make the standards more rigorous and raise the bar for businesses," says Chris Turner, chief executive of B Lab UK. "We are becoming more transparent and credible as a certification."Yet he denied that the new standards were aimed at multinational members. "The new standards are not designed to address a specific challenge about big business joining… We have increased expectation now of what being a force for good looks like. And within that we acknowledge that bigger businesses have a bigger potential for impact and need more rigorous checks."He adds: "We will be working really hard to create a pathway for B Corps to certify on new standards, but what that means will differ for each business. Some businesses will find it easy, while for some businesses there will be significant work to do to meet new standards." Whether the change will be enough to stop smaller firms like Dr Bronner's walk away from B Corp remains to be seen. UK pet food company Scrumbles was another that gave up its certification this year."I saw that growing membership was the focus rather than pushing forward sustainability efforts," says Aneisha Soobroyen, co-founder of the London-based of paying its annual recertification fee of £8,500, an amount determined by a company's revenues, Scrumbles donated the money to Save The Landrum, professor of sustainable business transformation at Munich Business School, says that B Corp "is a good starting point"."It is a great certification scheme for businesses that are just beginning their sustainability journey, and that want to decrease unsustainable activities, and increase sustainable activities."But B Corp, and all of the most frequently used schemes, simply don't go far enough." Having B Corp accreditation can help a company boost its sales. But leaving the scheme is unlikely to hit Dr Bronner's says chief executive David Bronner."We think our brand strength is enough."Whether the company might reapply for B Corp in the future, Mr Bronner says they "would re-join tomorrow" if there were tougher rules placed on the supply chains of multinational the meantime it has sent up its own rival scheme called Purpose Pledge. "It gets to the heart of what we think is a true missionary driven company," says Mr Bronner. "Paying living wages, and holder each other accountable, and having supply chain integrity."So far he says 14 other companies have signed up.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
These are the most sought-after workers in the UK right now
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Healthcare support workers are currently the most sought-after professionals in the UK job market, new research reveals, signalling key areas of demand within the economy. Data from jobs site Adzuna indicates that social care workers, sales assistants, and warehouse staff are also experiencing high demand from employers. Other roles attracting significant interest include software developers, cleaners, healthcare assistants, labourers, and project managers. Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: "May reinforced the sense that the job market in the UK is gradually regaining its footing." He highlighted a positive shift, noting: "While overall vacancies dipped slightly, we've now seen three straight months of annual vacancy growth – a clear shift after more than a year of decline." Mr Hunter also pointed to rising remuneration. 'Advertised salaries continue to climb, too, with average pay up nearly 9 per cent compared to last year, comfortably outpacing inflation,' he said. Software developers, sales assistants, cleaners, and project managers are all in high demand (Getty Images) Despite the overall positive outlook, Mr Hunter expressed a watchful concern for specific sectors. "While certain sectors remain in strong demand and provide a backbone of stability, we will be keeping a close eye on the decline in roles for the previously steady healthcare and nursing sector, and how that may play out over the coming months." The research also found that the average time to fill a job stands at approximately 35 days, with a ratio of two jobseekers for every available vacancy. Business activity picks up Activity across the UK's private sector has grown in June as some easing of US tariff policy helped lift business sentiment, data from a separate survey shows. The volume of new business returned to growth in June, ending a six-month period of contraction, the survey found. This was primarily driven by the service sector – the largest part of the UK's economy, spanning industries including hospitality, entertainment and culture, finance and real estate. A further slight expansion of activity in the sector was contrasted by another drop in production for manufacturers, led by a decline in overseas export orders. Concerns over the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs on US imports were partly behind the slump, despite some businesses saying confidence had improved as a result of the president striking new trade deals with countries including the UK.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
How safe is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, really?
Listen to Theo reading this articleThe Air India tragedy, in which at least 270 people died, involved one of Boeing's most innovative and popular planes. Until now, it was considered one of its safest too. We still do not know why flight 171 crashed just 30 seconds after take-off. Investigators have now recovered flight recorder data and are working hard to find out. But the incident has drawn attention to the aircraft involved: the 787 Dreamliner, the first of a modern generation of radical, fuel-efficient to the accident, the 787 had operated for nearly a decade and a half without any major accidents and without a single fatality. During that period, according to Boeing, it carried more than a billion passengers. There are currently more than 1,100 in service it has also suffered from a series of quality control problems. Whistleblowers who worked on the aircraft have raised numerous concerns about production standards. Some have claimed that potentially dangerously flawed aircraft have been allowed into service – allegations the company has consistently denied. The Sonic Cruiser and the 9/11 effect It was on a chilly December morning in 2009 that a brand-new aircraft edged out onto the runway at Paine Field airport near Seattle and, as a cheering crowd looked on, accelerated into a cloudy flight was the culmination of years of development and billions of dollars worth of investment. The 787 was conceived in the early 2000s, at a time of rising oil prices, when the increasing cost of fuel had become a major preoccupation for airlines. Boeing decided to build a long-haul plane for them that would set new standards in efficiency."In the late 1990s, Boeing was working on a design called the Sonic Cruiser," explains aviation historian Shea Oakley. This was firstly conceived as a plane that would use advanced materials and the latest technology to carry up to 250 passengers at just under the speed of sound. The initial emphasis was on speed and cutting journey times, rather than fuel economy."But then the effects of 9/11 hit the world airline industry quite hard," says Mr Oakley. "The airlines told Boeing what they really needed was the most fuel-efficient, economical long-range jetliner ever produced. They now wanted an aeroplane with a similar capacity to the Sonic Cruiser, minus the high speed."Boeing abandoned its initial concept, and began work on what became the 787. In doing so, it helped create a new business model for of using giant planes to transport huge numbers of people between "hub" airports, before placing them on connecting flights to other destinations, they could now fly smaller aircraft on less crowded direct routes between smaller cities which would previously have been unviable. Airbus's superjumbo vs Boeing's fuel efficiency At the time Boeing's great rival, the European giant Airbus, was taking precisely the opposite approach. It was developing the gargantuan A380 superjumbo – a machine tailor-made for carrying as many passengers as possible on busy routes between the world's biggest and busiest hindsight, Boeing's approach was wiser. The fuel-thirsty A380 went out of production in 2021, after only 251 had been built. "Airbus thought the future was giant hubs where people would always want to change planes in Frankfurt or Heathrow or Narita," explains aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia, who is a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory. "Boeing said 'no, people want to fly point to point'. And Boeing was extremely right." The 787 was a truly radical aircraft. It was the first commercial plane to be built primarily of composites such as carbon fibre, rather than aluminium, in order to reduce weight. It had advanced aerodynamics to reduce drag. It also used highly efficient modern engines from General Electric and Rolls Royce, and it replaced many mechanical and pneumatic systems with lighter electrical of this, Boeing said, would make it 20% more efficient than its predecessor, the Boeing 767. It was also significantly quieter, with a noise footprint (the area on the ground affected by significant noise from the aircraft) that the manufacturer said was up to 60% smaller. Emergency landings and onboard fires Not long after the aircraft entered service, however, there were serious problems. In January 2013, lithium-ion batteries caught fire aboard a 787 as it waited at a gate at Boston's Logan International Airport. A week later, overheating batteries forced another 787 to make an emergency landing during an internal flight in design was grounded worldwide for several months, while Boeing came up with a solution. Since then, day to day operations have been smoother, but production has been deeply problematic. Analysts say this may, in part, have been due to Boeing's decision to set up a new assembly line for the 787 in North Charleston, South Carolina – more than 2000 miles from its Seattle was done to take advantage of the region's low rates of union membership, as well as generous support from the state."There were serious development issues," says Mr Aboulafia. "Some notable production issues, related especially to the decision to create Boeing's first ever production line outside of the Puget Sound area." Damaging whistleblower allegations In 2019, Boeing discovered the first of a series of manufacturing defects that affected the way in which different parts of the aircraft fitted together. As more problems were found, the company widened its investigations – and uncovered further were heavily disrupted, and halted altogether between May 2021 and July 2022, before being paused again the following potentially the most damaging allegations about the 787 programme have come from the company's own current and former employees. Among the most prominent was the late John Barnett, a former quality control manager at the 787 factory in South Carolina. He claimed that pressure to produce planes as quickly as possible had seriously undermined safety. In 2019, he told the BBC that workers at the plant had failed to follow strict procedures intended to track components through the factory, potentially allowing defective parts to go missing. In some cases, he said, workers had even deliberately fitted substandard parts from scrap bins to aircraft in order to avoid delays on the production also maintained that defective fixings were used to secure aircraft decks. Screwing them into place produced razor-sharp slivers of metal, which in some cases accumulated beneath the deck in areas containing large amounts of aircraft claims had previously been passed to the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, which partially upheld them. After investigating, it concluded that at least 53 "non-conforming" parts had gone missing in the audit by the FAA also confirmed that metal shavings were present beneath the floors of a number of said its board analysed the problem and decided it did not "present a safety of flight issue", though the fixings were subsequently redesigned. The company later said it had "fully resolved the FAA's findings regarding part traceability and implemented corrective actions to prevent recurrence". 'A matter of time before something big happens' Mr Barnett remained concerned that aircraft that had already gone into service could be carrying hidden defects serious enough to cause a major accident. "I believe it's just a matter of time before something big happens with a 787," he told me in 2019. "I pray that I am wrong."In early 2024, Mr Barnett took his own life. At the time he had been giving evidence in a long-running whistleblower lawsuit against the company – which he maintained had victimised him as a result of his allegations. Boeing denied of what he had alleged echoed previous claims by another former quality manager at the plant, Cynthia Kitchens. In 2011, she had complained to regulators about substandard parts being deliberately removed from quarantine bins and fitted to aircraft, in an attempt to keep the production line Kitchens, who left Boeing in 2016, also claimed employees had been told to overlook substandard work, and said defective wiring bundles, containing metallic shavings within their coatings, had been deliberately installed on planes – creating a risk of dangerous has not responded to these specific allegations but says Ms Kitchens resigned in 2016 "after being informed that she was being placed on a performance improvement plan". It says that she subsequently filed a lawsuit against Boeing, "alleging claims of discrimination and retaliation unrelated to any quality issues", which was dismissed. More recently, a third whistleblower made headlines when testifying before a senate committee last year. Sam Salehpour, a current Boeing employee, told US lawmakers he had come forward because "the safety problems I have observed at Boeing, if not addressed could result in a catastrophic failure of a commercial aeroplane that would lead to the loss of hundreds of lives".The quality engineer said that while working on the 787 in late 2020, he had seen the company introduce shortcuts in assembly processes, in order to speed up production and delivery of the aircraft. These, he said, "had allowed potentially defective parts and defective installations in 787 fleets".He also noted that on the majority of aircraft he looked at, tiny gaps in the joints between sections of fuselage had not been properly rectified. This, he said, meant those joints would be prone to "premature fatigue failure over time" and created "extremely unsafe conditions for the aircraft" with "potentially catastrophic" suggested that more than 1,000 aircraft – the bulk of the 787 fleet – could be insists that "claims about the structural integrity of the 787 are inaccurate". It says: "The issues raised have been subject to rigorous examination under US Federal Aviation Administration oversight. This analysis has validated that the aircraft will maintain its durability and service life over several decades, and these issues do not present any safety concerns." 'Serious problems would have shown up' There is no question that Boeing has come under huge pressure in recent years over its corporate culture and production standards. In the wake of two fatal accidents involving its bestselling 737 Max, and a further serious incident last year, it has been repeatedly accused of putting the pursuit of profit over passenger is a perception that chief executive Kelly Ortberg, who joined the company last year, has been working hard to overturn - overhauling its internal processes and working with regulators on a comprehensive safety and quality control has the 787 already been compromised by past failures, that may have created ongoing safety risks? Richard Aboulafia believes not. "You know. It's been 16 years of operations, 1,200 jets and over a billion passengers flown, but no crashes until now," he says. "It's a stellar safety record."He thinks that any major issues would already have become apparent."I really think production problems are more of a short-term concern," he says. "For the past few years, there's been far greater oversight of 787 production."For older planes, I think any serious problems would have shown up by now."The Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad was more than 11 years old, having first flown in the Foundation for Aviation Safety, a US organisation established by the former Boeing whistleblower Ed Pierson that has previously been highly critical of the company, says it did have concerns about 787s prior to the recent crash."Yes, it was a possible safety risk," claims Mr Pierson. "We monitor incident reports, we monitor regulatory documents. Airworthiness directives come out that describe various issues, and it does make you wonder." One such issue, he argues, is water potentially leaking from washroom taps into electrical equipment bays. Last year, the FAA instructed airlines to carry out regular inspections, following reports that leaks were going undetected on certain 787 he stresses that the cause of the recent tragedy is still unknown – and that it is vital the investigation moves forward quickly, so that any problems, whether they lie with the aircraft, the airline or elsewhere, can be the moment, however, the 787's safety record remains strong."We don't know at this point what caused the Air India crash," says Scott Hamilton, managing director of aviation consulting firm Leeham Company."But based on what we do know about the plane, I would not hesitate to get on board a 787."Top image credit: Getty Images BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. 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