Aviation

The Federal Aviation Administration is holding airplanes destined for airports along the East Coast on Tuesday afternoon, as the region continues to react to an earthquake that shook several major cities, according to news reports.

The Associated Press reported that the FAA placed a hold on flights to Washington, Philadelphia and New York City.

Several airlines, including Delta and JetBlue, reported delays on flights to those destinations.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

San Francisco's Bay Area Transit System is bracing for another protest.

Ford and Toyota are working together on electric powertrain technology for trucks and SUVs.

The outgoing White House car czar is defending the auto bailouts of 2008 and 2009.

Southwest Airlines is preparing for its merger with AirTran Airways.

An improvement program for airports should be in the Department of Transportation's budget next year, the trade association representing airports said Monday.

In a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Airports Council International-North America President Greg Principato argued that the program meets the job creation and economic growth criteria laid out for federal agencies by White House budget officials.

"As you begin to prepare your Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposal, I urge you to consider the impact airports have as local economic engines in communities across the country," Principato wrote Monday. "Now is the time for airports to invest in infrastructure, safety and security projects that not only benefit the traveling public but also create jobs and spur growth in cities and towns around the United States."

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Airlines will not be able to leave international flights on the tarmac for longer than four hours and have to pay passengers more if they bump them from oversold flights under new Department of Transportation rules set to take effect this week.

Under the new rules, the DOT will fine airlines $27,500 per passenger if they leave international flights stuck on airport runways for longer than four hours and require airlines to pay passengers double the value of their tickets up to $650 for short delays from being bumped and $1,300 from long delays.

Airlines will also have to refund bag fees if passengers' luggage is permanently lost.

The rules are set to take effect Tuesday. The DOT plans to implement additional passenger protections early next year.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

The Transportation Security Administration has increased the number of bomb-sniffing dogs it employs.

A man was arrested for feeding birds near a California airport.

Iowa has pulled out of a Midwest high-speed rail coalition.

A pilot was killed in a midair collision over southern New Jersey.

New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport needs to either be drastically renovated or replaced, the city's Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) said this week.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported this week that Landrieu is calling for airport officials to consider plans for either vast improvements and an expansion to his city's airport or building a brand new one altogether.

"We think there's a direct correlation between air service we have at the airport and the type of business growth we see downtown," Landrieu's chief economic development assistant Amie Quirk told the paper. "We have to keep the facility competitive in order to lure the air service, and we think that by doing that, we'll create a better environment for bringing more businesses here and creating more jobs."

Safety inspectors who leave the Federal Aviation Administration will be barred from immediately going to work for the airlines the agency regulates, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt announced Friday.

Under a rule finalized Friday, safety inspectors will have to wait two years before they take jobs with airlines. LaHood said that would eliminate the possibility of conflicts of interest when FAA employees perform safety inspections of airplanes.

“The flying public can rest assured that our aviation safety inspectors will remain focused on protecting the flying public without any conflicts of interest,” LaHood said in a news release.

Babbit agreed, saying, “This rule establishes clear restrictions that will improve our safety culture here at the FAA and throughout the aviation industry.”

The prohibition applies to workers in the FAA’s Flight Standards Service program.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood should judiciously use his ability to waive cuts to subsidies for flight service to rural airports that caused the impasse that led to a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, a group of Republicans lawmakers said Friday.   

Earlier this month, the FAA was partially shut down for nearly two weeks because lawmakers were at odds over a provision in a funding bill for that agency that cuts subsidies for flight service to 13 rural airports. Included in the cuts were facilities in Montana, Nevada and West Virginia that riled Democratic senators from those states.

Under the deal reached to end the partial shutdown of the FAA, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was expected to waive the cuts in exchange for the Senate passing the House version of the funding bill that included them.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

An airport in France is testing virtual boarding agents at airports.

A plane went off the runway at Tulsa International Airport.

An opponent of rail projects has been appointed to a railway board in Florida.

Chicago is considering implementing bus rapid transit.

A day after asking members of the deficit-reduction supercommittee to provide them more flexibility to finance construction projects, the trade association representing airports made the same request Thursday of President Obama.

Airports Council International-North America President Greg Principato wrote a letter to Obama on Thursday echoing letters he sent to all 12 members of the supercommittee. In it, Principato asked Obama to include removing restrictions that currently exist on fees that can be charged to passengers in the job-creation package the president has promised to announce when Congress returns to Washington.

“Mr. President: On behalf of Airports Council International-North America, I am writing to ask you to include policies that will help rebuild our nation’s airport infrastructure while also creating tens of thousands of jobs in your upcoming job creation plan,” Principato wrote. “Airports have demonstrated time and again that they are economic engines and job creators for large and small communities across the country.”