US air traffic controllers will start receiving a long-delayed pay increase from Sunday. Boeing Co., meanwhile, is within days of certification for its largest 737 Max, capping a weekend of progress for an industry strained by staffing shortages and production setbacks. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association agreed late last week on a 2.8% raise, effective Oct. 18 and backdated to Jan. 1. Congress authorized a 3.8% increase in

The US trucking industry won a long-sought federal commitment on driver parking this week. Its biggest lobbying group, meanwhile, ended a two-month leadership vacuum. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday announced $200 million for 14 truck parking projects across 12 states, funded through the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects program. According to the department, 40% of truckers spend more than an hour a day looking for somewhere to pa

The US trucking industry won a long-sought federal commitment on driver parking this week. Its biggest lobbying group, meanwhile, ended a two-month leadership vacuum. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday announced $200 million for 14 truck parking projects across 12 states, funded through the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects program. According to the department, 40% of truckers spend more than an hour a day looking for somewhere to pa

The US maritime regulator moved this week to penalize Spain over its treatment of American-flagged vessels, opening a new front in transatlantic trade tensions. In Georgia, the Port of Savannah cleared the final federal hurdle for its biggest expansion yet. The Federal Maritime Commission on Wednesday proposed a $200,000 fee on every voyage a Spanish-flagged ship makes into a US port. It also outlined possible curbs on Spanish imports, including olive oil, cosmetics, ceramics

Amtrak will cut direct rail links between Washington and Virginia for nine days from Friday, adding to pressure on the Northeast Corridor. Meanwhile, the nation’s freight railroads posted a sharp jump in weekly volumes. The national passenger railroad will close the A-Interlocking in the First Street Tunnel, just south of Washington Union Station, after service ends on Oct. 16. It will reopen before trains run on the morning of Oct. 26. The interlocking’s switches and crossov

Boeing Co. delivered 57 jetliners in September, its highest monthly total of the year, giving the planemaker fresh momentum ahead of earnings. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington turned on the Federal Aviation Administration’s push into artificial intelligence. The September figure was up from 51 in August and 55 a year earlier, the company said Tuesday. It included 43 737 Max jets, eight 787 Dreamliners, two 777 freighters and four 767s. Third-quarter deliveries reached 161 c

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has hired more air traffic controller trainees than ever before, offering some encouraging news for the people working on both sides of the radio. The agency recruited 2,235 trainees in fiscal year 2026, exceeding its annual target. More than 1,300 trainees also graduated from the FAA Academy during the year. After the disruption of last year’s government shutdown, these are welcome signs of progress toward a better-supported controll

The Port of Savannah handled a record number of containers in September, adding to signs that US import demand is holding up even as ocean freight rates come off their highs. The Georgia Ports Authority said Savannah moved 504,015 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last month, up 3.7% from a year earlier and its busiest September on record. Loaded imports rose 5.5%. Volume for the authority's fiscal first quarter topped 1.5 million TEUs, the second-strongest start to a year

US trucking companies are turning down loads at the fastest pace in years. Tougher enforcement on drivers, rising costs and a shrinking fleet are pushing freight prices higher heading into the holiday season. Carriers are rejecting about 14% of the loads offered to them under contract, roughly three times the 2023 level, according to SONAR market data. Truckload volumes, by contrast, are only about 9% higher than three years ago. "Carriers are rejecting nearly four times as m

The first of 83 Siemens-built trainsets carried passengers today, the start of the biggest fleet replacement in Amtrak's history. Amtrak's long-awaited Airo trains carried their first paying passengers today on the Amtrak Cascades route, which runs between Vancouver, British Columbia, Seattle, Portland and Eugene, Oregon. Two new trainsets entered service on 30 September, covering four daily trips on the corridor. Six more are due by early 2027. A national programme The Pacif

Jet fuel prices are up 76% since February, and travellers are starting to feel it at the booking stage. America's biggest airlines are cutting flights for the busiest travel weeks of the year as a renewed jump in jet fuel prices eats into their profits. US carriers have removed about 3% of domestic seats between 25 November and 31 December, according to aviation data firm Cirium. Jet fuel reached $4.40 a gallon this week. That is up 15% in a month and 76% since the conflict w

The shipping peak season was supposed to be winding down by now. It isn't. The National Retail Federation now expects September to be the busiest month of the year for U.S. container imports, at 2.31 million twenty-foot equivalent units. That would be 9.6 percent higher than a year ago. The federation has raised its full-year forecast to 25.7 million units. "We thought the peak season would be mostly behind us by now, but that's not the case," said Jonathan Gold, the federati

Diesel hit an all-time high of $6.53 a gallon last Tuesday. That is 77 percent higher than a year ago, and nearly a dollar more than a month earlier. The White House is now weighing one of the most drastic options available: a ban on diesel exports. Speaking to Fox News at the Presidents Cup near Chicago on Sunday, President Trump said he was looking at it "very seriously." "We may do it," he said. Mixed signals That was a change from last week. On Wednesday, Energy Secretary

Pilots Turn on Isom Just as Their Contract Talks Begin The head of American Airlines’ pilot union has publicly questioned whether CEO Robert Isom is the right man to lead the carrier's turnaround, sharpening a dispute that has been building for the best part of a year. Capt. Nick Silva, president of the Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents American's roughly 16,000 pilots, said the pool of executives able to run an airline is small, but asked whether someone cou

Jeff Barath retired from United Airlines last year at 65 with a problem most Americans would love to have. He has a partial pension, a brokerage account and a $3.5 million 401(k). Once his required minimum distributions kick in, his retirement income, including Social Security, will be well over $300,000 a year. That's more than he earned in most of his working years. "It's a high-class problem," according to Barath. He's right. And he's far from the only one. Four times the

America’s air traffic system is about to get a lot smarter. This month, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) begins rolling out SMART, a predictive analytics platform designed to spot congestion hours before it happens and reroute traffic before the first aircraft leaves the gate. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford met with the chief executives of American, United, Delta, Southwest and other major carriers on September 10 to walk them through the plan. His verdict? “It's g

A jet fuel shock has pushed America's largest carriers into visibly different bets, and the gap between them widened this week at the Morgan Stanley Laguna investor conference. American Airlines said Wednesday it would trim capacity in late fourth quarter and slow growth into 2027, absorbing roughly $1 billion in additional fourth-quarter costs. Chief financial officer Devon May said fuel is running about a dollar a gallon above the airline's July assumptions — a punishing nu

American railroads are getting the volume they have chased for a decade, and discovering they cannot run it at speed. Intermodal traffic has climbed across all four US Class I systems as record diesel prices and firming truckload rates push shippers off the highway. BNSF is up 9.5 per cent, CSX 8.3 per cent, Norfolk Southern 5.1 per cent and Union Pacific 3.3 per cent. Every one of those carriers is simultaneously running its trains slower than it has in years. Intermodal tra

US container imports are on course for the busiest month in the country's history, and almost none of it is being driven by consumer demand. The National Retail Federation expects September to bring 2.31 million TEU through American ports. The cause is not restocking confidence but a calculation about dates. Washington has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on non-USMCA Canadian goods, Canadian retaliatory measures took effect on 8 September, and duties on Chinese imports are rising

The national diesel benchmark has hit $5.967 a gallon, the highest on record, landing at precisely the moment the freight market was supposed to start rewarding the carriers who survived the downturn. The timing is brutal. Van contract rates are running 18 per cent above last year and spot rates are up 35.6 per cent, the clearest evidence yet that the long freight recession has broken. But diesel is up nearly $1.87 a gallon year on year, and for small fleets the fuel line is