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Union Pacific defends $85bn Norfolk Southern merger as STB ruling nears
Union Pacific filed its formal reply to the Surface Transportation Board on Tuesday, defending its revised application to acquire Norfolk Southern in the largest proposed rail merger in US history and setting up a high-stakes regulatory decision now expected by 30 May. The $85 billion deal, which would create the first transcontinental railroad in the United States, was rejected by the STB in January 2026 as "incomplete". Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern filed a revised app
2 minutes ago2 min read
FAA completes first phase of NOTAM overhaul more than a year ahead of schedule
The Federal Aviation Administration has shut down the legacy US NOTAM System (USNS), completing the first phase of a long-promised overhaul of the pilot alert system that has dogged successive administrations following its dramatic collapse in January 2023. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Monday that the FAA had migrated thousands of users to the new cloud-based NOTAM Management Service (NMS) in mid-April, retiring the four-decade-old infrastructure that grou
5 minutes ago2 min read
United Airlines Flight Attendants Ratify New Contract Following 6 Years of Negotiations. Was The Wait Worth It?
United flight attendants ratified the tentative agreement yesterday with a vote of 82% in favour. The result emerged after eight months of further mediated talks and was announced on March 26 following a four-day session in Washington D.C. The agreed contract will last for five years from May 31, 2026, to May 31, 2031. The United Airlines flight attendants have been on stagnant pay since the pandemic as they watch rival aviation companies Delta and American reward their work
5 minutes ago4 min read
Hormuz closure keeps US ocean carriers on edge despite crude retreat
The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz is reshaping US ocean freight economics, with bunker fuel costs, vessel scheduling and carrier surcharges all under sustained pressure as the standoff with Iran enters a new phase. Brent crude fell 3.8 percent to $97.38 a barrel last week, down from more than $115 earlier in the week, after Pakistan signalled that a US-Iran agreement could be near. The drop follows weeks of acute volatility driven by the closure of the strait, whe
3 days ago2 min read
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United Airlines Flight Attendants Ratify New Contract Following 6 Years of Negotiations. Was The Wait Worth It?
United flight attendants ratified the tentative agreement yesterday with a vote of 82% in favour. The result emerged after eight months of further mediated talks and was announced on March 26 following a four-day session in Washington D.C. The agreed contract will last for five years from May 31, 2026, to May 31, 2031. The United Airlines flight attendants have been on stagnant pay since the pandemic as they watch rival aviation companies Delta and American reward their work
5 minutes ago4 min read
‘We owe it to the victims’ families and the American flying public’ | Interview with Rep. Sharice Davids on aviation safety reform after Flight 5342
Sharice Davids is the Democratic representative for Kansas’s 3rd District, covering much of the Kansas City metropolitan area. She sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and has played a leading role in Congress's response to the midair collision of American Eagle Flight 5342 with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter on 29 January 2025, in which 67 people were killed. Davids helped lead the bipartisan ALERT Act, which passed the House last month by 396 votes
May 64 min read
Duffy’s Xbox Controllers
How the FAA's gaming pitch drew a record 12,350 applications in a single hiring window The United States Federal Aviation Administration has spent the better part of a decade wrestling with a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers. This month, it tried something unorthodox: it asked video gamers to step up. The response was overwhelming. On 17 April 2026, the FAA opened its annual hiring window for trainee air traffic controllers with a recruitment campaign built around
Apr 223 min read
Fuelling the Crisis: Aviation’s most dangerous vulnerability exposed
There is a line buried in airline annual reports that tends to get overlooked in good times. Fuel costs are, the reports note, "extremely volatile and unpredictable, and even a small change in market fuel prices can significantly affect profitability." Southwest Airlines wrote that in its 2025 filing. Weeks later, it became the understatement of the year. When the US and Israel struck Iran on 28 February 2026, the airline industry's most intractable cost problem moved from ch
Apr 103 min read
‘We owe it to the victims’ families and the American flying public’ | Interview with Rep. Sharice Davids on aviation safety reform after Flight 5342
Sharice Davids is the Democratic representative for Kansas’s 3rd District, covering much of the Kansas City metropolitan area. She sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and has played a leading role in Congress's response to the midair collision of American Eagle Flight 5342 with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter on 29 January 2025, in which 67 people were killed. Davids helped lead the bipartisan ALERT Act, which passed the House last month by 396 votes
May 64 min read
'MH370 disappearance shows how ruthless democracy's enemies are' | Interview with aviation journalist Jeff Wise
Jeff Wise is a journalist specializing in aviation, technology, and psychology who has written for Businessweek, Psychology Today, and...
Aug 16, 20244 min read
A High Flying Career: Flight Attendant Kara Mulder on the Evolving Landscape of Aviation
Kara Mulder, an accomplished flight attendant and the creative force behind the popular Flight Attendant Life blog, has leveraged her...
Aug 17, 20234 min read
With Summer Travel Almost Here, the FAA Remains Leaderless
In another twist in the saga of complications and chaos that has been plaguing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), it has recently...
Apr 12, 20233 min read
Duffy’s Xbox Controllers
How the FAA's gaming pitch drew a record 12,350 applications in a single hiring window The United States Federal Aviation Administration has spent the better part of a decade wrestling with a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers. This month, it tried something unorthodox: it asked video gamers to step up. The response was overwhelming. On 17 April 2026, the FAA opened its annual hiring window for trainee air traffic controllers with a recruitment campaign built around
Apr 223 min read
Fuelling the Crisis: Aviation’s most dangerous vulnerability exposed
There is a line buried in airline annual reports that tends to get overlooked in good times. Fuel costs are, the reports note, "extremely volatile and unpredictable, and even a small change in market fuel prices can significantly affect profitability." Southwest Airlines wrote that in its 2025 filing. Weeks later, it became the understatement of the year. When the US and Israel struck Iran on 28 February 2026, the airline industry's most intractable cost problem moved from ch
Apr 103 min read
United Airlines and Its Flight Attendants Have a Tentative Agreement. We Have Been Here Before.
On 26 March 2026, United Airlines and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) announced a tentative agreement covering approximately 30,000 cabin crew members. On paper, it is a landmark deal. The airline says it will make its flight attendants the best-paid in the American airline industry, with top hourly wages reaching $100 by the end of the contract's five-year term and immediate pay increases kicking in the moment ratification is confirmed. The total package is su
Apr 33 min read
A4A Spokesperson: “Safety is and will always be our top priority”
USTN sat down with Airlines for America (A4A) to get an industry-wide view on some of the most pressing economic issues facing the aviation industry. A4A is the trade association for the leading U.S. airlines, both passenger and cargo, with members including American Airlines, Delta, and United. This is the second iteration of USTN’s ‘Ask the Expert’ interview series, and we encourage our readers to submit any query they have regarding airline financials for our next resid
Mar 312 min read
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