Category Archives: Air transport

Gatwick reduces summer capacity to prevent repeat of jubilee chaos

Posted on by

Number of flights in August will be below pre-pandemic levels to ensure those on sale are ‘deliverable’

Gatwick airport will reduce its summer capacity to ward off potential chaos, after dozens of last-minute cancellations wrecked the travel plans of holidaymakers over the platinum jubilee and half-term holiday.

London’s second busiest airport will limit the number of daily take-offs and landings to 850 in August – about 50 more than the average in early June, but more than 10% below its pre-pandemic maximum.

Continue reading...

Ryanair cabin crew in Spain vote to hold two three-day strikes

Posted on by

Move could add to Europe’s travel problems, although airline does not expect widespread disruption

Cabin crew working for Ryanair in Spain have voted to hold six days of strikes at the end of June and early July, potentially adding to the disruption affecting air travel across Europe.

The Spanish-based staff in the USO and SITCPLA unions will walk out for two three-day strikes from 24 June to 26 June and 30 June to 2 July.

Continue reading...

Pilot shortages, fuel prices and Covid: US braces for travel chaos

Posted on by

US sees rise in travel after ‘two years of pent-up demand’ – but issues continue to cloud the industry

On a recent Friday night Laura Waring needed to fly from Newark, New Jersey, to San Diego to help set up her healthcare information technology company’s conference, which was scheduled to start the next Monday.

But after her flight was repeatedly delayed and then canceled, Waring slept for about 45 minutes on a cot at Newark airport before she woke up cold and uncertain how she would get to California.

Continue reading...

Labor says Dutton ‘desperate’ to distract from defence failures – as it happened

Posted on by

Nadesalingam family arrive back home to Biloela; New Zealand ‘heartened’ by Albanese government’s climate stance; Australia records at least 40 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Jacinda Ardern will be raising Australia’s controversial deportation policy in today’s meeting. Asked if she has knowledge of whether the government is prepared to “water it down a little bit”, she replies:

Just to be clear, the issue we have is not with deportation. We deport as well. If a New Zealander comes to Australia and commits a crime, send them home ... but when someone comes here and essentially, hasn’t even really had any connection with New Zealand at all ... have all their connections in Australia and are essentially Australian, sending them back to New Zealand, that’s where we’ve had the grievance.

I’ve heard the prime minister prior to winning the election speak to his acknowledgement that that is the part of the policy that we’ve taken issue with. Even that acknowledgement says to me he’s hearing us, he knows it’s a problem.

It’s been a bugbear for us for a long time so I would like to see movement on it.

We talked about music on occasion but I’m not sure I would’ve picked necessarily the right music if I think I was given that task.

Continue reading...

Thousands of Britons stuck at airports as easyJet cancels another 80 flights

Posted on by

More holidaymakers caught up in travel chaos as nearly 200 flights are cancelled and roads clog up

UK holidaymakers have faced yet more travel chaos as easyJet cancelled another 80 flights on Sunday and roads began to clog up with drivers returning from half-term and jubilee weekend breaks.

Tens of thousands of British travellers are estimated to be stranded at airports across Europe after close to 200 flight cancellations over the weekend.

Continue reading...

Crash site found after plane goes missing over Nepal with 22 onboard

Posted on by

Bodies being recovered after army locates Tara Air aircraft that took off from Pokhara, after conditions hampered earlier search

Rescue workers in Nepal have recovered 14 bodies from the crash site of a small plane carrying 22 people that went down in a remote region, according to an airport official.

“The search for others is continuing,” said Tek Raj Sitaula, a spokesman for the Tribhuvan international airport in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.

Continue reading...

UK airports, ports and roads under pressure as half-term getaway begins

Posted on by

EasyJet cancelled 14 flights, while ferry passengers at Dover face queues, and jams await drivers

Half-term holidaymakers are navigating the busiest day at British airports since the start of the pandemic with some hit by further flight cancellations, while cross-Channel ferry passengers face long queues at Dover and drivers are warned to expect jams.

EasyJet cancelled 14 more flights at London Gatwick in the early morning peak, in the aftermath of IT problems on Thursday that took out 200 of its flights around Europe.

Continue reading...

IT glitch creates turmoil for easyJet passengers across Europe

Posted on by

Airline forced to scrap 200 flights due for early afternoon takeoff and delay many others as a result

Airline passengers faced fresh disruption on Thursday after an IT glitch forced easyJet to cancel about 200 flights around Europe.

The airline scrapped a stream of flights due to take off between 1pm and 3pm, affecting dozens to and from UK airports, including its biggest base at Gatwick.

Continue reading...

Confusion in Lagos as passenger plane is towed along highway

Posted on by

Rumours spread online that the aircraft had crashed, but authorities said it was simply being delivered to its new owner

A plane that was towed along the side of a busy expressway in Lagos on Tuesday night has caused widespread confusion and amusement to commuters – and rumours it had crashed – before Nigerian authorities said that it was being delivered to its new owner via the busy road.

Several videos of the aircraft posted on social media showed it at various points along the side of a major road, within a mile of the international and domestic airport terminals and plane storage facilities in the Ikeja area of Lagos.

Continue reading...

China air crash that killed 132 may have been deliberate, says US report

Posted on by

WSJ sources suggest black box recorders from Boeing 737-800 indicate intentional input from cockpit

A China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed in March, killing 132 people, appears to have been intentionally flown into the mountainside below by someone at the controls, according to reports.

Analysis by US officials of the black box flight recorders found amid the wreckage suggests deliberate input from the cockpit forced the Boeing 737-800 plane into its catastrophic dive.

Continue reading...

Nine arrested in Israel after air crash images sent to plane passengers

Posted on by

Authorities believe suspects used iPhone AirDrop to share photos before takeoff at Ben Gurion airport

A taxiing plane returned to the gate at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport after photos of aviation disasters popped up on passengers’ phones – sent, Israeli authorities believe, by nine people onboard using the iPhone AirDrop function.

The incident happened shortly before the AnadoluJet passenger plane was readying for takeoff for Istanbul, the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) said.

Continue reading...

Just one of 50 aviation industry climate targets met, study finds

Posted on by

Charity’s report says nearly all targets set since 2000 have been missed, revised or quietly ignored

The international aviation industry has failed to meet all but one of 50 of its own climate targets in the past two decades, environment campaigners say.

A report commissioned by the climate charity Possible assessed every target set by the industry since 2000 and found that nearly all had been missed, revised or quietly ignored. The charity says the findings undermine a UK government plan to leave airlines to reduce their emissions through self-regulation.

Continue reading...

‘Supersonic ballet’: helicopter briefly catches falling rocket

Posted on by

Rocket Lab test successfully hooks booster in midair before having to drop it into South Pacific

A space company has briefly managed to catch a falling rocket using a helicopter and a hook in a test described by its chief executive as “something of a supersonic ballet”.

The test was part of Rocket Lab’s attempts to find relatively low-cost ways of recovering rockets for multiple missions to space.

Continue reading...

Panic at Israeli airport as US family packs unexploded bombshell for flight home

Posted on by

Passengers scramble in Ben Gurion’s departure hall after tourists show ‘souvenir’ collected in Golan Heights

An American family set off a bomb scare at Israel’s main airport when they showed security inspectors an unexploded shell that they found while visiting the Golan Heights and had packed for their return trip, authorities said.

Video circulated on social media showed panicked passengers scattering at Ben Gurion Airport’s departure hall near Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Continue reading...

US judge strikes down Biden mask mandate for planes and trains

Posted on by

The Florida judge’s ruling appeared to free operators to retain or discard masking policies, leading to confusion

A federal judge in Florida has struck down Joe Biden’s national mask mandate covering airplanes, airports and other public transportation, prompting the White House to announce the rule would not be enforced while federal agencies decide how to respond to the judge’s order.

The ruling appeared to free operators to make their own decisions about mask requirements, with several airlines announcing they would drop mandates, but other transport networks including the New York City subway planning to keep them in place.

Continue reading...

UK rail passengers face ‘disastrous weekend’ of Easter travel disruption

Posted on by

Dozens of services to and from London cancelled, and strike action hits TransPennine Express routes

Rail passengers face a “disastrous weekend” of disruption as engineering works and strikes hamper one of the busiest Easter getaways in years.

Dozens of services to and from London have been cancelled as Network Rail carries out 530 engineering projects across the bank holiday weekend.

Continue reading...

Short-staffed Australian airports in chaos as flights depart without any luggage

Posted on by

Unions say aviation industry cannot cope with Easter travel crush after effects of Covid leave workforce depleted

Baggage handlers have been so short-staffed that entire flights have departed without luggage as the Easter travel crush peaked at Australian airports, with unions warning the pandemic-depleted aviation industry is now structurally incapable of coping with pre-Covid-like levels of travel demand.

While unloaded baggage and long queues affected travellers across the country on Thursday, unions have claimed that in Brisbane, so few service workers were available that female cleaners were sent in to clean male toilets while travellers were using them, and male cleaners into bathrooms with female patrons.

Continue reading...

Sword found hidden in cane during X-ray scan at Logan airport

Posted on by

Man carrying the cane said he had no idea it concealed a sword and was able to catch his flight after it was confiscated

A man passing through a Transportation Security Agency (TSA) checkpoint was stopped for having a sword concealed in his cane – and claimed he had no idea the blade was there.

Around noon last Tuesday, TSA officers at Logan airport in Boston were searching the traveler, a Massachusetts resident headed to New York.

Continue reading...

UK holidaymakers face cancelled flights and ferry delays in Easter travel chaos

Posted on by

High rates of staff absences due to Covid and fallout from P&O Ferries scandal contribute to disruption over busy spring break

Holidaymakers looking to get away for Easter are facing major disruption to travel, as airlines cancel more than 100 flights a day because of staff shortages and ferry operators struggle to meet demand following the suspension of P&O Ferries services.

The rise in passenger numbers over the spring break has coincided with high rates of staff absences due to the latest wave of Covid infections.

Continue reading...

Unruly US airline passengers hit with record fines by FAA

Posted on by

Aviation authority has imposed zero-tolerance policy and says incidents have soared since 6 January Capitol attack

An American Airlines passenger who allegedly pushed a flight attendant and spat at crew members has been hit with the biggest fine ever issued by US aviation regulators, and another fine topping $75,000 (£57,500) was issued to a Delta Air Lines passenger who bit a fellow passenger after trying to hug and kiss another.

Since January 2021 when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a zero-tolerance policy, the agency has proposed fines of about $7m for disruptive passengers. Two new fines issued on Friday were the highest yet.

Continue reading...