Category Archives: Air transport

Closure of Hong Kong airport shines fresh light on protest movement

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Disruption on Monday stopped flights to UK, US and Australia and will be felt worldwide

The closure of Hong Kong international airport has shone a fresh global spotlight on the city’s protest movement.

The airport was forced to cancel all remaining passenger flights on Monday – more than 100 – after thousands of demonstrators flooded into the main terminal during the afternoon. The disruption will be felt worldwide, with cancellations including long-haul departures to the US, Australia and the UK.

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UK energy watchdog demands answers after major power cut

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Outage caused travel chaos and cut electricity to almost 1m people in England and Wales

The energy watchdog, Ofgem, is demanding answers from the National Grid after a power cut left people stuck in trains for up to nine hours and cut electricity to almost 1 million people in England and Wales.

The biggest power outage in a decade caused widespread disruption on the rail network during the evening rush hour on Friday. Traffic light systems stopped working, causing gridlock in some areas, and Newcastle airport was left in darkness. Power had been restored to 900,000 customers by Saturday, but the rail network was struggling to get services back to normal.

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Passenger anger as tens of thousands hit by BA systems failure

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More than 500 flights cancelled or delayed by IT glitch affecting London airports

British Airways was facing passenger anger on Wednesday as more than 500 flights were cancelled or delayed as a result of a systems failure.

In the latest in a series of operational problems to hit the airline, and the travel plans of tens of thousands with holiday and business plans, London’s Heathrow, Gatwick and City were the airports most affected by the computer failure. BA refused to reveal the number of flights affected but according to Flightstats.com, which tracks arrivals and departures, by 5.30pm the airline had cancelled 140 flights and a further 370 had been delayed.

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British Airways flight lands in Spain after smoke fills cabin

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Nearly 200 people evacuated and three taken to hospital after landing in Valencia

Nearly 200 people had to be evacuated from a British Airways flight after smoke poured into the cabin minutes before it was due to land in Valencia.

Three people were taken to hospital after the incident on Monday, and each was later discharged.

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Hong Kong protests held at airport after Yuen Long attack – video report

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Staff at Hong Kong international airport have begun an 11-hour protest in an attempt to hold the government to account for violent attacks on residents by suspected gang members last week. Flight attendants and airport staff were joined by demonstrators dressed in black, the signature colour of the territory's protest movement. Protesters could be heard chanting 'free Hong Kong' as travellers arrived at the terminal

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Boeing Max 737: airlines delay plane’s return until November

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Southwest, American and United Airlines all put back return date for troubled jet

The swift return of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft to the skies was put further in doubt this week with airlines signalling that they do not hope to operate the plane any time soon.

With more than four months already elapsed since the plane was grounded by regulators, Southwest and American, two of the jet’s main US operators, followed United Airlines in saying they would be taking the Max out of their schedules until November.

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‘Abusive’ woman billed for £85,000 after RAF scrambled to escort plane

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Chloe Haines, 25, allegedly tried to open aircraft doors on Jet2 flight from Stansted to Turkey

A passenger who allegedly caused two RAF jets to be scrambled to escort a plane back to Stansted airport has been sent a bill for £85,000 by the airline.

Chloe Haines has been accused by Jet2 of a “catalogue of aggressive, abusive and dangerous behaviour” on a flight bound for Dalaman in Turkey in June, including trying to open the aircraft doors during the flight.

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Garuda Indonesia bans in-flight photos after being mocked for handwritten menu

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Popular video blogger whose image of the menu went viral now faces police inquiry

Indonesia’s national airline has come under fire for banning the taking of in-flight images after a popular video blogger posted a photo online showing a handwritten menu he was handed in business class.

The travel v-logger Rius Vernandes was also reported to police after the post, which led to the airline Garuda Indonesia being widely mocked online. The photo was uploaded with the caption: “The menu is still being printed sir.”

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Dozens injured as Air Canada flight to Sydney hits turbulence

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‘We all hit the roof,’ passenger says after plane forced to land in Honolulu

Dozens of people on an Air Canada flight to Australia have been injured after the plane encountered unexpected turbulence, forcing it to land in Hawaii.

The flight from Vancouver to Sydney encountered “unforecasted and sudden turbulence” about two hours past Hawaii and diverted to Honolulu, according to an Air Canada spokeswoman, Angela Mah.

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Gatwick suspends flights for two hours over control tower problem

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Services began again at 7.10pm but airport warns that there may be further delays

Gatwick airport suspended all inbound and outbound flights for around two hours on Wednesday due to an “air traffic control system issue”.

Eight flights into Gatwick, in West Sussex, were cancelled and 26 diverted before operations resumed at 7.10pm and passengers were warned there would be further delays into the evening, with the airport advising them to check with their airlines.

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Aviation security under scrutiny after death of stowaway in London

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Experts suggest heat sensors could help detect people hiding in landing gear compartment

There have been calls for fresh scrutiny of aviation security as efforts continue to identify a man whose frozen body fell into a garden in London from the landing gear of a Kenya Airways plane.

Investigations have centred on Nairobi airport, where the man is believed to have concealed himself in the aircraft, but one aviation expert suggested airlines and plane manufacturers could take steps including fitting heat sensors to detect stowaways.

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Canadians are paying sky-high prices for flights – and merger could make it worse

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Air Canada’s planned C$520m purchase of Air Transat could be bad news for passengers who already pay double what Americans do

For most Canadians, flying from one corner of their country to the other can be a pricey endeavour – so expensive, in fact, that they could fly to Europe or Asia for nearly the same price.

Online travel agency Kiwi noted in its 2017 flight price index that Canadians pay more than twice the price Americans do for similar-distance domestic flights.

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French parties unite in call for referendum on Macron’s airports sell-off

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President accused of ‘flogging family silver’, as communists and Sarkozy MPs join forces

Emmanuel Macron’s plan for the biggest wave of French privatisations in a decade is under threat after opposition politicians took the unusual step of joining ranks to push for a referendum on the sale of Paris airports.

The centrist French president wants to sell the state’s controlling stake in Aéroports de Paris, the profitable operator of Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, which are used by more than 100 million passengers each year. It would be among the biggest privatisation operations in French history, alongside Macron’s plans to sell other stakes in the national lottery as well as the gas and power group ENGIE.

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Air Canada investigates after woman wakes up alone on darkened plane

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  • Airline confirms incident described in Facebook post
  • Passenger was ‘full on panicking’ after attempts to raise alarm

Air Canada said on Sunday it was looking into how crew members could have disembarked from a plane without noticing a sleeping passenger who was left behind.

The airline was responding to an incident involving a woman who described waking up “all alone” on a “cold dark” aircraft after a flight to Toronto earlier this month.

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Woman arrested after Jet2 plane intercepted by Typhoon fighters

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Airline said ‘extremely disruptive passenger’ forced RAF jets to escort plane back to airport

A 25-year-old woman has been arrested after two RAF jets were scrambled to escort a plane back to Stansted Airport.

Jet2 said there had been an “extremely disruptive passenger” on board its flight from Stansted to Dalaman in Turkey on Saturday, forcing the aircraft to return to the London airport.

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Mexico: Amlo says sale of presidential plane will fund migrant crackdown

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Funds from sale of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s jet will be put toward the deployment of the newly formed national guard

Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to fund a crackdown on migrants to Mexico from Central America with proceeds from the sale of his office’s aircraft, a 787 Dreamliner which has been on offer since shortly after the Mexican president took office in December.

Funds from the sale would be put toward the deployment of the newly formed national guard which has the power to detain migrants without correct papers, López Obrador said on Wednesday.

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New York mayor says skyscraper helicopter crash not terror-related – video

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Bill de Blasio says an investigation is continuing into the ‘very strange and very troubling’ helicopter crash-landing on a Manhattan skyscraper, but there is no ongoing threat. Investigators looking into the crash, which killed at least one person, said it was the result of an air space issue. Emergency services were called to the scene on Seventh Avenue shortly before 2pm on a rainy, foggy Monday

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Flight delayed after passenger mistakes exit for toilet door

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Woman triggers evacuation slide, causing eight-hour delay at Manchester airport

A flight from Manchester was delayed for almost eight hours when a confused passenger opened an emergency exit after mistaking it for the toilet door.

The Pakistan International Airways (PIA) flight to Islamabad was nearly ready to depart when the woman grasped for the wrong door, launching the emergency evacuation slide.

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Further safety issue found in grounded Boeing 737 Max planes

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Airlines told to check aircraft as affected components may be at risk of premature failure

Safety regulators in the US have identified a further problem in Boeing’s grounded 737 Max model and the generation of planes that preceded it.

The Federal Aviation Administration has told airlines to check more than 300 737 aircraft, including 179 of the Max model, for improperly manufactured parts.

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