Category Archives: Air transport

UK flight chaos could last for days, airline passengers warned

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Technical meltdown in air traffic control causes bank holiday misery, with 500 flights cancelled and others delayed

Airline passengers have been warned that flight disruption could persist for days, after a technical meltdown in UK air traffic control left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded or delayed on the summer bank holiday.

Returning holidaymakers and those hoping to travel out of UK airports faced cancellations and delays of up to 12 hours after takeoffs and inbound flights were suspended due to a “network-wide” computer failure.

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Five key moments from Qantas boss Alan Joyce’s Senate grilling

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Outgoing CEO faces fiery questions on the airline’s credibility, executive pay and ‘hoarding’ of flight slots

Alan Joyce has refused to answer questions related to his lobbying efforts, while delivering combative responses to allegations of Qantas misconduct, as he was grilled by a Senate committee on Monday.

At an explosive public hearing of the select committee on the cost of living, which Joyce had to be summonsed to after repeatedly refusing to appear, the outgoing Qantas chief executive defended the record $2.47bn full-year profit he announced just days earlier.

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North Korea abruptly cancels first post-Covid international commercial flight

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Air Koryo flight from Pyongyang cancelled two hours after its scheduled arrival in Beijing

North Korea’s national airline’s first commercial flight since it largely closed itself off from the world in early 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic has been abruptly cancelled.

Journalists gathered on Monday at Beijing’s Capital international airport to await Air Koryo flight JS151 from Pyongyang, due to arrive at 9.50am.

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American Airlines sues travel website Skiplagged over ticket price ‘loophole’

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Lawsuit accuses website of deception as it allows travelers to book typically cheaper connecting flight and get off after first leg

American Airlines has filed a lawsuit against Skiplagged, a travel website for cheap flights that shows “hidden-city” ticketing trips.

The lawsuit, which American filed this week in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, accuses Skiplagged of deception, as the website allows travelers to book a connecting flight that is typically cheaper than a non-stop flight and not flying to the route’s final destination.

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US air force photos of England at war available to public for first time

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Thousands of images from second world war include bomb damage to Old Trafford and troops at leisure

Black-and-white aerial photographs offering a bird’s eye view of England as it changed during the second world war are being made available to the public for the first time.

The 3,600 images include pictures of bomb damage to Old Trafford in Greater Manchester, as well as other towns and cities. They also show ancient monuments surrounded by anti-tank defences in West Sussex, and troops at play at a US army camp in Wiltshire.

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Sydney airport emergency: man accused of making bomb threat on flight refuses to leave police cell to face court

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Canberra man Muhammad Arif charged after Kuala Lumpur-bound Malaysian Airlines flight turned around on Monday because of alleged disturbance onboard

A man accused of making a bomb threat on an international flight out of Sydney airport on Monday afternoon has refused to leave his police cell to face court.

Canberra man Muhammad Arif, 45, has been charged with making a false statement about a threat to damage an aircraft, and for failing to comply with cabin crew’s safety instruction.

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Heathrow failed to meet minimum accessibility standards, CAA report finds

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Airport only one to be rated as ‘poor’ and ‘needs improvement’ over all four quarters in year to March

Heathrow failed to meet the minimum accessibility standards for disabled passengers in the year to March, the sector’s regulator has said.

The airport was the only one in the UK to be rated as “poor” and “needs improvement” by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) over all four quarters in the period, according to the report.

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Qantas and Virgin duopoly dwarfs the Australian banking and supermarket industries, airport peak body says

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Australian Airports Association tells parliamentary inquiry market dominance has allowed the two airlines to jack up profit margins

Qantas and Virgin now account for 95% of Australia’s domestic aviation market, a dominance that dwarfs industries such as banking and supermarkets and has allowed the airlines to jack up profit margins, the national airport body has warned.

The continued duopoly of Qantas Group – which includes budget carrier Jetstar – and Virgin Australia in the domestic aviation sector has also allowed air fares to rise above pre-pandemic levels even when adjusting for inflation, the Australian Airports Association (AAA) said in its submission to a parliamentary inquiry.

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Six dead as tourist helicopter crashes in Everest region of Nepal

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Nepali pilot and five Mexican passengers killed after aircraft crashes soon after takeoff near Lukla

All six people onboard a tourist helicopter in Nepal have been killed after it crashed soon after takeoff in the Everest region.

The Manang Air flight was heading for the capital, Kathmandu, from near Lukla, a gateway for climbing expeditions to the world’s highest peak, with five Mexican tourists – two men and three women – and a Nepali pilot onboard.

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Keating calls Nato head a ‘supreme fool’ over plan to open office in Asia – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Racist throwback to Jim Crow days in America

Burney says the advert that ran in the Financial Review encouraging a “no” vote on the referendum over the Indigenous voice to parliament was “totally unacceptable”.

I think Matt Kean, the Shadow Health Minister in New South Wales, really nailed it, David, where he likened it to a racist throwback from the Jim Crow days in America, but it was also incredibly sexist and it is something in the words of Matt Kean, the ‘no‘camp has every right to have a say, but there are better ways of doing it.

I know Aboriginal Australia and I know that people know what the important issues - things like what I’ve identified - education, health, housing, jobs - and Josie Douglas who is this remarkable Aboriginal woman in the central land council put it perfectly: We are about changing lives, not changing dates.

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UK airports say they can reach net zero and still expand. Is it just pie in the sky?

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Despite the Climate Change Committee’s warnings to stop growing capacity, Gatwick is gearing up for another try at a second runway

So what bit of “no new airport capacity” did airports not understand? The Climate Change Committee (CCC) spelled it out again on Wednesday: flying accounted for 7% of UK carbon emissions last year, the trend is upwards, and more airport capacity is “incompatible” with national net zero targets.

Of course, they’ve said it before: but as the committee noted in its 2023 progress report, airports have since have been racing to expand. This time, hammering it home, the CCC says that no expansion at all should go ahead until the government sorts out a proper way to manage it.

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United canceled flights for thousands of passengers while the CEO took a private plane

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Scott Kirby apologized but blamed the disruptions last weekend on a shortage of FAA air traffic controllers

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby apologized Friday for hopping on a private plane to get out of the New York area earlier this week while thousands of United passengers were stranded because the airline canceled so many flights.

“Taking a private jet was the wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers who were waiting to get home,” Kirby said in a statement issued by the airline. “I sincerely apologize to our customers and our team members who have been working around-the-clock for several days – often through severe weather – to take care of our customers.”

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Woman’s leg amputated at Bangkok airport after getting stuck in moving walkway

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Airport expresses ‘deepest condolences’ after 57-year-old gets caught and has left leg removed from above the knee

A woman’s leg has been amputated in a Thai airport after it became trapped by a movable walkway on Thursday, officials said.

The 57-year-old Thai passenger was due to board a morning flight from Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport to Nakhon Si Thammarat province when she was caught by the walkway in Terminal 2. A medical team there eventually had to remove her left leg from above the knee, according to the airport’s officials.

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New Jersey man flies 23m miles with lifetime United pass ‘like a sultan’

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Since paying $290,000 for the ‘best investment’ of his life in 1990, Tom Stuker was flown more miles than the Apollo 11 moon trip

A US man who bought a lifetime pass from United Airlines three decades ago has “lived like a sultan” ever since, according to a report, flying multiples of miles more than the Apollo 11 spacecraft in the process.

Tom Stuker, from New Jersey, paid $290,000 for the pass in 1990, according to the Washington Post, a decision he said is the “best investment of my life”.

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US jets pursue light aircraft over Washington DC before it crashes in Virginia

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The fighter jets caused a sonic boom over the US capital that sent some residents into a brief panic

US authorities scrambled fighter jets to intercept an unresponsive light aircraft that violated the airspace over the Washington DC area and later crashed into mountainous terrain in south-west Virginia, officials have said.

Four people were onboard the Cessna Citation plane, according to CNN, which cited an unnamed source. Police said rescuers had found no survivors onboard the plane.

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Heathrow security guards expected to announce fresh strikes

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Unite says it will serve notice to airport of fresh round of strikes in long-running pay dispute

Fresh strikes by security guards at Heathrow airport are expected to be announced next week.

Members of Unite are embroiled in a long-running dispute over pay which has led to previous industrial action.

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Police release e-fit of man found dead in wheel bay of Gatwick-bound plane

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Detectives hope to identify man, whose body was found on a Tui flight from the Gambia on 7 December

Police have released a digitised image of a man who was found dead in the undercarriage of a plane, as they work to identify him.

The man’s body was found on a Tui flight from the Gambia to the UK. His body was discovered at Gatwick airport at about 4am on 7 December, Sussex police said at the time.

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Why Australians are paying 50% more for air fares than pre-pandemic even as jet fuel costs drop

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New data reveals the average return economy airfare to the most popular overseas destinations is now $1,827, compared with $1,213 in 2019

Australian international air fares have surged by more than 50% above pre-pandemic levels, new data shows, even as the cost of jet fuel plunges, creating a tailwind for airline profits and source of frustration for travellers.

Analysts link the apparent discrepancy between high fares and falling costs to profit maximisation, with airlines including Australia’s national carrier Qantas, in no hurry to give up the extra income.

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At least three people drown over bank holiday weekend as UK sees hottest day

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Two men in their 20s were pulled from the sea near Torbay as boy who died in Carlisle named as Lewis Michael Kirkpatrick, 15

At least three people have drowned over the bank holiday weekend as the UK experienced the hottest day of the year so far on Sunday.

Two men in their 20s died after being pulled from the sea off the coast of Torbay, Devon and Cornwall police said. Officers were called to assist the coastguard at about 9am on Saturday after reports of concern for two people off Oddicombe beach.

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South Korean court issues arrest warrant for man who opened plane door mid-air

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Man in his 30s was detained on Friday after opening emergency exit at about 200 metres above ground

A South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant for a passenger who opened an Asiana Airlines plane door minutes before it landed, it has been reported.

The man in his 30s was detained on landing on Friday after opening the door when the Airbus A321-200 was about 200 metres (700ft) above the ground in Daegu, South Korea, causing panic onboard.

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