Airline contractor workers say they were required to speak English or nothing at all -- A year ago, workers for a Delta Airlines contractor at LAX said they were given a strict order: Speak English or don't speak at all. The employees for Gate Gourmet, which provides janitorial services to Delta Airlines at LAX, are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Thursday by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund claiming harassment by management if workers did not abide by the "English only" language policy. Brittny Mejia/Los Angeles Times 

John C�diz Klemack/NBC4 Sid Garcia and Krysta Fauria/ABC7 AP

Garcetti signs agreement to fund storm water treatment project -- Trying to address both the drought and the cleanup of Santa Monica Bay, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an agreement on Thursday finalizing an estimated $40 million storm water treatment project to clean polluted runoff from Los Angeles International Airport before it runs into the bay. Some water from the project, about 100 million gallons a year, will also be diverted into a groundwater basin, recharging groundwater supplies. Karen Jordan/Los Angeles Business Journal City News Service CBS LA AP

Qantas completes LAX business-class lounge revamp -- Qantas said it has tripled the size of its lounge space at Los Angeles International Airport with the multi-million dollar completion of its new business lounge. The lounge, which is managed by Australia-based Qantas and jointly owned with Cathay Pacific and British Airways, features additional an additional 200 seats, a state-of-the-art kitchen and more dining options. It follows the December opening of the adjacent, Marc Newson-designed first-class lounge. L.A. Biz

'Wild West': Uber and Lyft running illegally at Salt Lake City Airport, director charges -- Ground transportation is a circus at Salt Lake City International Airport, where ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft operate unofficially and where some traditional cabdrivers have gone rogue. Confusion reigns six months after the Salt Lake City Council sought to regulate the new freelance companies but ended up passing an ordinance that deregulated, to a great degree, taxis. Christopher Smart/Salt Lake Tribune

Turkish Airlines announces Miami-Istanbul service -- Miami is getting nonstop flights to another global hub later this year when Turkish Airlines kicks off service to and from Istanbul. Daily flights between the two cities - the first direct service since September of 2001 - kick off Oct. 25. Aviation officials in Miami-Dade hailed the announcement as the latest move in the airport's efforts to grow its international reach. Hannah Sampson/Miami Herald

Judge orders psychiatric exam for serial stowaway -- A homeless woman who has been arrested several times for trying to sneak past security checkpoints at multiple airports - and even managing to sneak on board at least three different flights without a ticket - has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before her next court date. Marilyn Hartman appeared before a Cook County judge on Thursday, on trespassing charges after she was arrested three times in two weeks, after she allegedly tried to sneak past security checkpoints at O'Hare and Midway airports three times in the past few weeks. CBS Chicago

A lift from oil prices -- Airlines are reaping a tremendous windfall from falling oil prices, but travelers should not expect to share in their gains anytime soon - at least not in terms of lower airfares. With business travel on the rise, airlines have little trouble filling planes, and no incentive to reduce fares. Most flights are full, and airline executives say they expect business travel to keep growing this year. "The fact is that people are prepared to pay the airfares at these levels," said Caroline Strachan, a vice president for American Express Global Business Travel. Jad Mouawad/New York Times

American Airlines stock soars as crude prices fall -- American Airlines shares were up 5.17% to $49.47 in afternoon trading on Thursday as falling oil prices leading to lower fuel costs lifted the airline sector in trading. Industry standard Brent crude for June delivery is down 2.88%, or $1.95 to $65.82 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas crude is also down 3.10%%, or $1.89 to $59.04 per barrel. The fall in prices comes one session after oil prices rose to five month highs Wednesday. Tony Owusu/TheStreet

Southwest vs. Delta Air Lines: On-time arrival dogfight doesn't let up in April -- Close but no cigar. That might be the best way to describe the April results of the intense battle that has broken out between Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines for crowing rights as the domestic carrier with the best on-time arrival performance. In recent months, Southwest has been charging hard, coming within a tenth of a percentage point of matching Delta's on-time arrival performance in March, according to FlightView, a Newton, Mass.-based airline and airport data provider. Lewis Lazare/Chicago Business Journal

Southwest Airlines April traffic up 8.6%, load factor increases by 1.4 points -- Southwest Airlines Co. Thursday announced a 8.6 percent increase in traffic for April to 9.898 billion revenue passenger miles or RPMs, from the 9.118 billion RPMs flown in April 2014. Capacity expressed in available seat miles or ASMs increased 6.7 percent to 11.911 billion from 11.167 billion, a year ago. Load factor was 83.1 percent, up 1.4 points compared to 81.7 percent, a year ago. RTT News

Sun Country chair threatens shutdown over pilots union dispute -- The chairman of Sun Country Airlines is threatening to ground its planes in the midst of the company's pay dispute with its pilots union. A letter from Marty Davis to the union said the company's management has "begun the process of downsizing the airline, for what will need to be its ultimate shut-down." The company declined to comment. The pilots union dismissed the letter as a bargaining tactic. Martin Moylan/MPR News

Aviation agreement sparks lobbying brawl -- Allegations of unfair subsidies for three Persian Gulf airlines have touched off a massive lobbying push for a federal investigation into their participation in the U.S. government's Open Skies program. The fight has brought together competitors United, American and Delta, which want the Obama administration to evaluate an agreement with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which own Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways. Megan R. Wilson/The Hill

Airlines aren't clear about their photography policies -- Next time you're tempted to take a snapshot of an interesting cloud formation or your seatmate sprawling into your personal space on a plane, remember Arash Shirazi and Steven Leslie. Both of them are law-abiding citizens and air travelers. And both recently ran afoul of the airline industry's confusing photography rules. Christopher Elliott/Washington Post 

Profit at fast-growing Emirates airline soars 40 percent to $1.24 billion -- Emirates overcame the effects of temporary runway closures at its Dubai base to pull in a $1.24 billion annual profit, a 40 percent gain driven by the rapid expansion of its business and helped by a drop in fuel prices, the fast-growing airline said Thursday. The Dubai government-owned carrier is by far the Middle East's biggest airline, and is expanding rapidly by funneling mostly long-haul travelers through its base in the Gulf commercial center. Adam Schreck/AP

Maurice Flanagan, who helped build Emirates Airline, dies at 86 -- Maurice Flanagan, who helped build Emirates Airline from a desert start-up to the world's biggest international carrier, died Thursday. He was 86. Mr. Flanagan navigated the carrier for more than a quarter century-through regional wars and global recessions-to turn Emirates into a premier airline and its home of Dubai into a global commercial hub. Rory Jones/Wall Street Journal

FAA contractor plans to plead guilty to radar facility arson, get mental health help -- A Naperville man who set fire to a West suburban radar facility during a suicide attempt, temporarily paralyzing national air traffic, plans to plead guilty next month so that he can be transferred to a prison capable of treating his mental health problems, his lawyer says. "Brian Howard has from the first day accepted responsibility for what he did," Howard's attorney, Ron Safer, said Thursday. Mitch Dudek/Chicago Sun Times

Boeing auction marks end of Southern California's jet age -- Boeing Co. has started selling off giant equipment from its military-jet plant in Southern California, in an unusual factory auction that will close a chapter in the region's history as a center of U.S. aerospace manufacturing. For more than 20 years, the plant has produced the C-17 Globemaster III, a military transport jet capable of carrying 82 tons. But Boeing is ending production at its plant in Long Beach, Calif., because of a lack of international orders after the U.S. Air Force stopped buying the plane. Tarun Shukla/Wall Street Journal

Boeing 787 Dreamliner is now flying for American Airlines -- The Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" is now flying paying passengers for American Airlines. The carrier flew its first regularly scheduled commercial flight with the jet Thursday morning, making it the second U.S. carrier to introduce the aircraft. Flight 2320 - AA's first regularly scheduled commercial flight on the 787 - departed Dallas/Fort Worth for Chicago O'Hare at 7:10 a.m. local time. The flight was scheduled to land in Chicago around 9:40 a.m. local time. Ben Mutzabaugh/USA Today

Metro poll suggests strong support for 2016 transportation tax hike -- More than two-thirds of Los Angeles County residents support raising the countywide sales tax by half a cent to bring in about $120 billion for rail and highway projects, according to a new poll paid for by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The poll asked respondents whether they would approve a proposed ballot measure that would go before voters in 2016. Laura J. Nelson/Los Angeles Times