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Airline food company ordered to pay living wages to employees -- An airline catering company with operations at Los Angeles International Airport has failed to pay "living wages" to 271 employees, dating back to 2010, the city of Los Angeles said in a letter that calls for retroactive restitution. The order from the city's Office of Contract Compliance against Flying Food Group of Chicago comes only weeks after about 100 company employees protested at LAX, where the company serves Air France, China Airlines and Virgin Australia, among other carriers. Hugo Martin/Los Angeles Times
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Southwest Airlines flight makes emergency landing at LAX after reports of fire -- A Southwest Airlines flight made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport Tuesday night after reports of fire in the front cargo hold. Los Angeles firefighters were called at about 10 p.m. and met Southwest Airlines Flight 1516 on the runway when it landed. Thermal imaging equipment was used to find any unusual heat source emanating from the plane. No fire was found and the plane was allowed to taxi to the gate. The Boeing 737 plane originated from San Jose and was headed to San Diego with 77 passengers on board. ABC7 CBS LA
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FBI, police find no threat on EVA Air plane at LA Airport -- Someone called in a threat to a flight from Taiwan that landed at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday, but nothing dangerous was found on board, authorities said. The plane was inspected and its passengers' luggage was screened as EVA Air Flight 12 sat on the tarmac at LAX, but there was no evidence of a threat, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. The FBI, airport police and the Los Angeles police bomb squad jointly investigated the threat, which came by telephone. AP Matt Hamilton/Los Angeles Times
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Spirit announces new service between SoCal and NorCal -- Californians looking to make a quick trip between Los Angeles and the Bay Area can now skip the more than five hour drive, and instead hop on a one hour flight and save a lot of money at the same time. Spirit Airlines announced Tuesday it will add new nonstop service between Los Angeles International Airport and Oakland International Airport, beginning November 12, 2015. Spirit Airlines Press Release
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Trial for man accused of LAX shooting spree may be delayed another year -- The federal death penalty trial of the suspect charged in a deadly shooting spree at Los Angeles International Airport could be delayed until next summer - nearly three years after the crime took place, a judge said Tuesday. Responding to a defense request for an even longer delay, U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez said he would consider setting the start of trial for Paul Anthony Ciancia on Aug. 23, 2016, rather than the February date previously scheduled. City News Service
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John Wayne Airport posts April 2015 statistics -- Airline passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport increased in April 2015 as compared to April 2014. In April 2015, the Airport served 825,658 passengers, an increase of 5.7% when compared to the April 2014 passenger traffic count of 781,451. Commercial aircraft operations increased 2.7%, while commuter aircraft operations increased 0.7% when compared to April 2014 levels. Total aircraft operations decreased in April 2015 as compared to the same month in 2014. JWA News Release
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Advisory Commission broaches topic of allowing ride share programs at Long Beach Airport -- As projected fiscal revenue numbers continue to paint a grim picture for Long Beach Airport, members of the Airport Advisory Commission broached the topic last week of allowing rideshare companies to begin legally picking up passengers. The discussion arose as airports both locally and nationally have eased restrictions on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft, eliminating the need for clandestine airport pickups. Jason Ruiz/Long Beach Post
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BizAir to start servicing McClellan-Palomar airport -- A new airline is taking over service from McClellan-Palomar Airport to Los Angeles International Airport, which was formerly served by United Express. BizAir Shuttle is set to have their first flight out of Carlsbad with service to LAX June 18 at 6 a.m. They won't be offering as many flights a day as United did, but are looking to ramp up service as the demand increases. Airport Manager Olivier Brackett said the demand for commercial service is high. Ellen Wright/The Coast News
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New hangars, terminal for growing Thermal airport -- Longtime desert developers Dick Oliphant and Charlie Knickerbocker plan to open 14 new hangars at the Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in Thermal this fall, hoping to benefit a growing set of wealthy visitors to the eastern Coachella Valley. Their newly formed airport group, Oliphant Aviation, will grow the airport's capacity by about 10 percent with the $8 million project. "We're always looking for need, and this seems to be the neediest area right now for aircraft owners," Oliphant said. Rosalie Murphy/Desert Sun
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Busiest airports: Seattle pushes past Newark amid Delta-Alaska turf war -- Passenger traffic is booming at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., reports that traffic could reach 42 million passengers this year, nearly 8 million higher than in 2013. The growth is fed in part by an undeclared battle between its two busiest airlines. Sea-Tac last year was one of the nation's fastest-growing large airports, jumping from 15th busiest in 2013 to 13th busiest in 2014, the newspaper reported. AP
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Delta will fly against Alaska Air on three more Seattle routes -- Delta Air Lines is pressing ahead with its Seattle expansion, announcing more new routes from its fast-growing new hub there. Delta's new routes from Seattle will be to Boston; Pasco, Wash.; and Victoria, British Columbia. Delta also detailed new service between Seattle and Orlando, though that route was made public earlier this month. Victoria is a new destination for Delta. Ben Mutzabaugh/USA Today
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D/FW Airport reopens runway after discovering storm drain caused sinkhole -- Airport officials say they have reopened Runway 18: after finishing an engineering analysis of the sinkhole adjacent to the runway. "Crews discovered that a section of a storm drain had become dislodged from the main storm drain line, creating erosion of the soil around the storm drain," says D/FW Airport spokesman David Magana. Naheed Rajwani/Dallas Morning News
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How to squeeze the biggest jet into the busiest airport -- Dubai International Airport has a problem every international airfield wishes it had. Thanks largely to the success of Emirates, the state-owned airline, and its strategy of using a pair of runways in the desert as a massive transfer hub for long-haul flights, Dubai has quickly become the world's busiest international airport. Key to that success has been Emirates' embrace of the 525-seat double-decker Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial aircraft. Deena Kamel Yousef/Bloomberg Business
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MSP Airport workers stage spontaneous protest, walkout over firings -- A group of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport cabin cleaners staged a spontaneous walkout Tuesday evening, protesting what they believe is the retaliatory firing of at least eight co-workers after unionized workers argued that a recently proposed $1 minimum wage raise wasn't enough. The Metropolitan Airports Commission recommended this month raising the pay floor at MSP to $10 an hour on Aug. 1, when the Minnesota minimum wage rises to $9, and to $10.50 an hour in August 2016, when the state wage rises again. Liz Sawyer/Star Tribune
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Delta Airlines to start new daily service to Atlanta from Oakland begins October 1 -- Delta Airlines has added a daily nonstop flight between Atlanta and Oakland, according to the Oakland International Airport. The new daily service to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport begins October 1. Port of Oakland director of aviation Deborah Ale Flint said in a statement that Atlanta is one of Oakland's largest underserved markets and the new service will help keep up with demand. Bay City News Service
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Singapore Airlines investigates engine problem during flight -- Singapore Airlines said Wednesday that it is investigating how one of its jets suffered a loss of power in both of its engines over the weekend, falling 13,000 feet before regaining altitude en route from Singapore to Shanghai. The Airbus A330-300 was carrying 182 passengers and 12 crew members when the incident occurred Saturday, the airline said in a statement. The jet lost power in both engines after hitting bad weather 3 1/2 hours into the flight. Power was restored after "the pilots followed operational procedures to restore normal operation of the engines," the statement said. AP Simon Hradecky/The Aviation Herald
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Airlines under scrutiny for mishandled baggage -- The Department of Transportation will increase penalties for airlines that mishandle passengers' baggage by up to $100, the agency said Tuesday. Airlines that lose, damage or delay luggage will be liable for reimbursing the passenger who owns it for up to $3,500, an increase from the current limit of $3,400, according to the Transportation Department. The department noted there were 1.8 million instances of passengers filing claims for mishandled baggage in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available. Tim Devaney/The Hill
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Emirates president lashes out at Emanuel in trade dispute -- Emirates Airline President Tim Clark chastised Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a letter for publicly siding with U.S. airlines in a trade dispute without contacting Emirates for its side of the story. Emanuel, in a May 6 letter to federal officials, detailed his support of allegations by the big three U.S. airlines, which claim that Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways - all known for luxurious service and all of which fly from O'Hare International Airport - have received $42 billion in illegal government subsidies over the past decade. Gregory Karp/Chicago Tribune
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If you want Qatar state contracts, give us flight slots, says airline CEO -- May 26 In handing out lucrative public procurement contracts, Qatar is likely to favour countries whose airports grant take-off and landing slots to state-owned Qatar Airways, its chief executive said on Tuesday. The remarks by Akbar al-Baker, in Amsterdam to launch a new six-times-a-week route, may fan the protests of western carriers that Gulf competitors have unfair advantages because of their close relationships to their governments. Thomas Escritt/Reuters
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Delta and Spirit add flights as airline investors dump shares -- Nothing could save airline shares Tuesday from the perceptions that capacity is growing too fast and major carriers will match fares to compete. Brent crude oil futures rose 3%, which should have benefited airline shares, even though "West Cost jet fuel spiked in May due to outages at some refiners," according to Cowen & Co. analyst Helane Becker. The S&P 500 fell 1%. Declines at major carriers ranged between a 1.5% decline for Virgin America shares and a 6% decline for Hawaiian shares. Since May 18, airline shares have fallen a cumulative 9%, with American down 15%, Southwest down 14% and Delta down 11%. Ted Reed/The Street
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4 Biggest mistakes Wall Street makes when it looks at airlines -- Right now, Wall Street isn't happy with the airline industry. After three years of generally steady gains, industry shares tumbled last week, reflecting concerns over pricing and capacity. Airline shares fell 5% to 10% and about $12 billion in market capitalization was destroyed. The decline shows that Wall Street analysts and investors definitely have an effective way of making their concerns known. But that doesn't mean Wall Street is always right. Ted Reed/The Street
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Mo money mo problems: What leaders of now-profitable airlines should learn from Biggie Smalls --Maybe the guys who run this nation's now-surprisingly successful big airlines should listen to Notorious B.I.G.'s iconic, chart-topping 1997 hip-hop single about the cost of success. "It's like the more money we come across/The more problems we see". Dan Reed/Forbes
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All Aboard Florida fighter former airline CEO -- Robert Crandall was a titan of the airline industry in the rollicking days of deregulation, and at 79, his heart still pumps jet fuel. Today, though, he's got another transportation project in his crosshairs - All Aboard Florida's $2.9 billion express passenger rail. Crandall, a winter resident of Palm City, is on the steering committee of the anti-All Aboard Florida group Citizens Against Rail Expansion. When he joined the opposition, it bolstered the rag tag effort of grassroots organizers who were taking on All Aboard Florida. Kim Miller/Palm Beach Post
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American Airlines to bring its A321s to Hawaii -- Virgin America will not be the first airline operating narrow-body Airbus jets to Hawaii. American Airlines intends to phase out its 757-200s on some Hawaii routes starting in August of this year, replacing them with its 2-cabin A321 layout. The A321s will have sharklets to increase range but are expected to still fly with weight restrictions in some cases, possibly due to shorter runways on a couple of the islands. Seth Miller/Airways News
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The airline industry isn't keeping up with the growing hacker threat -- Security researcher Chris Roberts made headlines last month when he was hauled off a plane in New York by the FBI and accused of hacking into flight controls via his underseat entertainment unit. Other security researchers say Roberts - who was quoted by the FBI as saying he once caused "a sideways movement of the plane during a flight" - has helped draw attention to a wider issue: that the aviation industry has not kept pace with the threat hackers pose to increasingly computer-connected airplanes. Jeremy Wagstaff/Reuters
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Four ways to earn airline miles quickly with a hotel stay -- Can you parlay a hotel room reservation into thousands of frequent-flier miles? In the last year, the leading websites that allow travelers to do just that, PointsHound and Rocketmiles, were acquired by Points International and Priceline, respectively. How are they measuring up? And if you haven't tried such sites before, is it worth trying them now? PointsHound and Rocketmiles give you frequent-flier miles in exchange for staying in hotels booked through their websites. Stephanie Rosenbloom/New York Times
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L.A. labor leaders seek minimum wage exemption for firms with union workers -- Labor leaders, who were among the strongest supporters of the citywide minimum wage increase approved last week by the Los Angeles City Council, are advocating last-minute changes to the law that could create an exemption for companies with unionized workforces. The push to include an exception to the mandated wage increase for companies that let their employees collectively bargain was the latest unexpected detour as the city nears approval of its landmark legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. Peter Jamison, David Zahniser & Emily Alpert Reyes/Los Angeles Times
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Audit finds millions in overtime pay at L.A. transportation department -- Last year, the average employee who paints stripes on roads and installs street signs for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation made $48,100 in overtime, almost six times what most other city workers received. Four supervisors claimed $70,000 in OT, and one manager drew $155,319, effectively tripling his salary. Those and other findings were in a transportation department audit issued Tuesday by City Controller Ron Galperin. Soumya Karlamangla & Dan Weikel/Los Angeles Times
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L.A. sidewalk repair costs should shift to property owners, city report says -- Los Angeles' commercial property owners should be required to pay for repairing badly broken and inaccessible sidewalks next to their land, a city report released Tuesday suggests. In addition, heavily damaged sidewalks next to homes should be repaired by the city and then future responsibility for upkeep and liability of the walkways should be shifted to property owners, the report says. Ben Poston & Ryan Menezes/Los Angeles Times
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