Special Olympics are expected to boost L.A.'s tourism industry -- When Los Angeles last hosted the Special Olympics in 1972, about 3,000 athletes from the U.S. and Canada participated in the four-day event on the campuses of UCLA and Santa Monica College. Forty-three years later, the Special Olympics World Games are back with much bigger numbers to a city hoping to show it can still host a worldwide sporting event. The nine days of competition will mark the biggest athletic gathering since Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Summer Olympics. Hugo Martin/Los Angeles Times

Special Olympics competitors stranded in Los Angeles -- Special Olympics competitors arriving in Southern California were greeted by a logistics mess that forced many to sleep on a gymnasium floor before they were finally shuttled to their host cities. At least 1,500 athletes and coaches spent the night at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles after flights and buses arrived late on Tuesday, said Rich Perelman, a Special Olympics spokesman. AP/New York Times Gregory J. Wilcox/Los Angeles Daily News CBS LA Marc Cota-Robles & Hanna Chu/ABC7 Fox Sports

Flight makes emergency landing after passengers feel ill -- A flight from Denver to Los Angeles was diverted to Grand Junction, Colorado, on Wednesday after a number of passengers reported feeling ill. United Airlines spokeswoman Jennifer Dohm said the crew of the Airbus A320 deployed oxygen masks and decided to land. There were reports of smoke in the cockpit and cabin, but Grand Junction Fire Department spokesman Shawn Montgomery said firefighters saw no smoke when they entered the plane. AP Christine Mai-Duc/Los Angeles Times Jesse Paul/Denver Post Charles Ashby/Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Can I Uber or Lyft after I land? It's complicated. Here's your airport cheat sheet -- If all goes as planned, travelers soon may be able to summon ride-share providers such as UberX and Lyft to take them home after they deplane at Los Angeles International Airport. For passengers, that's great news-at least, financially speaking. A cab from LAX to downtown can cost $50 or more without tip. Ride-share market leaders Uber and Lyft charge closer to $30 for the same trip, except during periods of high demand when they cost more, sometimes considerably more, a phenomenon Uber calls "surge pricing." Brian Sumers/Los Angeles Times

NYC airport strike averted at JFK, LaGuardia on labor truce -- More than 1,200 workers at New York's Kennedy and LaGuardia airports will stay on the job after scrapping a strike hours before it was supposed to begin. An airline contractor, Command Security Corp.'s Aviation Safeguards unit, agreed to stay neutral in an organizing effort among its workers, the Service Employees International Union's Local 32BJ said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday. Security officers, baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants had planned to walk off the job starting later in the day. Lauren Thomas/Bloomberg News

FAA says 5 planes illuminated by lasers over NYC metro area -- The pilots of five flights over the New York City metropolitan area say lasers were shone at their planes overnight. The Federal Aviation Administration says laser beams were aimed at flights between 9:25 p.m. Tuesday and 12:10 a.m. Wednesday. The FAA says two of the planes were hit by lasers within 20 miles of Newark Liberty International Airport. Two other planes were near Warwick, New York, when they were hit. The fifth was 20 miles southwest of LaGuardia Airport. AP

The cities that have lost the most flights -- Imagine erasing the two largest airports in Texas-more than 11,000 flights a week. That's one way to think about the biggest change for travelers over the past four years. Airlines flew 11,475 fewer domestic flights the third week of July this year compared with the same week in 2011, according to a comparison of schedules. That's about 7% of all flights, and roughly as many as fly each week from the big Dallas and Houston hubs. Scott McCartney/Wall Street Journal

JetBlue: Inside the LAX flight kitchen (Photos) -- Back in April, I visited JetBlue's caterer near Los Angeles International Airport with an airline employee who comes to L.A. every so often for quality control. Her job - she's a stickler for freshness - was to make sure the food met JetBlue's standards. Mine was to have lunch and chat about the airline.  My visit was so long ago that I am sure JetBlue has changed its menu. But I thought you would be interested in some pictures from the kitchen at Drago Air Catering. Brian Sumers/BrianSumers.com 

25 hacks that will help you get through the airport as quickly and easily as possible -- Flying can be stressful, expensive, and exhausting - but it doesn't have to be. We've rounded up the best tricks to make your next trip through the airport as easy as possible. 1. Get TSA PreCheck or Global Entry: Sign up for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. The US Customs and Border protection pre-approval is basically a pre-flight upgrade, and will get you through security and onto the plane faster. 2. Book red-eye flights for an emptier airport. Sophie-Claire Hoeller/Business Insider

GOP bill would cap airline bag fees at $4.50 -- A Republican lawmaker is introducing legislation to limit the amount that airlines can charge passengers for checking luggage to $4.50. The measure, sponsored by Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), would bring baggage fees down to the amount that airports are allowed charge passengers to help pay for facility improvements. Mica said, "it's time to bring some fairness to the soaring fees that airlines are charging consumers for basic services. Keith Laing/The Hill

Why airlines hate squished bugs on airplane wings -- For most of us, bugs are annoying, itchy, yucky summer pests. For airlines, they are quite literally a drag - a fuel-wasting, money-eating drag. Scientists from NASA and leading plane manufacturer Boeing are pooling their collective genius to tackle the dilemma of keeping bug guts from sticking to airplane wings. Experimental flights above the insect-rich swamps of Louisiana are testing the value of non-stick coatings and new wing extensions. Bart Jansen/USA Today

A senior House Democrat questions probe of U.S. airline capacity -- The senior Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee raised questions Wednesday about one of the apparent legal arguments for a continuing Justice Department antitrust probe of major U.S. airlines regarding possible collusion on expansion plans. Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, told a pilots union safety forum "it would be a stretch" for the department to focus potential antitrust enforcement actions on the fact that airlines continuously monitor-and often quickly react to-pricing moves by competitors. Wall Street Journal

Up in the Air: Meet the man who flies around the world for free -- The boarding procedure has barely started at Chicago O'Hare, and Ben Schlappig has already taken over the first-class cabin. Inside Cathay Pacific Flight 807 bound for Hong Kong, he's passing out a couple of hundred dollars' worth of designer chocolates to a small swarm of giggling flight attendants. The six suites in this leather-bound playpen of faux mahogany and fresh-cut flowers comprise the inner sanctum of commercial flight that few ever witness. Ben Wofford/Rolling Stone

Airline upgrades are reaching economy passengers -- Passengers at the rear of airplanes have had little to cheer for a long time, and the Justice Department's recent inquiry into allegations of collusion between carriers to control capacity, and in that way fares, has done little to improve relations. Still, several carriers have quietly restored or added a few creature comforts in economy class. In June, United Airlines began serving free beer and wine in economy class on transcontinental flights. Elaine Glusac/New York Times

FedEx orders 50 Boeing freighters at $9.97b -- Fedex Corp, the world's largest cargo firm, has signed a deal to buy 50 additional Boeing 767-300 freighters in the biggest order ever for the plane, allowing the aircraft maker to extend its production line well into the next decade. The deal, announced in a statement by the US cargo operator, includes options for another 50 767Fs and is worth $9.97 billion at list prices. Customers typically receive an undisclosed discount off the list prices. Reuters

Electric planes usher in the second great age of aviation -- On July 10, pilot Hugues Duval landed in Calais, France, after a flying over the English Channel and back again-in a tiny electric plane called the Cri-Cri. Duval's flight is reminiscent of one of the greatest moments in aviation history: the first crossing of the Channel by plane, in 1909. It's also part of a larger movement, retracing the steps of the pioneers of flying, who shattered record after record in their rapidly evolving flying machines. Michele Travierso/Wired