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FAA records detail hundreds of close calls between airplanes and drones -- On Sunday, a swarm of small rogue drones disrupted air traffic across the country on a scale previously unseen in U.S. skies. At 8:51 a.m., a white drone startled the pilot of a JetBlue flight, appearing off its left wing moments before it landed at Los Angeles International Airport. Five hours later, a quadcopter whizzed underneath an Allegiant Air flight as it approached the same runway. Craig Whitlock/Washington Post
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LAX board approves big increase in pest control spending -- The board that oversees Los Angeles International Airport approved a tenfold increase in pest control spending Thursday, adopting an approach that puts exterminators on LAX premises around the clock. The seven-year, $5.2 million contract calls for Orkin Services of California to make a comprehensive attack on all sorts of insects, rodents and animals on airport property. Sharon McNary/KPCC
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LAX to pay $10 million to soundproof Inglewood schools from airport noise -- The Inglewood Unified School District will receive $10 million from Los Angeles World Airports to begin soundproofing school facilities from the noise of passing aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration approved this year a $44.4 million payment to the Inglewood Unified School District's Classroom Noise Mitigation Program. The funds will come from Passenger Facility Charges, which are $4.50 fees on every enplaned passenger. Sandy Mazza/Torrance Daily Breeze
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The Big Fix: Airports -- Airfares may have dropped but the crowds at the airports aren't. They're growing. And if you fly a lot, you're very likely familiar with long lines and inconveniences. But getting a new airport built or even upgraded doesn't happen very often. And as Phil LeBeau reports in our series, "The Big Fix", the need for new terminals is growing, along with those crowds. The Nightly Business Report
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SeaPort awarded lease at Bob Hope Airport -- The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority authorized the award of a hangar lease to SeaPort Airlines, a Portland, Ore.-based carrier with routes in nine U.S. states and Baja, Calif., in Mexico. The airline is consolidating its Southern California offices and maintenance operations at Bob Hope Airport. The one-year lease is expected to have a positive impact on the airport's budget, according to a staff report. The monthly rent will be $6,500, or $78,000 a year. Chad Garland/Burbank Leader
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Court says minimum wage increase applies to Seattle airport workers -- A divided Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a first-in-the nation initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the city of SeaTac should apply to thousands of workers at the airport. In its 5-4 ruling, the majority upheld the entirety of Proposition 1, writing that there was no indication that the law would interfere with airport operations. Rachel La Corte/AP
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Long lines at JFK? Airport now tracks phones to find out -- Waiting in long security-check lines is a necessity every air traveler must endure. But New York's JFK International Airport is trying to make it less frustrating -- by displaying accurate wait times that are calculated by tracking the movement of passengers' phones. The tracking system, called BlipTrack, is enabled by wireless beacons located in the airport that monitor passengers' phones anonymously as they move through the airport. Julianne Pepitone/NBC News
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Bolt of lightning strikes plane during thunderstorms at Atlanta airport (Video) -- Afternoon thunderstorms were bubbling across the Atlanta metro area on Wednesday afternoon - enough to cause a ground stop at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. Passenger jets were holding in line on the tarmac when Jack Perkins caught a lightning bolt on video from inside the terminal. The powerful bolt hits the back of a Delta plane, dissipating into beads of lightning, and igniting something on or around at least one of the plane's tires. Angela Fritz/Washington Post
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Miami airport's energy makeover saves power, money -- With millions of lights spread around three terminals and two parking garages, changing burned-out bulbs at Miami International Airport is no easy task. So, sometimes when lights go - especially on fixtures 90 feet high - they stay out for a while, leaving some areas dim. But a new energy-saving, environmentally friendly overhaul of the massive airport will replace 64,000 fixtures with more modern ones that use longer-lasting bulbs. Carl Teproff/Miami Herald
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United Airlines flight attendants seek federal mediation -- The union representing United Airlines flight attendants filed for federal mediation Thursday, claiming management of United Continental Holdings Inc. has had a "failure to participate in realistic merged contract negotiations." The Association of Flight Attendants reiterated its criticism of the company's $3 billion share buyback program. Josh Beckerman/Dow Jones Newswires
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American Airlines to end U.S.-Israel flights on profit concerns -- American Airlines plans to halt flights between the U.S. and Israel early next year after determining that its route was losing money. The service between Philadelphia and Tel Aviv was a legacy of US Airways Group, which combined with American in December 2013 to form the world's largest carrier. American faces competition from New York-based flights operated by United Airlines and El Al Israel Airlines. Julie Johnsson/Bloomberg News
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American Airlines had serious close call in Texas in June -- As federal investigators rev up their probe of an American Airlines landing accident in North Carolina last weekend, it turns out that another of the carrier's jets suffered a dangerous close call approaching a Texas strip in similar stormy weather two months earlier. Andy Pasztor/Wall Street Journal
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The new thin line between carry-on and checked bags -- Today's riddle: When is 22 inches not 22 inches? On a plane. I've traveled for many years with a Travelpro 22-inch rollaboard bag. When one finally wore out, I replaced it with the same 22-inch rollaboard bag. Travelpro markets it as compliant with airline size limits, most of which restrict bags to 22 inches in length. The bag slides easily into most any overhead bin. But when British Airways had a sizing box at a gate for a recent flight and made all passengers put their bag in the box, mine didn't fit and had to be checked. Scott McCartney/Wall Street Journal
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The turbulent world of airline Twitter accounts -- Airline Twitter feeds are the digital equivalent of an airport customer service counter. There is anger. Despair. Grudging acceptance of mildly satisfactory compensation. The feeds are an endless litany of air travel woes: complaints about surly gate agents, photos of damaged luggage, desperate pleas to hold a gate so a traveler can make their connection. In an age when customer service takes place in public view -- and one bad response can ricochet around the globe in seconds -- handling customers' emotional baggage in 140 characters or less is no small feat. Corinne Purtill/CNN
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Watch Air New Zealand's 'Men in Black' airline safety video -- For years, Air New Zealand has embraced the fact that they've become a tourist destination for those who are fans of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film adaptations by using the director and his big screen versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's characters for their airline safety videos. But now that the Middle Earth franchises are over, it's time for a new film franchise to step up. /Film
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If airlines are reporting record profits they must be colluding, right? Probably not, and here's why -- If irony were water, the nation's largest airlines would be drowning in it this summer. New Consumer Price Index data this week shows that fare prices declined 5.6 percent in July vs. June, the biggest month-to-month price drop in 20 years. And investors are running away from airline stocks as if owning them is the best way to become infected with the Ebola virus. Yet the Justice Department is conducting not one, but two antitrust investigations in possible airline anticompetitive behavior. Dan Reed/Forbes
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Qantas records $409 million profit after $2.6 billion loss -- Qantas Airways posted a 557 million Australian dollar ($409 million) full-year profit on Thursday in a dramatic turnaround since it recorded a $2.6 billion loss in the previous year. Australia's largest airline said in a statement that the profit for the fiscal year through June reflected strong performances from all business segments, including its troubled international arm which turned a AU$408 million loss in 2014 into a AU$267 million profit. AP
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GE Aviation wins $400M order from Qantas -- Qantas is buying GEnx-1B engine to power eight recently ordered Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. GE Aviation officials said Thursday that the engine order from Australia's largest airline is valued at more than $400 million. Deliveries will begin in 2017. Evendale-based GE Aviation says the GEnx-1B is the best-selling engine on the Dreamliner. The engine has accumulated more than 1.7 million flight hours and more than 300,000 cycles since entering service. Cincinnati Enquirer
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Icelandair makes Montreal its newest destination -- Icelandair will begin flying from Montreal next spring. Starting May 19, the airline will launch service between Montreal and its hub at the Keflavik International Airport near the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik. The service will be seasonal and is scheduled to run through Nov. 8. Icelandair says the route will allow for connections to more than 20 destinations in Europe, including Paris, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo. The addition of Montreal continues a recent expansion effort by Icelandair, which will serve 16 North American destinations once the new route begins. Ben Mutzabaugh/USA Today
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Former NM Airlines president arrested in Miami -- The former president for New Mexico Airlines was recently arrested in Miami and faces grand theft and organized scheme to defraud charges. In March, Gabriel Kimbrell was fired by the commuter airline amid a Federal Aviation Administration investigation into the carrier. The airline was under investigation by the FAA in connection with the maintenance problems that pushed the airline to voluntarily ground its fleet in December of 2014. Matt Howerton/KOAT-TV Albuquerque
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| Transportation Network Companies |
Uber's driver screening practices fuel political debate on rider safety -- The ride-hailing revolution holds the potential to radically change the way people get around. But the political battle over Uber and Lyft in California has focused on something more obscure: fingerprints. Uber is facing some of the fiercest challenges to its business practices from an array of California officials who claim the Silicon Valley-based company does not adequately screen its rapidly expanding pool of tens of thousands of drivers. Laura J. Nelson & Emily Alpert Reyes/Los Angeles Times
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San Francisco is suing Uber for allegedly hiring a convicted murderer as a driver -- Because of flaws in Uber's background-checking system, 25 drivers with criminal records-including murder, child abuse, and assault-were allowed to drive for the ride-hailing service in San Francisco and Los Angeles, according a complaint filed Wednesday by the San Francisco District Attorney's office. One of the drivers in question is a convicted murderer who spent 26 years in prison before being released on parole in Los Angeles in 2008, the complaint shows. Matt Weinberger/Business Insider
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GE-powered 787s getting relief from icing limitations -- Boeing and General Electric have begun delivery of modified engine control software that is expected to free the GEnx-powered Boeing 787 from all operating restrictions in high altitude ice crystal icing conditions by year-end. The move, if sanctioned by the FAA, will end limitations originally imposed on the GE-powered 787 fleet in 2013, when Airworthiness Directives issued by the agency prohibited operation in moderate and severe icing. Guy Norris/Aviation Week & Space Technology
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