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Thanksgiving holiday air travel expected to jump 3% over last year -- Expect U.S. airports to be even more crowded this holiday season. The number of Americans traveling for the Thanskgiving holiday is expected to rise to 25.3 million, a 3% increase over the same period last year, according to a projection from Airlines for America, the trade group for the nation's airline industry. Airline representatives attribute the increase partly to lower fares. Hugo Martin/Los Angeles Times
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Ontario airport deal moves closer to LA's approval -- A deal that would transfer LA/Ontario International Airport to an Inland Empire authority is one step closer to final approval by the Los Angeles City Council. The governing body for Los Angeles World Airports, the Board of Airport Commissioners, referred the deal to L.A. following a closed-session meeting Thursday morning. "The Board of Airport Commissioners considered whether to approve settlement of the case. ... And made recommendations to the City Council whether to approve the settlement pursuant to (the) Charter," city attorney Ray Ilgunas announced. Liset Marquez/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
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Passenger numbers at Bob Hope Airport remain level -- For the second month in a row, the number of passengers traveling through Bob Hope Airport was flat in September compared to the same month a year ago. The relative flatline, up just 0.5% compared to September 2014, was reported Monday during a Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority meeting. It follows a similar plateau in August, but six months of increases before that. Chad Garland/Los Angeles Times
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Spirit Airlines to start flying from Sea-Tac to L.A., Vegas -- Ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines will start to fly out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport next March, the first new national carrier at the airport since Virgin America in 2008. "We are a rapidly growing carrier ... as we continue to grow, we're going into new places where we can provide a new option, a low-priced option," Mark Kopczak, vice president of network planning at Spirit said in an interview. "We are complementary to the existing services that are already at Sea-Tac Airport." Coral Garnick/Seattle Times
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United Airlines CEO to return in early 2016 after heart attack -- United Continental Holdings Inc Chief Executive Oscar Munoz will return to work in the first quarter of 2016, he said Thursday, three weeks after suffering a heart attack. The news ends uncertainty about who will run United, the second-largest U.S. airline by capacity. The company earlier appointed General Counsel Brett Hart as acting CEO and said its board had been preparing for "all potential outcomes" resulting from Munoz's hospitalization on Oct. 15. "I am on the road to recovery," Munoz said in a statement. Jeffrey Dastin/Reuters
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NMI, Guam AGs to United: Improve flight services -- The attorneys general of the CNMI and Guam have joined forces to complain to United Airlines for what they described as the subpar and declining quality of service on United's Guam-Honolulu international route. Guam Attorney General Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson and CNMI Attorney General Edward Manibusan issued a letter yesterday to acting United Airlines CEO Brett J. Hart, outlining numerous customer complaints and asking to initiate a dialogue to help improve services on United's Guam-Honolulu route. Saipan Tribune
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Lufthansa cabin crews set to start airline's longest strike -- Deutsche Lufthansa AG faces its longest-ever strike after flight attendants rejected the airline's latest offer in a long-running dispute over savings efforts aimed at weathering competition from low-cost rivals such as Ryanair. Cabin crew are set to halt work Friday afternoon, the UFO labor union said in a statement Thursday, without specifying the exact time or routes and airports that will be affected. Richard Weiss/Bloomberg Business
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THAI pay cuts plan irks airline union -- Thai Airways International has proposed a plan to trim salaries for senior officials on a voluntary basis in a fresh move to slash costs of the trouble airline, a union leader said on Thursday. Damrong Waiyakanee, the THAI labour union president, said the plan was approved by the executive committee on Tuesday. It was formulated to solicit cooperation from staff members to help pull the airline out of its crisis. Amornrat Mahitthirook/Bangkok Post
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Singapore Airlines second quarter net profit more than doubles -- Singapore Airlines said Thursday its second quarter net profit more than doubled from last year, but warned about uncertainty due to an economic slowdown in emerging markets led by China. Net profit for the three months to September soared 135 percent to Sg$213.6 million ($152 million), boosted in part by higher dividends from long-term investments, the carrier said in a statement. Rappler.com
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Emirates profit jumps 65% on fleet growth, lower fuel costs -- Emirates Group's first-half profit jumped 65 percent as the world's biggest airline on international routes added 13 wide-body jets at its Dubai hub and benefited from a decision not to hedge on fuel. Net income rose to 3.7 billion dirhams ($ 1 billion) in the six months through September, with lower kerosene costs helping to offset the impact of Mideast political turmoil and a stronger U.S. dollar that caused sales to slide 2.3 percent to 46.1 billion dirhams. Deena Kamel/Bloomberg Business
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The pilot now makes $40 an hour. who pays? -- Republic Airways, one of the largest players in the regional airline business, escaped a bankruptcy filing recently when its 2,100 pilots accepted a new three-year contract. Republic executives call that agreement a cornerstone of their effort to rebuild an airline decimated by pilot shortages. With that deal in hand, Republic is now telling its biggest customers: You need to step up. But can it get American, Delta, and United to lighten its flying load and help fund the $40-an-hour starting salary it now pays new pilot hires-the new top in the regional industry? Justin Bachman/Bloomberg Business
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Confessions of an airline PR man -- What to do? It's the mid-70s, and I'm the public relations man for a Denver-based airline. I've been told by the top brass that if the press asks about a certain matter, not to admit anything. I think "finesse it" was the way they wanted me to handle it. Sure, like I'd finesse a charging bull. What got the brass all worked up? It seems the Civil Aeronautics Board (which regulated the airlines until 1978) has decided to crack down on "discrimination" by the carriers. Bob Schulman/Huffington Post
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Crash forensics to determine whether bomb downed Russian jet -- With world powers divided over the cause of a Russian jetliner crash, much rests on forensic teams as they scour a sandy trail of wreckage almost a week after 224 people died in Egypt's worst air disaster. Britain said on Thursday it believed Islamic State may have downed the jet, but Egypt said there was no evidence of a bomb and Russia said it was too early to draw conclusions. That puts the onus on Egyptian-led investigators to prove or disprove the theory, with only scattered evidence and Egypt's tourist economy at stake. Tim Hepher/Reuters
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After Russian plane crash, airspace, flight routes for airlines flying in the region called into question -- Russian and Egyptian officials urged caution Thursday over American and British statements it was likely an explosive device planted by a terrorist group that brought down the Metrojet Flight 9268 traveling from Egypt to St. Petersburg Saturday. As investigators continue to work to determine the cause of the crash, which resulted in the deaths of all 224 people aboard, British Prime Minister David Cameron suspended flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh, again thrusting aviation security and the routes airlines fly into the spotlight. Lydia Tomkiw/International Business Times
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After Austin tower flooding, FAA shifts air control to San Antonio -- In Texas, San Antonio air-traffic controllers are guiding low-level planes to the Austin airport, where the tower flooded during a rainstorm, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday. The flooding Oct. 30 caused extensive damage to the one-story building and repairs could take several weeks to complete, the FAA said. Technicians rerouted Austin's low-level radar data and radio frequencies to San Antonio during the last few days, and responsibility for the airspace was handed over at 10:25 p.m. Wednesday, the FAA said. Bart Jansen/USA Today
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TSA looks to ramp up security at overseas airports after Russian crash -- U.S. aviation authorities are reviewing security for passenger planes at overseas airports as consensus grew Thursday that a Russian jet likely crashed in Egypt because a bomb was slipped aboard before takeoff. No U.S. airlines fly in to, out of or over the Sinai Peninsula, where Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed Saturday, killing all 224 people on board. But the crash could expose holes in security measures at overseas airports where U.S. airports do operate, security analysts and members of Congress said. M. Alex Johnson/NBC News
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Steve Lynch: TSA chief vows total overhaul after scathing IG probe -- The Transportation Security Administration is going "back to the drawing board" to design new safety protocols after airports around the country failed to find weapons brought through screening in an undercover sting operation, U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch told Herald Radio today. The South Boston Democrat said Peter Neffenger, the new TSA administrator, is beginning the process of rethinking what passengers will have to do before boarding a plane. Chris Villani/Boston Herald
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Russian agencies in dispute over decree grounding nation's Boeing 737s -- The agency that oversees civil aviation safety in Russia and other former Soviet states - the equivalent of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the U.S. - issued a letter Thursday seeking to ground all Boeing 737s in Russia, according to government-owned Russian news agency Tass. However, Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency - the equivalent of the Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S. - denied that the safety agency has the authority to ground the planes. Dominic Gates/Seattle Times
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L.A. to begin ordering earthquake retrofits in February, officials say -- Owners of thousands of wooden apartment buildings at risk of collapse in a major earthquake will begin receiving retrofit orders as early as February, Los Angeles building officials said this week. This follows the city's adoption of the most sweeping mandatory seismic regulations in the nation. An estimated 15,000 buildings across Los Angeles will be strengthened to better withstand violent shaking. Rosanna Xia/Los Angeles Times
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Los Angeles may be missing out on millions in fees from developers, audit finds -- The city of Los Angeles may have missed out on tens of millions of dollars because it doesn't have a centralized system to charge developers for improvements the city has to make near their project sites, according to a new audit. Controller Ron Galperin found Los Angeles took in $4.9 million in development impact fees in fiscal year 2013-14. With $5.3 billion in permitted construction that year, the city could have potentially taken in $15 million to $91 million in such fees, according to the controller's findings. Alice Walton/Los Angeles Times
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