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Fliers face chaos as blizzard slams East Coast -- Air travelers faced at least 48 hours of chaos as a massive winter storm moved over the East Coast. The storm was forecast to bring blizzard conditions, snow and ice from Boston to the Carolinas, potentially snarling flights in Washington, New York, Charlotte and several other of the nation's busiest airports. Every big U.S. airline was waiving change fees for fliers ticketed to fly to airports in the storm's path. Underscoring the headache for fliers, airlines preemptively canceled more than 3,000 flights before the first snowflakes had even fallen in the region. By Thursday even, U.S. carriers had collectively canceled 2,100 flights across the nation on Friday and another 1,300 on Saturday. Ben Mutzabaugh/USA Today Related: Washington in bullseye of potentially historic blizzard
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TSA finds 20% more guns in carry-on bags in 2015, and most are loaded -- Airport security screeners in the U.S. found a record high number of firearms in carry-on bags last year, and most of them were loaded, officials said. The Transportation Security Administration said that it found 2,653 firearms, 20% more than in 2014, and that 83% of them contained ammunition. The agency suggested that the increase may be the result of better search techniques by airport screeners, although a moderate uptick in the number of travelers also may have contributed. Hugo Martin/Los Angeles Times Bart Jansen/USA Today
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TSA takes ABC7 behind-the-scenes at LAX -- There may be airports that handle more flights, but when it comes to passengers going through terminals, the Los Angeles International Airport is number one. "We screen about 36 million passengers a year, almost 100,000 passengers per day," Transportation Security Administration Spokesperson Nico Melendez said. The roughly 3,000 employees of the TSA are tasked with screening all those passengers. The TSA officers rotate every half-hour to different positions in order to keep them fresh and alert. Robert Hays/ABC7
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New L.A. stadium may need stealthy design to evade airport radar -- Developers of a proposed stadium to house the National Football League's return to Los Angeles may have to treat the glimmering venue like a stealth bomber. The $1.9 billion facility planned for the Rams and possibly another team by 2019 could interfere with Los Angeles International Airport's radar, creating a hazard for aircraft landing at the fourth busiest airstrip in the U.S. Alan Levine/Bloomberg Also: How Disney chief Robert Iger's NFL efforts fell short
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New chief eager to rebuild airport traffic -- March can't come soon enough, according to Kelly J. Fredericks. Fredericks is nominated to take charge of the Ontario International Airport Authority as it completes the process of taking over the airport from the Los Angeles Airport Authority. "I can't wait to get out there," Fredericks told journalists in a conference call from the East Coast on Thursday morning. "I'm trying to control my enthusiasm, but it's really hard." The day before was a long one for Fredericks. Fielding Buck/Riverside Press-Enterprise Neil Nisperos/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
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Pilot is charged with flying Alaska Airlines plane while drunk - A Newport Beach airline pilot has been arrested and charged with piloting an Alaska Airlines jet full of passengers while under the influence of alcohol, authorities said Thursday. David Hans Arntson, 60, was arrested Wednesday morning and appeared in federal court in downtown Los Angeles. He's scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 10. Matt Hamilton/Los Angeles Times
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San Diego Airport's new rental car center a showcase for art -- Joining an "it just makes sense" trend, on Wednesday San Diego International Airport officially opened a new consolidated rental car center with room for more than 5,000 cars. The $316 million, 2-million-square-foot building on the north side of the airport now houses fourteen rental car brands, with room for five more. And instead of the 81 shuttle buses previously operated by assorted rental car companies, 16 new alternative-fuel shuttles owned and operated by the airport run to and from the terminals. Harriet Baskas/USA Today
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North Texas airfares down dramatically since Wright Amendment ended -- A $63 round-trip fare to Denver on Frontier Airlines. A $106 round trip to Miami on American Airlines. A $140 round trip to Chicago on Southwest Airlines. These are some of the cheap airfares available to North Texas travelers looking to travel out of Dallas/Fort Worth Airport or Dallas Love Field over the next few weeks. The great deals are indicative of how the cost of flying out of North Texas has come down dramatically since the Wright Amendment restrictions were eliminated in late 2014. Andrea Ahles/Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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Cleveland Hopkins Airport worker drives across runway just as aircraft takes flight -- Cleveland Hopkins airfield maintenance worker drove a city vehicle across an active runway Sunday and passed beneath an aircraft that was taking flight. Cleveland Director of Port Control Fred Szabo said in an interview Thursday that the airfield "incursion" prompted an immediate investigation into the matter.Leila Atassi/Cleveland Plain Dealer
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O'Hare now nation's second-busiest airport -- O'Hare International Airport is no longer the nation's busiest. The facility fell to second place, based on total flights in 2015, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration. O'Hare logged 875,136 flights - the total number of both arrivals and departures - in 2015. That reflected a drop of about 0.8 percent over 2014, according to the data. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which was also the busiest in 2013, regained the top spot among airports with ticketed passengers, with 882,497 flights. Stefano Esposito/Chicago Sun Times
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Seven business jets added to Clay Lacy Aviation fleet -- Clay Lacy Aviation, the Van Nuys, Calif.-based charter/management, FBO and maintenance provider, has added seven business jets to its southern California fleet, all equipped with Gogo Business Aviation Internet connectivity. Five are based at the company's Van Nuys headquarters, including a Global Express, G550, Falcon 900EX EASy, Phenom 300 and Hawker 800XP. A Learjet 60 with a new interior and paint has been based at McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, Calif. Matt Thurber/AIN Online
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Airlines fly lower fuel costs to lofty profits -- Three more airlines - United, Southwest and Alaska - Thursday reported big profits for the fourth quarter, largely thanks to lower fuel prices. Cheap fuel has allowed the airlines to reward shareholders with stock buybacks and dividends, and to thank workers with profit-sharing. They're also buying planes to update their fleets. "This was by far our best year for earnings in the company's history," Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly told reporters during a conference call, crediting low fuel prices, full planes and more seats to fill with fliers. Bart Jansen & Nathan Bomey/USA Today
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Two weeks after heart transplant - United Airlines CEO is on the company's earnings call -- United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz made an appearance on the company's fourth quarter earnings call just two weeks after receiving a heart transplant. Munoz is expected to return to the job at the end of the first quarter of 2016. "I feel great! I'm planning to increase my involvement," Munoz said on the call. "I will certainly be back full time by the end of the first quarter if not sooner." Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider Also: United shifts capacity to Denver from its Houston hub
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How United Airlines got to its sorry state, and why it can't take off again -- More than five years after the everyone-but-the-media-saw-it-coming disaster that is the merger of United and Continental airlines, big business media is switching gears. Instead of the fawning pieces about merging coffee service, swapping planes around the network and phantom billions in synergies that United executives conjured up on fantasy spreadsheets, now the media is focusing on the mystic power of an inexperienced (and seriously ill) new boss and the renewed commitment of the bureaucracy to somehow get right what it's fouled up year after year. Joe Brancatelli/Business Journals
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United, Southwest buy 73 Boeing jets in blow to Bombardier -- United Airlines said on Thursday it will buy 40 small planes from Boeing Co, dealing a $3.2 billion blow to Bombardier Inc's hopes of landing a major customer for its fledgling CSeries program. Separately, Southwest Airlines Co said it had ordered 33 of Boeing's 737-800 aircraft, a deal it struck in December but announced on Thursday. Reuters reported last week that Boeing was poised to snatch at least part of Chicago-based United's order for small jets that seat about 100 passengers. Reuters
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Asia-Pacific airlines placing more priority on flight tracking -- Airlines in the Asia-Pacific have become more proactive about flight tracking, and are also looking at more innovative connectivity options for passengers. Bill Peltola, vice president of aviation, Asia-Pacific, at satellite provider Inmarsat, says that in addition to just tracking flights, airlines are also increasingly interested in bolstering connectivity through other systems, such as the Aircraft Addressing and Reporting System, (ACARS), and using satellites to gather better data around events such as bad weather and turbulence. Greg Waldron/Flightglobal
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The airlines competing in what could be $200 billion Islamic travel market -- Abdullah Al Mubarak says how well Rayani Air lives up to its pitch as Malaysia's first Shariah-compliant airline will help decide whether he becomes a frequent flier. "I heard the airline follows Islamic teachings like reciting a prayer before take-off," said the 30-year-old teacher as he waited at the airport near Kuala Lumpur to board one of its flights back to his home in Kota Bharu. Y-Sing Liau/Bloomberg Business
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Boeing to Cut Production of 747s -- Boeing Co. said it plans to halve production rates of its 747-8 plane later this year, the latest step in the decline of the iconic jumbo jet and a fresh signal of persistent weakness in the global air-freight market. The aerospace giant on Thursday said that it would shift in September to producing the jet at a rate of just six a year. As a result of the change, it will recognize an after-tax charge of $569 million against its fourth-quarter results, which it is scheduled to report on Wednesday. Jon Ostrower/Wall Street Journal
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FAA bans drones at the Super Bowl -- Planning to capture some of the 50th Super Bowl excitement by drone? Probably wise to think again, because that's super illegal. The FAA is declaring the sky above Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California off-limits for unauthorized aircraft, in two huge sweeping circles of overlapping sky. They did the same thing for last year's Super Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona. At a site the FAA set up for the event, complete with a GeoCities-era animated reflective logo and a "fly2sb50" url, people can find information about where not to fly. Kelsey D. Atherton/Popular Science
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Vegas cabs overcharging public by $47 million a year, audit finds -- If the cash you doled out for a Las Vegas cab ride hurt your wallet, it's not all in your head - auditors in Nevada also think taxi rates are outrageous. Las Vegas-area cabs are overcharging customers to the tune of $47 million a year, according to an audit of the Nevada Taxicab Authority, which regulates the rides in Clark County. Auditors for the governor's finance office blamed a $3 credit card processing fee that they say is much higher than in other cities and probably shouldn't exist. AP
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Federal investigators focus on small campaign donations to L.A. Councilwoman Nury Martinez -- Federal investigators looking into Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez's 2015 reelection bid have turned their attention to contributors who gave some of the smallest donations of her campaign. Campaign-finance probes at City Hall have historically centered on large contributions, the kind that illegally exceed spending limits. But this time around, federal investigators have been focusing on donations listed in Martinez's contribution filings of just $5 and $10. David Zahniser/Los Angeles Times
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