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Complaint over loud 'boom box' music leads to 5-woman brawl on Spirit Airlines flight -- The two intoxicated women blasted music from a "boom box" on board the Spirit Airlines flight Wednesday morning from Baltimore to Los Angeles. When passengers complained, the loud-music lovers held the boom box in the air. But what played out so beautifully when John Cusack did it in "Say Anything" hit a sour note in real life high in the skies. Authorities say five women got into a brawl on Spirit Flight 141 before it landed at Los Angeles International Airport. Veronica Rocha/Los Angeles Times
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JWA passenger traffic up 10% in January -- New flights continue to bolster passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport, which jumped 10.3 percent in January, a marked increase from a year ago. The airport reported 812,760 passengers used its terminals in January. The month overall was up at JWA: Commercial aircraft operations increased 13.5 percent; and total aircraft operations, or take offs and landings, increased 2.5 percent. The airport has been on a hot streak since it added new flights in 2015, which was a record year for JWA. Hannah Madans/Orange County Register JWA News Release
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Fewer passengers take off from Bob Hope Airport in January -- Bob Hope Airport had seen a trend of increased passengers during the winter holiday months. However, the upward movement ended in January when the airport reported 296,100 passengers compared to 297,209 in January 2015, a 0.4% dip. The slight decrease was about 7,945 passengers short of the airport's projections, said Mark Hardyment, the airport's director of government and environmental affairs, during a Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority meeting on Monday. Anthony Clark Carpio/Los Angeles Times
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Long Beach Airport reopens after lockdown over after unattended luggage -- Long Beach Airport was put on lockdown for about two hours after unattended luggage was found Wednesday morning. Initial reports about the luggage came in shortly before 10 a.m., said Stephanie Montuya-Morisky, an airport spokeswoman. Long Beach police went to the scene and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Bomb Squad was called to investigate. Operations were back to normal shortly before 12:20 p.m., Montuya-Morisky said. Greg Yee/Long Beach Press-Telegram
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Allegiant announces direct flights between Reno and LAX -- Talk about another L.A. connection. Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air announced that it is starting new nonstop flight service from Reno to Los Angeles this summer. "Allegiant is very pleased to give Reno travelers an ultra-low-cost option for traveling to Los Angeles," said Jude Bricker, Allegiant chief operating officer, in a statement. "We're sure that Reno travelers will embrace this new option for traveling to the City of Angels year-round." Jason Hidalgo/Reno Gazette-Journal
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The LAX airfields in the 1960s and 1970s -- I recently came across a YouTube video uploaded by DFW Tower, who appears to be a major airline enthusiast. This person's father took a lot of videos at LAX in the 1960s and 1970s, and some of them have now been uploaded on the Internet. There's no sound, but it's still a cool seven-minute video of what LAX used to be like. If you watched, do you have a favorite part? BrianSumers.com
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LAX volunteers help children's imaginations soar on 'Read Across America Day' -- Los Angeles International Airport volunteers helped to bring the joy of reading to more than 300 students at the Warren Lane Elementary School in Inglewood on national Read Across America Day. LAX Community Relations Division partnered with Warren Lane in sponsoring a variety of activities to engage students in this school-wide literacy event. Los Angeles Sentinel
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Fliers cross the border to Mexico for cheaper fares and more options -- While politicians debate a longer wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, entrepreneurs have built something else entirely: a $120 million bridge facility to speed up border crossings for air travelers. The Cross Border Xpress is a 390-foot-long, glass-enclosed span over the barbed-wire fence here that separates Southern California from Tijuana International Airport, which sits just a few feet south of the border. Scott McCartney/Wall Street Journal
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More airports calling out TSA for long lines -- The Transportation Security Administration finds itself under increasing criticism for its airport staffing levels as the busy spring travel season begins to shift into high gear. Already, Atlanta's airport - the busiest in the world - publicly called out the agency last month for persistently long lines that it blamed primarily on staffing levels. Now, some of the nation's other top airports are joining the fray. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport became one of the latest. Ben Mutzabaugh/USA Today
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Dallas conference warned of summer travel 'crisis brewing' if TSA isn't fixed -- With airport security lines long and getting longer, the director of Atlanta's airport warned Wednesday that there could be a "crisis brewing" when the busy summer travel season arrives. "We're just going to be in for a really bumpy ride this summer," Miguel Southwell, aviation general manager at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, told several hundred people at a Dallas conference. Conor Shine/Dallas Morning News
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United confirms 10-abreast seating on some of its 777s -- United Airlines plans to retrofit 19 of its 74 Boeing 777 widebodies into a high-density domestic configuration that will include 10-abreast seating in economy, the carrier confirmed to Today in the Sky. United will apply the change to nine of its Boeing 777s that are already used for domestic flights, mostly on flights to and from Hawaii. The other 10 Boeing 777s to be retrofitted will be shifted from United's long-haul international routes, a move that comes as the carrier's new Boeing 787 "Dreamliners" pick up more of that flying. Ben Mutzabaugh/USA Today
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Airline veteran Bethune sees 'egregious sins' at United -- A lack of focus, accountability and direction has caused United Airlines to lag behind its peers, according to Gordon Bethune, the former CEO of Continental Airlines. "I do kind of resent, I guess, seeing what was a great company slipping away," Bethune said Wednesday in a phone interview with the Chronicle. Bethune, who has a home in River Oaks and is widely regarded for turning around Continental when he was at its helm, retired from the then-Houston airline in 2004. Andrea Rumbaugh/Houston Chronicle
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Commentary: Time for a shake-up at United Airlines -- During the past year I have been a consistent critic of activist investors seeking to take over or influence well-run companies including Apple, PepsiCo, Amgen, DuPont, Dow, eBay and Allergan. However, I have supported activists who have challenged moribund management teams backed by complacent boards of directors. The new challenge to United-Continental Holdings, known as United Airlines, fits the latter description perfectly. United deserves to be challenged. Bill George/CNBC
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Spirit Air's Ex-CEO joins board of WOW Air, Iceland's low-cost upstart -- Icelandic low-cost carrier WOW Air has announced that former Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza will join its Board of Directors. Baldanza was replaced as Spirit CEO on January 4. The airline cites Baldanza's "wealth of experience in the airline industry with particular expertise in the realm of 'ultra-low cost' carriers." Marisa Garcia/Skift
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Got a flight complaint? Here are the airlines most - and least - likely to resolve it. -- In a world where airfare - and airline profits - are growing and seat space is shrinking, it sometimes seems that all we can do to be heard is to pull out the ol' Knee Defender. Or log on to GetAirHelp, a legal service that seeks compensation for passengers when a flight has been canceled or delayed. AirHelp has released a survey ranking 34 airlines, not only on performance and delays, but on whether - and how quickly - those airlines are willing to settle up with passengers seeking compensation. Kate Silver/Washington Post
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L.A. jumps up to world's 8th most expensive city for travelers and expats, study says -- Los Angeles is now the eighth most expensive city in the world for tourists and foreign businesspeople, a study released Thursday said, as a rising U.S. dollar has pushed the City of Angels ahead of pricey metropolises including Tokyo and Shanghai. L.A. - which ranked 27th last year - is now only slightly cheaper than New York, which ranked 7th on the list of 133 cities compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Singapore remains the world's most expensive place for visitors and expats, followed by Zurich, Hong Kong, Geneva, Paris and London. Julie Makinen/Los Angeles Times
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Hate those airline fees? A plan is hatched to curb them. -- Airline passengers hate those fees that can jack up the price of flying by hundreds of dollars. The airlines defend them, saying it's better to charge people for things not everybody uses than increase ticket prices for everyone. Now, two Democratic U.S. senators are entering the fray by suggesting that airlines need to be a bit more reasonable. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Ed Markey (Mass.) on Wednesday introduced a bill that would prohibit airlines from charging fees that "are unreasonable or disproportional" to what the service cost them to provide. Ashley Halsey III/Washington Post
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Senate not ready to move 38,000 workers off the federal payroll -- Senate Republicans broke with their House colleagues Wednesday, opting not to embrace a plan that would have removed about 38,000 workers from the federal payroll. The Senate rolled out a bipartisan reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration that would put additional requirements on people who buy drones and require airlines to be more transparent about the manner in which they impose fees for checked baggage, ticket changes, cancellations and seat selection. Ashley Halsey III/Washington Post
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Clay Lacy Aviation is distinguished as the longest standing Wyvern Wingman Certified Operator -- Clay Lacy Aviation, the most experienced operator of private jets in the world, has been awarded the Wyvern Wingman safety accreditation for the 10th consecutive time. Passing its first external audit in 1997, it has held this safety rating longer than any other company. Clay Lacy Press Release
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UN recommends flight-tracking tech to avoid another MH370 -- Two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, the United Nations has issued new regulations intended to prevent the same thing from happening again. The UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), said that by 2021, all commercial airlines will be required to have onboard "autonomous distress tracking devices" in all aircraft, which will transmit location information each minute in the event of "distress." Don Reisinger/PC Magazine
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Clash between countries stymies aviation emissions talks -- International aviation talks have hit a roadblock over a plan to limit carbon emissions for aircraft in a clash between developed and developing countries on how they view their responsibilities, two sources familiar with the matter said. High-level officials from the European Union, the United States, China, and others are scrambling to devise the plan before a meeting of the United Nations aviation agency's governing council in May. Valerie Volcovici & Allison Lampert/Reuters
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Hamburg tries to own the future of aviation with new research center -- The city of Hamburg has invested $110 million to establish a new science centre dedicated to the study of future aviation technologies which will improve the air travel experience. The ZAL Centre of Applied Aeronautical Research will house up to 600 specialists in fields of research such as fuel cells, aircraft cabin technology, 3D printing, Internet of Things (IoT), acoustics, and virtual reality in its new 26,000 square meter modern building. Marisa Garcia/Skift
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FAA proposes rule to overhaul small plane safety standards -- The Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration proposed a rule Wednesday to overhaul safety standards for small airplanes. The rule would create performance-based standards for airplanes that seat 19 passengers or fewer and weigh 19,000 pounds or less at takeoff - planes that are typically used for recreation, training, personal travel and limited commercial applications. The rule would create additional certification standards to reduce loss of control accidents and severe icing conditions. Lydia Wheeler/The Hill
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Amazon finds air freight partner -- Amazon.com Inc. is taking to the air with a fleet of planes, part of a broader effort to reduce its inflated shipping costs. The Seattle retailer plans to shuttle merchandise around the U.S. using as many as 20 Boeing Co. 767 aircraft it will lease from Air Transport Services Group Inc. News of the deal sent the air-cargo transportation company's shares soaring as much as 24% on Wednesday. Greg Bensinger/Wall Street Journal
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Lockheed Martin joins race to make long-haul airships -- The secretive Skunk Works in Palmdale has over the years spawned such sleek aircraft as the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane and the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter. Today, one of the facility's hangars houses a 120-foot-long, 21-foot-tall dirigible that resembles a cloud with three puffs - the prototype of a much larger hybrid airship that Lockheed Martin Corp. has touted as a way to deliver heavy cargo and personnel to remote locations. Samantha Masunaga/Los Angeles Times
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Cities hope Gold Line extension is a ticket to growth -- When City Manager Oliver Chi looks across Station Square next to the new Gold Line stop in Monrovia, he doesn't see a dilapidated train depot. He sees a bustling restaurant. Where an empty lot now sits, he sees a five-story apartment complex. That old lumber house? A bustling food hall. Los Angeles County's growing light-rail network plunges deeper than it ever has into suburbia this week with the opening of the Gold Line extension linking Pasadena to Azusa. Taylor Goldenstein/Los Angeles Times
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