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How TSA cut waits at security for Memorial Day weekend -- The biggest U.S. airports managed to avoid a holiday weekend meltdown with a surge of screeners to open more security lanes. But the improvement may not be sustainable all summer. Expect sporadic storms and occasional long delays until permanent screening improvements get put in use. Travelers will likely still need to show up at the airport extra early. Indeed, Tuesday morning after the Memorial Day weekend push found complaints on social media of some lines snaking through airport lobbies. Scott McCartney/Wall Street Journal
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Gov't report: Airports need more help keeping intruders out -- While intruders routinely breach the security fences protecting runways and planes at U.S. airports, the federal Transportation Security Administration is not keeping up with the threat or doing enough to help airports identify their vulnerabilities, according to a government report. Congress asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office to investigate how often people get past airport perimeter security, and whether the TSA could do more to help airports anticipate and prevent incidents. Justin Pritchard & Martha Mendoza/AP
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U.S. warns summer's Europe-bound Americans about terror risks -- The State Department is warning Americans visiting Europe this summer about the potential for terrorist attacks. Tuesday's travel alert says major sporting events, tourist sites, restaurants and shopping centers are possible targets. France is hosting soccer's European Championship and cycling's Tour de France, while under an extended state of emergency. Two-and-a-half million visitors are expected in Krakow, Poland, for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day in late July. Bradley Klapper/AP
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Delta's new airport security lanes could double the speed of baggage scanning -- Delta Airlines wants to minimize the drudgery of airport security lines. On May 26, the company paid for and installed two "innovation lanes" that allow up to five passengers to prepare their carry-ons for security scanning at the same time. The lanes, which are both in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, each feature five "divestment points" - designated spots where people can load their containers. Clinton Nguyen/Tech Insider
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Fmr. Spirit Airlines CEO: Airlines can shrink TSA lines -- Even though "running efficiently seems to be a challenge for the TSA," former Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza says a good way to shorten airport security delays is to create incentives. "The individuals have an incentive to carry fewer bags through the TSA right now because that clogs the lines but airlines can create economic incentives with their baggage policies," he told the FOX Business Network's Connell McShane. Julia Limitone/Fox Business
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TSA trains dogs to stay one sniff ahead of bomb makers -- Just after dawn on a recent May morning, Ajax, a 2-year-old black Labrador retriever, eagerly worked his way through a sparsely furnished room sniffing for explosives. On his third try, he picked up a scent behind a piece of furniture near the front of the room. "Good dog, good dog," said Andrew Baxter, his trainer, who reached into a pouch and threw Ajax a squeaky toy, much to the dog's delight. Ron Nixon/New York Times
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How Pre-Check made airport security lines longer -- The three main explanations making the rounds for why airport security waits have gotten out of control in the U.S. this spring have been: Lots more people are flying. Budget cutbacks have forced the Transportation Security Administration to make do with fewer screeners. The TSA is a bungling bureaucracy. There is surely something to all three of these, and it's easy to find statistical evidence for the first two. Justin Fox/Bloomberg View
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Noise-abatement Plan Proposed for Bob Hope Airport -- The FAA is reviewing a proposed noise-compatibility program submitted for Bob Hope Airport in Burbank (to be rebranded as Hollywood Burbank Airport). This proposal and its accompanying noise exposure maps were submitted under the provisions of FAR Part 150, which provides the regulatory guidance and technical support for airport noise-abatement programs. Gordon Gilbert/AIN Online
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Rising seas could swamp crucial infrastructure -- On a bluff in the Westchester neighborhood overlooking the L.A. Basin just inland from the beach, one can see the Ballona Wetlands below. It's 600 acres of low-lying marshland, an urban refuge for plants and wildlife, and also a major corridor for traffic flowing west to Marina del Rey, with its yacht slips, upscale shopping and housing. It's also where the concrete channel of Ballona Creek flows to the ocean. Mitchell Hartman/Marketplace
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House Bill 2 opponents ask FAA to cut NC's airport grant funding -- Human Rights Campaign is asking the Federal Aviation Administration to consider whether House Bill 2 is causing North Carolina airports to violate grant requirements. If the FAA joined the U.S. Department of Justice's position that HB2 violates the Civil Rights Act, the move could jeopardize millions of dollars in federal funding that helps operate and expand the state's public airports. Colin Campbell/Raleigh News & Observer
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Ex-Atlanta airport chief: "All kinds of issues" make job tough -- Angela Gittens says she doesn't know why former Atlanta airport general manager Miguel Southwell was abruptly ousted just over a week ago. But she knows Southwell, and she has done the job. Gittens ran Hartsfield-Jackson International from 1993 to 1998 before being let go by then-Mayor Bill Campbell. She said "there's all kinds of issues that can come up that don't really have anything to do with actual management of the airport - because it's part of the city politics and the city bureaucracy." Kelly Yamanouchi/Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Qatar Airways in Atlanta: Turf war, controversy rose to mayor's office -- As Qatar Airways prepares to launch its first flights to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the mayor of Atlanta has already heralded its coming arrival - and defended his decision to do so. Qatar's new service has heated up a turf war between the Middle East carrier and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, and also sparked protests about women's rights and other issues in Qatar. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed spoke at a Qatar Airways pre-launch gala two weeks ago, prompting some criticism. Kelly Yamanouchi/Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Airport near Everest is its own perilous adventure -- If you want to visit Mount Everest, you had better be pretty adventurous - and not just for the climb. Getting to the mountain usually means flying into Lukla, Nepal, home of Tenzing-Hillary Airport, one of the scariest airstrips in the world. It's just a short flight to Lukla from Kathmandu, the capital, but it's plenty challenging for pilots, who have to guide 19-passenger turboprops through rugged mountain terrain where the wind often swirls at 30 to 40 miles per hour and thick fogs can form. Kai Schultz/New York Times
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New Moscow airport's take off stalled by vanishing passengers -- Moscow's new international airport is set to open next month with only a handful of airlines and faces a struggle to win passengers from rivals after Russia's economic crisis. The Zhukovsky airport terminal was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday, part of a 10 billion rouble ($152 million) project to redevelop a cargo airfield and Cold War flight test centre 40 kilometres south-east of Moscow. Gleb Stolyarov & Jack Stubbs/Reuters
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Egypt says signals picked up from doomed plane's black boxes -- Egypt said Wednesday that a French ship has picked up signals from deep under the Mediterranean Sea, presumed to be from black boxes of EgyptAir Flight 804 that crashed last month, killing all 66 passengers and crew on board. The Civil Aviation Ministry cited a statement from the committee investigating the crash as saying the vessel Laplace was the one that received the signals. It did not say when the signals were detected but the French Navy confirmed the Laplace arrived on Tuesday in the search area. CBS News
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United Airlines on track to add basic economy fares in 2016 -- Despite the drama surrounding the departure of United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek and the delayed integration of new CEO Oscar Munoz, the company is still on track to roll out basic economy fares this year, in order to compete against its legacy carrier peers and low-cost carrier competitors in major U.S. markets. The challenge, however, is preparing consumers for additional fare options and ensuring that travel agents have access to the new fares through their booking tools. Andrew Sheivachman/Skift
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United Airlines adds non-stop flights to Tel Aviv-San Francisco route -- United Airlines on Thursday announced that it was increasing the frequency of its nonstop flights between Tel Aviv and San Francisco from three a week to one per day. The new daily flights will begin on October 8, 2016 on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners which fly faster, with passengers enjoying larger windows and better ventilation on the planes. The additional flights will operate according to the same timetable as that of the existing flights. Jewish Business News
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United Airlines announces more free food -- Just before Christmas last year, United Airlines announced a merry change: Complimentary food was back for fliers in coach seats. Starting last February, passengers are offered a stroopwafel, or Dutch caramel-filled waffle, on flights departing before 9:45 a.m. The airline also started offering pretzels, sesame sticks and rice cakes on flights later in the day. Now the world's third-largest carrier is adding to its menu of free munchies. Hugo Martin/Los Angeles Times
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Delta announces nonstop flights between PDX and London -- Delta Air Lines will offer seasonal, nonstop flights between Portland and London starting next summer, the airline said Tuesday. The four-day-a-week flights between Portland International Airport and London's Heathrow airport will start on May 26, 2017, and continue through Oct. 29. It adds to Portland's small portfolio of flights to Europe, which already includes year-round service to Amsterdam and seasonal flights to Reykjavik-Keflavik Airport in Iceland and Frankfurt, Germany. Elliot Njus/The Oregonian
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Airlines For America's 2016 campaign takes flight -- With television sets ablaze with images of long security lines at the nation's airports, Airlines for America (A4A), the trade association representing the leading U.S. airlines, has launched its newest ad campaign. "We Connect the World" reminds flyers and policymakers of the benefits that only the airline industry can offer, says A4A in a release. The ads feature James Pepe, a ramp marshaller who works the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport for United Airlines. Nina Lentini/Marketing Daily
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Aeromexico takes aim at Trump with a gritty, defiant ad about walls and borders -- At first, it feels like a social-issues PSA, with moody footage of traffic jams, military parades, riots and even a grade-school bathroom "swirly" tossed in for good measure. Actually, it's a commercial for a leading brand in Mexico, whose identity isn't revealed until the final seconds of the riveting minute-long ad. While brands have leveraged the cultural zeitgeist in ads before, this Ogilvy spot for Aeromexico seems especially pointed in taking a stand against the arbitrary lines that keep people apart. David Gianatasio/Adweek
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JetBlue CIO pilots VC arm in search of revenue growth -- An airline's effort to find emerging technologies that can grow revenues is taking flight. JetBlue Airways' venture capital firm is seeking out innovation, including machine learning and analytics as well as new approaches to customer service, to differentiate itself in a travel industry whose margins run razor thin. In what it claims is the first venture-capital unit in Silicon Valley backed by a U.S. airline, JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV) serves as a sort of test lab for technologies JetBlue may eventually adopt and commercialize. Clint Boulton/CIO
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