CommercialHijacker Held After Ethiopian Plane Lands In GenevaSwiss authorities detained the hijacker of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that was forced to land at Geneva airport on Monday, airport police said, adding that passengers and crew were safe. The situation was "under control", police said after flight ET 702 had been diverted from its original destination of Rome. The airline earlier said the flight from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa had been "forced to proceed" to Geneva. An Ethiopian government spokesman, Redwan Hussein, told Reuters news agency the flight had made a scheduled stop in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, where he said the hijacker or hijackers might have boarded the flight.
LinkDiscussionPlane With 18 On Board Missing In NepalA small plane owned by state-run Nepal Airlines with 18 people aboard went missing in bad weather in west Nepal on Sunday, officials said, highlighting air safety concerns in the mountainous nation. The Twin Otter aircraft was carrying 15 passengers, including an infant, and a crew of three on a flight from the town of Pokhara, 125 km (80 miles) west of Kathmandu, to Jumla in the far west of Nepal. It lost contact with the control tower soon after taking off, airport official Dharmendra Pandey said.
LinkBody Found In SAA Wheel Well At Dulles AirportA man's body was discovered on Saturday in the wheel well of a South African Airways jet parked at Washington's Dulles Airport. Investigators are seeking to determine when and how he died, officials said. A ground crew assigned to the plane, an Airbus A340, found the body at about 1:30 pm local time, according to a statement from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
LinkIndonesian Airports Reopen After Volcanic EruptionSeveral airports have resumed operations on the heavily populated Indonesian island of Java after they were forced to close due to a volcanic eruption that sent a 17 km (10 mile) ash cloud into the air. More than 56,000 people were forced to flee their homes and four people were killed when Mount Kelud erupted late on Thursday in East Java province, coating cities and airports as far as 500 km away in a layer of ash and stranding thousands of passengers. Surabaya, about 90 km (54 miles) north of the volcano, has Indonesia's third-busiest airport and is a major industrial area. Its international airport was forced to shut down along with six others across Java in Bandung, Yogyakarta, Solo, Malang, Semarang and the major oil refinery town of Cilacap.
LinkJAL, ANA Clash Over Tokyo Landing RightsJapan Airlines said it has applied to fly from Tokyo's Haneda airport to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam prompting a complaint from ANA, which urged regulators to deny its local rival the right to open up new routes from the hub. The latest stand off threatens to re-ignite a fight for dominance at the airport that in October saw ANA awarded 11 new landing slots, compared with only five for JAL. Regulators then said that it did not want to let JAL launch new routes because a state-led USD$3.5 billion bailout of the carrier in 2010, that resulted in most of its debt being waived, gave it a competitive advantage over ANA. The landing right allocations are usually split evenly.
LinkCrashed MA60 pilot set throttle below flight-idleIndonesian investigators have determined that both power levers on a Merpati Nusantara Xian Aircraft MA60 had been retarded to the beta range before the aircraft landed hard at Kupang’s El Tari airport and broke up. Beta mode is a critical throttle setting on turboprops, below flight-idle, which is normally used only for ground manoeuvring. Selecting this setting during flight can be extremely hazardous, and the MA60 has an electromagnetic locking mechanism designed to prevent the pilots’ inadvertently moving the throttle levers below flight-idle. But the National Transportation Safety Committee says the power lever lock was opened during the approach. While this was consistent with the operator’s approach checklist, it was not part of the airframer’s operating manual.
LinkDelta to give employees $506M in profit sharingEmployees at Delta Air Lines will receive a combined total of $506 million in profit-sharing bonuses. Based in Atlanta, Delta said the payout is the highest in the carrier's history. Employees will receive a bonus of 8.26% of eligible earnings for 2013.
LinkUPS to deliver higher quarterly dividendUnited Parcel Service has raised its quarterly dividend by 8.1%, which amounts to an additional five cents per share. According to UPS, the move will cost the company $186 million per year. UPS has raised its quarterly dividend for three years in a row.
LinkUnited Airlines tees up alliance with PGA TourUnited Airlines has announced a partnership with PGA Tour, which will allow the carrier to offer discounts on golf courses to United frequent fliers. "Through our relationship with the PGA TOUR, MileagePlus members can play on some of the top golf courses in the country, with the added benefit of player-friendly discounts," said Praveen Sharma, United's vice president of loyalty and business development.
LinkSnowstorm models enabled airlines to plan proactivelyThis week's snowstorms have prompted the most flight cancellations since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and airlines are working to recover. However, snowstorm models helped airlines prepare for the winter weather. Airlines for America's Don Dillon stated, "This storm, it's tracking pretty much right where the forecast models put it, and so what that does is it allows the various airlines to put together very good proactive plans."
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