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(Reuters) - Airlines and their passengers would pay up to $32 billion in new air traffic and security fees over 10 years, and grants to big airports would fall sharply under White House budget proposals on Monday aimed at deficit reduction. The Obama administration wants major carriers, their passengers, business jets and airports to pick up more of the costs of air travel and airport improvements that for years have been borne by taxpayers. New fees are sure to trigger strong opposition from airlines and other aviation groups who argue that the industry is already over-taxed and over-regulated. Ideas quietly...

<p>SYDNEY – Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN.AU) said Wednesday it has taken one of its Airbus A380 superjumbos out of service after cracks were discovered in its wings.</p>

As United Airlines retires its last Boeing 737, the Tribune looks back at some of the aircraft the carrier has used from its start as the nation's first coast-to-coast mail and passenger service.

Alaska Airlines, America's seventh-largest carrier in terms of passenger traffic, said on Wednesday that it would end a decades-old tradition of handing out prayer cards with its in-flight meals. The prayer cards, which the Seattle-based airline began offering in the 1970s after an executive spotted them on another airline, were intended to serve as a marketing strategy and to put passengers at ease, a spokeswoman said. The airline sent an e-mail to its frequent flyers on Wednesday explaining the change, which takes effect February 1.

Add to the private equity firms and airlines that may want to own all or a piece of bankrupt airlines AMR, the name of British Air. It could become partners with PE firm TPG Capital BA is part of the International Consolidated Airlines Group which also owns Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España. BA is also a partner in the One World Alliance which shares routes with AMR to allow passengers an easier way to travel to areas in which either BA or AMR has a large number of airplanes. This is, in turn, a key to customer retention

Those mocking the Transportation Security Administration for recently confiscating a passenger’s cupcake are missing the point says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. “It’s not that we’re saying that a cupcake, per se, is a dangerous weapon,” Napolitano explained. “But the risk of a random confiscation of any item is a way of throwing a monkey-wrench into a potential terrorist’s plot.” Napolitano also cited the collateral benefit to the TSA from “foraging off the land. You know, Sherman’s march to the sea wouldn’t have been possible if his troops didn’t take opportunities to seize supplies from the inhabitants of Georgia and...

Airlines paying more for fuel because waistlines are expanding by: Anne Wright From: Herald Sun January 12, 2012 12:00AM PEOPLE weighing more than average should pay more for their airfares than slimmer passengers, a former Qantas executive says. Tony Webber said airlines were paying more for fuel because the average weight of the population had increased. The extra fuel needed cost about $472 a plane, he said, and additional weight of passengers affected airlines' profits. "It's just a fact, and the thing is airlines consider these things when deciding how much fuel to put on the plane," said Mr Webber,...

Europe pledged Wednesday to press on with new charges for airline carbon emissions across its airspace as of January 1, after scoring a key victory over US rivals in the EU's top court. The decision was welcomed as vindication by the European Union, which told US airlines to get ready to obey the law in the same way EU companies respect American regulations. But it was not without collateral damage, with industry sources fearing a possible trade war after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of reprisals ahead of the ruling. A high-ranking source in the aviation sector told...

For more than two years, the disappearance of Air France Flight 447 over the mid-Atlantic in the early hours of June 1, 2009, remained one of aviation's great mysteries. How could a technologically state-of-the art airliner simply vanish? With the wreckage and flight-data recorders lost beneath 2 miles of ocean, experts were forced to speculate using the only data available: a cryptic set of communications beamed automatically from the aircraft to the airline's maintenance center in France. As PM found in our cover story about the crash, published two years ago this month, the data implied that the plane had...

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines' parent company is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it seeks to unload massive debt built up by years of accelerating jet fuel prices and labor struggles. The nation's third largest airline also said its CEO Gerard Arpey will step down. He's being replaced by Thomas Horton, currently the company's president....

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines and American Eagle's parent companies are filing for bankruptcy protection. AMR Corp. and AMR Eagle Holding Corp. said Tuesday that they filed voluntary petitions to reorganize, saying it's in the best interest of the companies and its shareholders.

American Airlines' parent company, AMR Corp., announced Tuesday that it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The decision comes as the airline tries to "achieve a cost and debt structure that is industry competitive and thereby assure its long-term viability and ability to continue delivering a world-class travel experience for its customers," the company said in a statement Tuesday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai's fast-growing airline Emirates kicked off the Middle East's biggest airshow Sunday with a huge order for 50 Boeing 777s, marking the U.S. aircraft maker's biggest-ever single order in dollar terms.

QANTAS has grounded its entire domestic and international fleet of aircraft and will lock out all staff involved in its industrial dispute from Monday night. The incredible move, coming in the middle of a bitter dispute with staff, will strand thousands of passengers in Australia and around the world. "We are grounding the Qantas fleet now," Qantas chief Alan Joyce has said. This means: * passengers in 12 planes at airport gates at the time of the announcement had to disembark; * 64 planes currently in the air, carrying 7000 passengers, are continuing to their destinations, but passengers with connecting...

<p>The Transport Workers Union on Monday is slated to petition the government to call a representation election in which the union hopes to win the right to represent 650 flight attendants at discounter Virgin America.</p> <p>Virgin America, a Burlingame, Calif., company with a hub in San Francisco, has 2,100 employees and is entirely nonunion. Richard Branson'sVirgin Group of the U.K. has a 25% voting stake and a 49% economic interest in the company.</p>

Angry passengers have started a boycott of American Airlines after it lost a cat named Jack in the baggage area at New York's John F Kennedy Airport seven weeks ago. Supporters of Jack the cat yesterday held a day of action at the airport to raise awareness of the missing moggy. The weeks may have passed, but the anger over the airline’s failure to find him is growing. The Jack The Cat is Lost in AA Baggage at JFK Facebook page now has more than 15,000 followers. It is updated daily with hundreds of comments from supporters. The aim of...

Airlines with a big presence in Chicago say proposed new federal taxes aimed at reducing the federal budget deficit could cost jobs and limit flights to and from smaller markets in Illinois... Airline taxes proposed by the White House and being considered by a Congressional committee include a tax of $100 per take-off for both passenger and cargo flights. A second tax would be on airfares, doubling the current $2.50 passenger security tax to $5 and eventually – by 2017 – to $7.50.

Iceland’s Katla Volcano Eruption Imminent: Could Surpass Last Year’s Eruption October 14, 2011 2:16 PM EST Iceland's Katla Volcano, which has a magma chamber that is ten times the size of Eyjafjallajokull, is showing signs of an imminent eruption. Experts are saying that should Katla erupt, the consequences could be disastrous for Europe as it could spew an ash cloud that will turn day into night. In comparison to last year's Eyjafjallajokull's eruption which grounded planes last year and cost the aviation industry nearly $2 billion dollars, Katla's could wreak havoc across Europe. The last time Katla erupted in 1918...

A German court in Hessen ruled Tuesday that night flights will be banned at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) when the fourth runway opens Oct. 21 (ATW Daily News, Oct. 5). The ban, which runs from 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., will affect 17 movements of mainly cargo flights. Lufthansa Cargo, which operates 11 scheduled nighttime slots, is expecting considerable financial damage from the night ban as it must now reschedule or cancel several flights beginning with the winter schedule. Resident complaints of aircraft noise from nearby Russelsheim and Offenbach were the reason for the court ruling. During the summer season, FRA...

As Japan welcomes the first Boeing 787, the world's largest carrier is patiently and anxiously waiting for its order. Jeff Smisek, head of the parent company for United and Continental airlines, on Thursday said he was last told by Boeing that the first of the 50 aircraft ordered by the company will be delivered to have in service in the second half of 2012. "We ordered that aircraft in December 2004. So I've been a very patient person," said Smisek, the president and CEO of United Continental Holdings Inc.

For twenty years – long before 9/11 – the danger of terrorists armed with surface to air missiles shooting at passenger planes has been the secret fear of many top political leaders. In the late 90s, a terrorist network was nabbed trying to bring them into Newark Airport, but the airline industry and the government have done nothing to equip passenger airplanes with any defense against these always deadly missiles. Now Barack Obama has committed the ultimate sin: He has let 20,000 surface-to-air missiles escape from military depots in Libya. According to ABC News “U.S. officials had once thought there...

A lesbian actress who starred in "The L-Word" said she kissed a girl — and got escorted off of a Southwest Airlines flight on Monday for doing it. Leisha Hailey took to Twitter to call for a boycott of the carrier after a flight attendant told them other passengers had complained after witnessing the affection. Her first tweet said: "I have been discriminated against." She later added, "Since when is showing affection to someone you love illegal?" Southwest Airlines Co. responded on its website that Hailey was approached "based solely on behavior and not gender." The airline's four-sentence response said...

For how much longer will one be able to fly the friendly skies with the people's tax dollars?Every day in 22 cities around the country, commuter planes take off with so few passengers that the pilots and crew outnumber the passengers. Each passenger pays a fare that’s less than $100. However, the federal government subsidizes the rest of the cost and pays airlines as much as $3,700 for each person on board. The controversial subsidy program is called Essential Air Services. It was enacted by Congress in 1978 as a “temporary� measure to help rural communities that were facing the...

Every day in 22 cities around the country, commuter planes take off with so few passengers that the pilots and crew outnumber the passengers. Each passenger pays a fare that’s less than $100. However, the federal government subsidizes the rest of the cost and pays airlines as much as $3,700 for each person on board.The controversial subsidy program is called Essential Air Services. It was enacted by Congress in 1978 as a “temporary� measure to help rural communities that were facing the loss of air travel when small airports were to be closed due to airline deregulation.Instead, Congress has temporarily...

Comedian Michael Colyar has blasted United Airlines for allegedly booting him off a flight because he is black. The 'Barbershop' star claimed he was forced off his flight at Dulles International Airport in Virginia after accusing a stewardess of giving a white passenger preferential treatment. The race row blew up after Mr Colyar, who won the talent show 'Star Search' 21 years ago, reportedly refused to allow his bag to be moved from an overhead storage bin so that a white woman could stow her bags there instead.

Gerard Depardieu 'Sorry' To Have Urinated On Plane Carpet Gerard Depardieu's entourage has said he tried to urinate into a bottle "as discreetly as possible" while on a flight, and said he was "sorry" to have spilt some on the plane's carpet. By Henry Samuel 17 Aug 2011 The French actor was caught short on a Paris to Dublin flight after the seat belt sign had been switched on for take-off. With the lavatories closed, the 62-year-old called out "I need to piss, I need to piss". But the cabin crew said no. So the corpulent star of Cyrano de...

I love it. A sense of humor in the airline industry.

An edict from the European Union (EU) focused on emissions reduction is drawing the ire of the United States Congress and the air cargo industry. Under its so-called Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the EU is calling all airlines to pay taxes to the EU as part of a “cap and trade” for carbon allowances in an effort to reduce air emissions created as a result of their flights in EU airspace. The EU ETS was created in 2005. According to the EU, the ETS places a cap—or limit—on the total amount of certain greenhouse gases that can be emitted by...

MIAMI — Two brothers have been arrested after being accused of striking a pilot and a flight attendant onboard an American Airlines plane grounded at Miami International Airport. Luis and Jonathan Baez were waiting for their flight to depart to San Francisco when a flight attendant noticed Jonathan didn't have his seatbelt buckled during the taxi on the runway. She attempted to have him fasten it, but he was unresponsive and appeared intoxicated or on narcotics, according to the arrest report.

What is going on with airlines? I clearly don’t have all the facts, don’t even know where to start investigating, but something IS wrong with airlines in the US. Years ago, when reading PJ O’Rourke’s Eat The Rich, I came across his description of train travel in Siberia, where the train seemed to have been built to maximize discomfort and lack of hygiene. He compared this to travel in the US and I realized suddenly that Portugal, while not as bad as Siberian trains in the USSR was about halfway there: i.e. Portuguese trains had a restroom, but you’d not...

An Oregon passenger heading to Alaska said he was stung by a scorpion on the plane. Jeff Ellis of West Linn said he was trying to sleep on a red-eye Alaska Airlines flight June 17 when he felt something in his sleeve and tried to brush it away. He said he felt the crawling again, looked down and saw the culprit. Ellis says he grabbed the scorpion with a napkin, but not before it stung him on the elbow. He says it caused a burning sensation. "I kinda tried to go back to sleep and then I felt it on...

The leader of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP said Friday that US Airways engaged in discriminatory conduct by requiring an African American passenger to pull up his pants before boarding a plane, but allowing a white man to board another flight wearing little but women's undergarments. The Rev. Amos Brown said the group's national leaders would contact airline officials to suggest sensitivity training for executives and ask them to "atone, repent and show their wrongness is understood." "The NAACP, in no uncertain terms, contends that this young man was profiled," Brown said in reference to Deshon Marman,...

While Delta Airlines obfuscates and dancing around the truth, they have really perfected the art of taqiya, their website tells the story. Go to Delta Airlines website and look at the information listed there. Delta doesn’t just work with Saudi Airlines, they post their info on the Delta website. Not only are Jews not welcome, but women are told to cover their arms and to to wear heavy clothing among other sharia compliant rules. Further Muslim women are restricted from travel without a husband or immediate member of the family. Oh, and no kissing. It's very easy to find this...

SAN FRANCISCO – Days before a college football player was arrested on a US Airways flight at San Francisco airport following a dispute over his saggy pants, the airline allowed another man wearing skimpy women's panties and mid-thigh stockings to fly, according to a passenger and airline spokeswoman.

A college football player was pulled off a flight and arrested because he was wearing his pants too low. Deshon Marman, 20, a University of New Mexico player was boarding a flight back to college yesterday when he was stopped because his pants were ‘below his buttocks, but above the knees, and his boxer shorts were showing’. Police said the man who was flying back to Alberqurque from home in San Francisco, California, was told by a U.S. Airways employee to pull up his pants, but he refused. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004270/Deshon-Marman-pulled-flight-arrested-wearing-baggy-pants.html#ixzz1PXq5KB9U

Airline official says some of the imported meat served is diseased or donkey fleshSaudi Arabian Airlines could have served its passengers donkey meat, ignoring warnings by a local government food control body that imported meat from Tunisia could be diseased or is donkey meat. A Saudi Airlines executive made the accusations in a television interview this week, prompting many Saudis to write to local newspapers calling for the prosecution of those responsible for such an act. Abdullah Al Bubou, a senior inspector at the supply division in the Airlines, said Saudi Arabia’s General Food and Drugs Authority had repeatedly warned...

A Delta Air Lines flight coming from Pittsburgh caught fire as it landed on the runway at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport late Saturday afternoon. Four passengers sought first aid for minor injuries, but no one was hospitalized, according to Atlanta Fire Capt. Jolyon Bundridge. The flight had 44 passengers and five crew members, according to information from Delta. The brakes on the plane -- #2284 -- overheated on the taxiway, which caused the fire, Delta said, using information from their operations control center. FAA officials reported that the plane blew a tire while landing. The plane has been taken out of...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Southwest Airlines has apologized to a mother and daughter who said they got rough treatment at the airport. Kenlie Tiggeman, a 30-year-old political strategist and weight loss blogger in New York City, said it was humiliating, being told she was too fat to fly, reports CBS 2’s John Slattery. “It was rude. It was in front of lots of people,” said Tiggeman, who’s originally from New Orleans. Tiggeman said the incident happened in Dallas over Easter. She and her mother were told by a gate agent they each had to purchase two seats. “And said that...

MIAMI — Robert Woodus III never met his father, who died eight months before his birth in 1996. But on Wednesday the 14-year-old eighth-grader stood near the place his father died, in a watery Everglades prairie where ValuJet Flight 592 plunged to earth in a fiery crash just north of U.S. 41. "I was thinking about this place, and what happened before I was born," said Woodus. His father, Robert Woodus Jr., was one of 110 people who died in what remains Florida's deadliest air crash.

A dozen people charged with disrupting inbound flights to Boston — including threatening and assaulting airline staff — since 9/11 have faced virtually no punishment even as pilots and flight attendants demand tougher justice on out-of-control passengers who frighten fellow flyers and cost airlines thousands of dollars. A Herald review of court records on the mid-flight mischief has found the testy travelers — sometimes attributing the bad behavior to booze, medication and mental instability — have had cases dismissed with apologies or received probation but hardly ever jail time. The review comes after Robert J. Hersey Jr., 43, of Arlington...

She had been due to fly to South Korea with her daughter for a special mother's day treat. But it had also been Crystal Kim's last wish to 'die at home' after being diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in February. Instead Ms Kim found herself in a hotel at the weekend after being turned away by Korean Airlines for looking 'too frail' to fly. The dying mother had approval from two doctors and a note clearing her to fly over the weekend from Seattle, but the carrier still thought Ms Kim may not be up for the long haul...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- An attorney said Tuesday that some Muslim religious leaders wearing traditional Arab garb were humiliated and embarrassed when they were wrongly kicked off two commercial flights as they sought to travel to a national conference. Imams in Memphis, Tenn., and New York were headed to the Charlotte conference when they were asked to leave the planes Friday. The imams had already passed through security at the airports before being stopped by airline personnel.

One of the city's most prominent Muslim leaders claims he was prevented from boarding two American Airlines flights en route to a conference on Islamophobia last week because of his appearance. Imam Al-Amin Abdul-Latif — who heads the Majlis Ash-Shura, or Islamic Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York, a representative body that includes dozens of area mosques — said he was twice denied by officials when he tried to board an American Airlines flight from La Guardia to Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday to attend a conference on Islamophobia.

Did Yemen man yell 'Allahu Akbar' in incident outside cockpit door near San Francisco Airport? Police said Almurisi had no known ties to terrorist organizations. He was subdued by flight attendants and passengers who assisted the flight attendants in handcuffing the man to a seat. The incident happened as the jet was over Modesto, about 15 minutes outside of San Francisco. Almurisi was arrested when the plane landed at San Francisco International. He was taken to San Mateo County Medical Center where he was treated for abrasions to his elbow and chin that he got as the result of being...

Ever since 9/11, Americans have been forced to undergo humiliating searches at airports that have left many wondering whether the terrorists really did win in the end. We have all seen the videos of American children, little old ladies, and even nuns getting fondled, under the reasoning that we need to prevent terrorists from getting on our planes ever again. In the meantime, we have also seen videos and photos of people who actually fit the profile of the terrorists be given a free pass with minimum or no frisking as they are allowed board airplanes. These are the...

A well-maintained plane can fly for decades. Older planes do need more repairs, but experts say an aircraft's age never has been the cause of a passenger death. Pilot training and fatigue, as well as frequency of aircraft maintenance, are larger safety issues. The average age of jets flown by U.S. airlines is 11 years old, slightly above the world average of 10 but far shy of the 28 for Venezuela's fleet — the oldest of any country with more than a handful of jets. Theoretically, a jet could continue flying indefinitely as long as an airline maintained it, says...

(Reuters) - Southwest Airlines grounded 81 aircraft from its Boeing 737 fleet for inspection after a gaping hole in the fuselage forced one of its planes to make emergency landing in Arizona on Friday, the company said on Saturday. Southwest (LUV.N) and Boeing (BA.N) engineers will inspect the aircraft to try to determine the cause, Southwest said in a statement. Passengers heard a loud noise and suddenly saw a hole about mid-cabin. Southwest Airlines is working with the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration on the ground in Arizona to determine the cause of a sudden drop...

(Reuters) - Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) said it expected to cancel 300 flights scheduled for Saturday to allow inspections of 79 aircraft from its Boeing 737 fleet, after one of its planes made an emergency landing with a gaping hole in the fuselage. Passengers aboard Southwest Flight 812 from Phoenix to Sacramento on Friday heard a loud noise and the hole appeared suddenly at about mid cabin, forcing the pilot to land at a military base in Yuma, Arizona. [Read more at link]

Chicago - Fears of nuclear radiation in Japan have now hit Chicago, after a plane landing at O'Hare Airport tested for positive for radiation, but an expert in the field cautioned that there was no risk to the public from the incident. A spokeperson for American Airlines confirmed that two planes from Tokyo tested positive for radiation Wednesday, one at O'Hare and one landing in Dallas. The radiation at O'Hare was coming from a routine medical shipment that was bound for Mexico. U.S. Customs said the radiation test was positive, but at no time was the radiation at unsafe levels....

Angry mum Natalie Williamson with her son Riley. Source: Herald Sun VIRGIN Blue has sacked a male flight attendant and offered an angry mother free flights after her toddler was put in an overhead locker. Natalie Williamson claims she, her 17-month-old son, Riley, and her now estranged husband were on a Virgin flight from Fiji to Sydney, when the flight attendant picked up Riley, placed him in the locker and closed the latch. Virgin has admitted an incident did take place, but claims Ms Williamson's husband was playing a peek-a-boo game with Riley involving the overhead compartment when the flight...