Airlines cancelled around 1,600 flights Monday, and another 1,200 experienced delays, in the aftermath of a massive weekend blizzard that slammed into the eastern US, wreaking havoc on travel in the nation's busiest cities. Even as the airlines resumed operations, the remnants of the storm posed problems. For instance, Delta said snow continued to hamper operations at LaGuardia and Newark airports. Monday, airports in the New York City area and Washington D.C. metro areas suffered the highest number of cancellations. For some travellers in those locations, getting home continued to be an adventure. Newark Liberty International listed 260 cancelled flights and 48 delays as of Monday afternoon, the most of any US airport, according to FlightAware. Meanwhile, LaGuardia listed 177 cancelled flights and 30 delays with JFK listing 46 cancellations and 40 delays.<br/>
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IATA has denounced a 33%-38% Italian Council Tax levied on air passengers, which became effective in January. The tax came “without any advance warning or consultation” and will damage Italian economic competitiveness and result in the loss of 2,300 jobs a year, IATA said. According to IATA, the tax increase amounts to an extra E2.50 (US$2.70) per passenger. This raises the tax passengers pay every time they fly from an airport near Rome to E10, and E9 for flights from other Italian airports. None of the revenue raised from the tax is re-invested in aviation, but instead is diverted for general purposes, IATA said. “This sudden jump in the cost of flying from Italy can only cause harm to the Italian people and its economy,” IATA regional VP-Europe Rafael Schvartzman said. “The increase in the council tax will reduce passenger numbers by over 755,000 and GDP by E146m."<br/>
The airline industry is taking Italy and Norway to task for introducing new passenger taxes that it says will hurt visitor numbers. At the association’s official launch event in Amsterdam at the end of last week, A4E said that what it described as “unreasonable taxes” had been proven to suppress demand and were “bad for passengers and bad for the economy.” It said that one of the key issues on which all 5 founding member airline groups were agreed was vigorous opposition against such taxes. A4E pointed out that, in the Netherlands, the Dutch govt had withdrawn a ticket tax in 2009 because of the negative impact it had on passenger numbers. Following the removal of the tax, “passenger numbers bounced back,” A4E said. EasyJet CE Carolyn McCall said: “What taxation does is it suppresses demand and there is ample evidence of that."<br/>
As Iranian officials scramble to reconnect to the global economy, one sector is getting early clearance for take-off: its creaky aviation industry. In a raft of early deals and talks following the lifting of broad economic sanctions against Iran, officials and aviation executives there have signalled they are targeting an ambitious revamp of the country’s aviation infrastructure. Such a rebuild would come as Tehran already starts to renew its aging fleet of commercial jetliners. The moves could help lure more business to Iran as well as, eventually, tourism. Tehran is tapping French airport operator Aéroports de Paris and construction-to-media conglomerate Bouygues SA to design and build a new terminal at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, according to people familiar with the matter. French construction firm Vinci SA is expected to develop and operate airports in Mashhad and another Iranian city.<br/>
Airports of Thailand has reserved 2 concourses at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport for flights from the Middle East to effectively screen passengers for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers). AoT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said Monday that as another Mers patient had arrived in Thailand from the Mideast, planes arriving from the region would now be directed to concourses E and G. There, special screening stations equipped with thermal scanners and staffed by experienced officials were set up to observe the condition of each passenger, he said. In addition, AoT and disease-control officials asked airlines and the Airline Operators Committee to help pre-screen passengers travelling from where Mers has spread so those with suspicious symptoms could be treated quickly. Passengers on such flights would receive written instructions and warnings related to Mers.<br/>