A Pittsburgh-bound flight from Punta Cana had to be diverted to Florida after four crew members and three passengers were injured from unexpected turbulence. Some passengers were tossed from their seats, and one flight attendant hit her head on the ceiling of the Allegiant Airlines flight on Thursday. The flight from the Dominican Republic hit the turbulence over the Bahamas, and the plane was diverted to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The airline says the charter flight operated for Apple Vacations had 137 passengers and six crew members. The Broward County sheriff's office says the injuries weren't life-threatening. The most seriously hurt was a flight attendant who had head injuries.<br/>
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Seventeen passengers and crew were injured when a Hong Kong Airlines' flight ran into severe turbulence early Saturday on the way from Indonesia's resort Bali island to Hong Kong. The Airbus A330-200 with 204 passengers and 12 crew returned to Bali about 2 ½ hours into the flight and landed safely at 4:34 a.m. (2034 GMT Friday), said Trikora Harjo, general manager of Bali's Ngurah Rai airport. The plane encountered the turbulence above Kalimantan, Indonesia's part of Borneo, he said. Most of the injuries were head bruises and there were no serious cases, Harjo said. Three crewmembers and eight passengers were brought to a hospital while six others were treated at the airport clinic, he said. He said there was no damage to the plane, but an inspection was underway. Ninety-five passengers were flown to Hong Kong on board a Garuda Indonesia plane Saturday morning while the rest were waiting at the airport and hotels. <br/>
Investec Bank’s aviation arm made its first foray into financing the Airbus Group SE A380 superjumbo with a deal to purchase four jets operated by Emirates before leasing them back to the Dubai-based carrier. Investec will pay a total of $1b for the double-deckers, of which two are new and owned by Emirates, with the other two, first delivered in 2013, being bought from Aviation Finance’s Stellwagen Finance, it said Monday. Investec, which already finances single-aisle and smaller twin-aisle aircraft built by Airbus and Boeing Co., plans to own the A380s for 12 years before selling them on the secondary market, said Alok Wadhawan, co-head of Investec Aviation Finance. Interest in aircraft purchases has increased as yields from more traditional assets struggle to recover to the levels seen before the 2008 credit crunch and global recession. The price of oil has also buoyed airline earnings, while making the four-engine A380 a more viable prospect, Wadhawan said. “Aircraft are dollar assets, and investors want dollar exposure,” he said. “And you get steady returns, the assets are mobile, and the security collateral is strong. It also helps that most airlines these days are profitable.”<br/>
Tehran and Muscat are looming large on the radar screen of Thai AirAsia X (TAAX) for its first foray into new markets. The inauguration of regular services to the two cities by Thailand's first long-haul low-cost carrier could take place in August, following a planned launch announcement later this month. Industry executives familiar with the issue said TAAX planned to offer four flights a week from its base in Bangkok's Don Mueang airport to the Iranian capital. The airline would also operate three flights a week from Bangkok to the Omani capital. Tehran and Muscat have been of interest to TAAX since Oct 1 last year when its Bangkok-Shanghai service got off the ground. <br/>But they represent a dramatic shift in TAAX's route planning, which since its 2014 inception has focused on Japan, South Korea and China. <br/>