An unspecified threat to an arriving British Airways flight forced the evacuation of the plane at Newark Liberty Airport Thursday afternoon, but no suspicious items were found in the plane or in passengers' luggage, officials said. The plane carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew members arrived from London at approximately 1 p.m. and was taken to a remote area of the airport, where a canine team conducted a search of the cabin and cargo area. Passengers said they weren't aware of the threat until they landed. "The entire flight down, nobody knew anything until we were already on the ground and there," said Sean Fitzgerald, a passenger from New Jersey. "That's when the pilot came over the intercom and told us what was going on, and he basically said there was a threat that was called in and they had to do some security measures." <br/>
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More than 500 passengers aboard the first Qatar Airways flight to Atlanta flew 7,400 miles from Doha, Qatar, without incident, but during the final few hundred yards of their journey they got caught up in an international dustup between airline heavyweights. Here at the world's busiest airport -- with seven concourses and more than 200 gates -- a gate for the Super Jumbo Airbus A380 could not be provided. That forced Qatar Airways passengers to deplane Wednesday via mobile stairs and shuttle buses. Atlanta's airport has only one gate that can accommodate the A380 -- the world's largest airliner. The airport and resident hub carrier Delta said they could not make that gate available. The very public battle between Delta and competitor Qatar Airways represents a microcosm of the national debate over whether the amount of alleged government subsidies foreign airlines receive violates international Open Skies agreements. Hundreds of Qatar passengers were inconvenienced in Atlanta. Some wanted to know who to blame for not having a jetway where they could deplane. The airport and Delta blamed the airline for not giving enough notice that it was sending a Super Jumbo to an airport with only one gate that could handle such a big plane. "It is a part of the common use lease agreement that we have," said airport spokesman Reese McCranie. "We have to be given a certain amount of time when there is an equipment swap."<br/>Four to six Delta aircraft needed access to the A380 gate at the time the Qatar Airways plane requested access.<br/>
The families of six crew members on a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet shot down over Ukraine nearly two years ago filed lawsuits against the airline on Thursday, accusing it of negligence and breach of contract. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was hit by a surface-to-air missile on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board at the height of fighting in the Ukraine conflict. Thomas Philip, the lawyer for the families, said the airline failed to conduct an adequate risk assessment and charted a course through a known conflict zone, posing an unreasonable risk to those on board. He said the airline also was guilty of breach of contract for failing to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the flight crew. “They failed to fulfill these duties, resulting in catastrophic loss of life,” he said. The families are seeking general damages for loss of support and services, damages for pain, suffering and stress, among others, Philip said.<br/>
Malaysia Airlines' CE, Christoph Mueller, said he was confident the carrier was on the road to recovery, but was coy about his own next move ahead of his departure in September. Mueller, who revived Aer Lingus, said he wanted to stay in the industry but hinted he may have had enough of restructuring. "I've done these type of jobs now so many times, maybe I should do something else," he said. "I can go so far as saying it will be certainly aviation-related, but that's the only thing I can say. Stay tuned." Mueller declined to elaborate on the reasons for his departure which Malaysia Airlines has said was due to "changing personal circumstances". The German was hired last year to nurse the airline back to health after it was left reeling when two disasters in 2014 - the disappearance of flight MH370 and the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine - compounded losses. He launched a restructuring plan to cut a third of jobs, scrap some international routes, and renegotiate supplier deals, but his unexpected departure was announced in April and a successor has not been named. Mueller said Malaysia Airlines, which was taken private by Malaysian national investment firm Khazanah in 2014, was ahead of schedule in its plan to be sustainably profitable by 2018. As such, it is considering whether to expand its fleet by adding new aircraft, he said, adding a fleet plan was due to be published over the summer.<br/>
Qantas Airways CE Alan Joyce has brushed off any threat from changes in the Virgin Australia share register to his airline's position in the domestic and international market. China's HNA Aviation Tuesday agreed to buy a 13% share in Virgin through a $159m share placement to bolster its balance sheet, and Virgin has announced plans to fly to Hong Kong and Beijing from next year as a result. Qantas flies to Hong Kong from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and to Shanghai from Sydney. It has partnerships with two of the three large state-owned carriers, China Eastern and China Southern. "I would rather have those partners and the relationships we have created," Joyce said in reference to HNA. "We think our position in China and Asia is very, very strong given we have a massive network in Australia. We will play our own game." Joyce said the indications so far were also that Virgin would act rationally in the domestic market, which along with the Qantas loyalty program comprises about 70% of the airline's business. Qantas in April warned of tougher conditions in the domestic market due to falling consumer confidence and the upcoming federal election that led it to cut capacity. Virgin has made similar moves to help shore up falling airfares at a time when its balance sheet is stretched. "When it comes to the competition, we want a stable competitive environment where the competition is acting commercially," Joyce said. "I think it is very clear from what the shareholders in our competitor have said is that they want a return. There is nothing anybody is saying which is that the competitive dynamic is going to change and that [Virgin] is not going to be a commercial operation."<br/>