A powerful typhoon was heading for Japan's southernmost Okinawa island chain on Monday, packing powerful winds that forced flight cancellations. Typhoon Chaba is set to hit the subtropical islands later in the day, packing gusts of up to 250kmh, Japan's weather agency said. The storm was some 270km south of the Okinawan capital Naha early Monday, moving in a north-northeasterly direction, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. After slamming into Okinawa, the storm is expected to hit Japan's main island of Honshu on Tuesday, said the agency, which has issued high wave and storm warnings. Japan's two largest airlines, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, said a combined 125 domestic flights had so far been cancelled due to the typhoon.<br/>
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India has lifted restrictions placed on using and carrying Samsung Electronics Co's Galaxy Note 7 mobile phones on commercial airplanes, but only for devices purchased after Sept. 15, 2016, the country's aviation regulator said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), earlier in Sept., warned passengers and airlines from turning on or charging Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones when they are on board or storing them in checked-in baggage. Samsung has not started selling Galaxy Note 7 phones in India as yet, the company said in a statement, adding that it will only sell new devices in the country that will have a green battery icon to indicate it is safe to charge and use on a flight. The restrictions will continue to apply on Galaxy Note 7 phones that were purchased before Sept. 15 this year, DGCA said in a statement. Samsung recalled its Note 7 phones across the globe this month due to faulty batteries, which caused the devices to explode, when they were kept on charge or in normal use.<br/>
In the 1980s American Airlines calculated that it could save up to $100,000 just by removing olives from its salads. Since then, the industry's economy drive has continued apace forcing airline catering firms to reinvent themselves. BA said Thursday customers on its short-haul economy flights would be sold Marks & Spencer sandwiches because its customers said they would prefer to pay for food from a brand they recognise. "The cost of the existing catering service hasn't been reflected in customer satisfaction," a spokeswoman said, declining to provide figures. The shift to buy-on-board food is driving catering companies into each others' arms as companies seek scale in a fragmented market and look to build up retail and data expertise to maximize profits. "Traditionally airlines have handed meals out and not had to worry about who's got the meal. Now it's having a deeper awareness about the customer, what they've bought, how they bought it, when they bought it," said Robin Padgett, head of air services group dnata's catering division. Airline caterers operating in Europe include Lufthansa unit LSG SkyChefs, Gategroup, Austria's Do&Co and dnata, part of the Emirates Group. LSG bought Irish in-flight sales specialist Retail inMotion last year to serve its onboard retail business and is also restructuring, cutting up to 2,400 jobs. Air France-KLM is selling a stake in its catering business Servair to China's HNA, which is also buying Gategroup as it builds out its aviation interests through a series of deals.<br/>
Communication failures have been blamed for more than a thousand deaths in plane crashes, warns an academic who has reviewed the language pilots and air traffic controllers use. Dominique Estival, a Western Sydney University linguist, pilot and flight instructor has urged native English speakers to adjust their communication in the aviation industry to reduce the risk of misunderstanding by non-English speaking pilots. Estival said she has heard pilots in Australia saying "cleared for the big smoke" when cleared for takeoff, which was potentially dangerous in a situation where they were communicating with a non-English speaker. So-called aviation English was adopted as the international language of pilots and air traffic controllers in 2011. But in her new book Aviation English, Estival warns that some terms commonly used have been misunderstood, with fatal consequences. Miscommunication had contributed to the deaths of more than 2000 people who have been killed in plane crashes since the mid-1970s. Given that radio communication is the main means of communication between air traffic controllers and pilots, effective communication "is crucial for aviation safety". Other examples included the incorrect use of the words "inbound" and "outbound", saying "no" instead of "negative" or "yes" instead of "affirm" .<br/>
Airbus and Boeing are expecting aircraft deals to be slow for up to three years, but the world’s two biggest passenger jet manufacturers are confident that bulging order backlogs will carry them through the dry season. Amid falling demand for jets, the European and US aerospace companies are increasing production of their most popular aircraft to record levels, which may reduce the size of their backlogs but also raise profits. “We will stay in a slow period [for aircraft orders] for a couple of years while we burn down the backlog,” says John Leahy, chief salesman at Airbus. “People have been buying at a rate of over 1,000 a year. Of course the order cycle will go down. But … we have been able to pause when we need to in a downturn because of the massive backlog.” After six years of booming deals, the order slowdown is being felt most in certain widebody aircraft, raising questions over prospects for some of these big ticket, long-haul passenger jets which sell for $200m to $400m or more. Dennis Muilenburg, CE of Boeing, said this month that he expected sales of twin-aisle aircraft to be tough until 2020, as the company introduces a new generation of large aircraft. “The challenge we have is between now and the end of this decade, that roughly three-year time period, as we go through the transition to the [new] 777X [twin-aisle jet] and some … local hesitation in widebody orders,” he said.<br/>