An Aeroflot flight to Moscow was turned back to the gate at Geneva Airport on Thursday after a man claimed there was a bomb onboard. The incident happened about 13:00 local time when a Russian man approached an airline desk at the airport and said there was a bomb on Aeroflot flight SU2381. The plane, which was already taxiing out to the runway returned to the gate and passengers and crew were evacuated. There were no injuries and passengers were expected to fly on to Moscow on other flights. A police investigation is ongoing and the man who made the claim was arrested.<br/>
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Delta Thursday said it will add fewer seats for purchase than usual in early 2017 to prop up fares, reacting to a deluge of flights from rivals that is squeezing its profit margins. Delta said income fell about 4% to $1.3b in Q3. That nonetheless topped what analysts expected per share on an adjusted basis. While plummeting fuel costs led to a blockbuster rise in US airline profits since 2014, oil prices have to a degree plateaued and no longer are a force to improve the sector's results. At issue now is lower revenue. Budget carriers like Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA are fighting larger airlines over a fixed number of travellers and charging less per ticket. Delta said it expects its operating profit margin, excluding items, to shrink to between 14 and 16% in Q4 from 17.1% a year earlier. If pilots approve a union-negotiated contract, analysts said the margin will be lower still. In addition, Q3 was "the weakest revenue environment in recent memory," CEO Ed Bastian said. Trans-Atlantic flights earned less than expected because attacks in Europe discouraged would-be vacationers, Delta's President Glen Hauenstein said. Norwegian also began flights from New York to Paris, a hub city for Delta's partner Air France KLM SA, increasing competition for price-sensitive customers.<br/>
Mistakes by air-traffic control caused a “near miss” between two Chinese passengers jets at a Shanghai airport this week, China’s civil-aviation authority said. In Tuesday’s incident, a China Eastern Airlines Airbus A320 was taking off from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport when its crew spotted an Airbus 330 preparing to taxi across its path, according to the authority. The A320 captain decided to proceed with the takeoff, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, or CAAC, which deemed the A330’s “runway incursion” as an “unsafe incident.” Local media reports said the A320 flew over the other plane; the CAAC didn’t provide further details on the takeoff in its statement beyond saying that the flight continued. The CAAC didn’t identify the A330’s operator, while local media reports said it was also a China Eastern aircraft. Initial findings by CAAC investigators showed that the near miss was caused by errors in air-traffic directions from the control tower, the authority said in a statement published Wednesday on its website.<br/>
Kenya Airways Chairman Dennis Awori said he plans to leave Africa’s third-largest airline after a pilots union called for a seven-day strike to protest against his employment and the position of CEO Mbuvi Ngunze. “‘I see myself leaving, yes,” Awori said Thursday. “I have begun the turnaround and honestly Kenya Airways needs somebody who has much more time than I have.” The Kenya Airline Pilots Association is demanding the resignation of the two executives, saying they aren’t capable of executing a financial recovery of the unprofitable carrier, which is part-owned by Air France-KLM. Similar industrial action by KALPA in April cost Kenya Airlines $2m in a day, the airline said. The strike is due to start Oct. 18. “The threatened action is already costing Kenya Airways significant losses as passengers have begun to make cancellations,” the airline said. The costs associated with selling flights and then not carrying passengers will be too great a financial burden, the carrier said, meaning it will have to halt ticket sales unless the strike is called off. The timing of Awori’s planned departure hasn’t been decided, the chairman said. He didn’t comment on Ngunze’s future. Halting ticket sales “means management would be preparing for an extended strike period,” Eric Musau, an analyst at Standard Investment Bank, said by phone from the capital, Nairobi. “The best case is for them to agree on some sort of settlement. I’m not really sure it is for the pilots union to say whether management should go or not.”<br/>