Air NZ has been named one of the best airlines in the world by readers of luxury travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler. The airline was placed at number three on the magazine's list of the best airlines in the world for 2016, as part of its annual Readers' Choice Awards. Comfortable seats on longhaul flights helped earn Air NZ its accolades, CN Traveler said. "With some of the longest flights in the world, the Kiwi carier pays close attention to seat comfort; legroom is ample on its widebody," it wrote. SIA was awarded first place, followed by Emirates in second. <br/>
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A flight from Auckland to Tonga was turned back because runway lights went out at the island nation's airport. The Air New Zealand Airbus A320 departed just after 5pm Tuesday and was en-route to Fua'amotu International Airport when the crew was told the runway lighting was not operating. The flight, with 117 passengers on board, was diverted to Fiji's Nadi International Airport for refuelling and then returned to Auckland. Air NZ is operating an additional return service between Auckland and Tonga Wednesday during daylight hours in order to accommodate impacted customers. <br/>
A glut of seats on transatlantic flights may weigh on UnitedÕs results through all of 2017, the airlineÕs president said Tuesday. Attacks in Europe have hurt travel demand, and a weaker sterling has dampened sales to British travelers in dollar terms, United said. United and other established airlines have also been forced to cut prices as Gulf carriers such as Emirates and budget airlines like Norwegian Air Shuttle have added flights to the US. President Scott Kirby said it was unclear whether passenger revenue would stop declining in 2017 for transatlantic flights. Kirby's remarks came a day after United released Q3 results showing a 6% drop in pretax income, partly due to higher wages. <br/>
Lufthansa is the latest airline to impose a total ban on passengers taking the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on any of its flights. The airline had previously banned the phone from flights in the US and told passengers on other flights to keep the device switched off and unplugged. Tuesday, Lufthansa said on its Twitter account: "As per an official directive, Samsung Note 7 smartphones are not permitted on any of our flights. Please leave them at home!" Samsung has recalled more than 2.5m of the phones after faulty batteries reportedly caused the device to catch fire. <br/>