Travellers on several airlines had trouble checking in for flights and waited out delays Friday after a computer outage at a company that runs airline technology systems. American Airlines, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America confirmed that a technology glitch briefly interrupted their operations. The problems seemed to have been fixed by midday, and airlines reported that flights had resumed. The airlines blamed their difficulties on a breakdown in systems operated by Sabre, a Texas company that provides software and other technology services to airlines and hotels. A Sabre spokeswoman said the systems were running again by early Friday afternoon. She said she did not know the cause of the breakdown. Passengers at several big airports went on social media to complain about flight delays. American said that the outage caused scattered delays but no cancelled flights. Alaska said that 15 flights were delayed by up to 15 minutes. Southwest said the outage briefly prevented bookings, ticket changes and use of mobile boarding passes. United said its flights were not affected.<br/>
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Gulf executives who were upset by Donald Trump's campaign trail comments about Muslims took a conciliatory tone following his election victory and said they were open for business with the US. In Dubai, boards displaying the President-elect's name and his support for a DAMAC project to build a gated community, spa and Trump-branded golf course can be seen from a road on the edge of the city. Gulf business links with Trump and other US firms are strong. The US imported $32.4b of goods including oil from the six Gulf countries in 2015 and the region is the most important client base for Boeing and a number of US defense firms. The Gulf's sovereign wealth funds also have hundreds of billions of dollars of US investments. Nevertheless, Arab business figures were angry about Trump's campaign calls for Muslims to be banned from entering the US, following the murder of 14 people in San Bernardino, California, by a Muslim couple in December 2015. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, head of investment firm Kingdom Holding which has stakes in US firms including Citigroup and Twitter, called him a "disgrace not only to the GOP but to all America". However, the billionaire was among those wishing him well on Wednesday, tweeting: "President elect @realDonaldTrump whatever the past differences, America has spoken, congratulations & best wishes for your presidency."<br/>
When a jet carrying then-Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence skidded on landing Oct. 27 at La Guardia Airport, a debate reignited about whether the airport’s famously short runways are safe enough. Nobody was injured after Pence’s Eastern Air Lines Boeing 737 slid about 200 feet past the runway, but it marked the latest of similar incidents at the airport in Queens and unleashed a new wave of speculation about potential changes to the runways. Some have even floated a long-shot plan to build an additional runway on Rikers Island, the nearby site of New York City’s main jail complex. Others have noted the airport’s safety record is solid. They argue the focus should be on improving wait times and traveler experience at La Guardia, where a $4b overhaul includes a new central terminal and expanded taxiways with the aim of reducing flight delays. Phil Derner Jr., president of aviation research company NYCAviation, said La Guardia “has this reputation as the short runway airport,” and while its runways are comparatively short, “its operations have not been affected by that at all,” and the airport doesn’t have an unusually high number of runway-related incidents. The Pence mishap echoed other incidents at La Guardia, which is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Last year, a Delta Air Lines jet skidded off a snowy runway; the NTSB Board faulted the pilot. In 2013, a Southwest jet crash-landed on the runway and skidded; the NTSB said the captain had broken safety rules. No one was killed in either incident. The NTSB is investigating the Pence incident. “All our airports need longer runways, but nowhere more so than La Guardia, both for safety and to reduce delays,” the Global Gateway Alliance, an airport advocacy group, said.<br/>