United Airlines will shift Boeing 787 flying to its Washington Dulles hub from Houston Intercontinental this winter, when it closes its 787 pilot base at its Texas hub. The carrier will fly 787s to Beijing, London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Sao Paulo Guarulhos from Dulles beginning in its winter of 2017 schedule, said Howard Attarian, senior VP of flight operations at United, in a letter to pilots. The IATA winter 2017 schedule begins Oct 29. At the same time, United will close its 787 base at Houston Intercontinental and replace the Dreamliner with a Boeing 777-200 on Houston-Frankfurt flights and a Boeing 767-300ER on Houston-Buenos Aires flights, says Attarian. No routes will be discontinued from Houston because of the change, he says. <br/>
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A decision by United last month to speed up expansion of its domestic network was enough to spook investors, although it remains to be seen if American and Delta will follow suit -- and if United's move will result in keeping ticket prices down. Historically, capacity growth tends to put downward pressure on fares, although that does not seem to be the case at the moment. "Right now, we're seeing domestic prices up 10% on last year," said Patrick Surry, chief data analyst for Hopper, an app that tracks airfares. "It doesn't seem there has been an immediate impact from United." United said its decision to double guidance on domestic expansion this year to between 3.5% and 4.5% was driven by a thorough review undertaken by its new network management team led by Scott Kirby. <br/>
A woman successfully gave birth to a healthy baby girl during a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul late April 7. The passenger who gave birth on board, had not appeared to be 9 months pregnant and had not told the airline or crew of her condition, according to cabin crew. Normally, Turkish Airlines does not permit pregnant women to fly after 36 weeks and can only fly before 36 weeks with a doctor’s report indicating she is able to fly/ The passenger started to go into labor shortly after the plane took off from Conakry, Guinea, en route to Turkey with a stop in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso. With the help of the cabin crew, who are trained for such contingencies, the passenger gave birth to a healthy baby girl, at an altitude of 13,000 meters. <br/>