Southwest said it would stop overbooking flights, after the forcible removal of a United Airlines passenger from a packed plane sparked worldwide outrage. Overbooking is tentatively set to end May 8, Southwest said Thursday. That would be about a month after a 69-year-old United customer was dragged from a jet by airport police for refusing to surrender his seat. Southwest’s move underscored the urgency among carriers to avoid a similar debacle. Delta increased payouts to almost $10,000 for passengers who voluntarily give up their places on oversold flights. United Continental itself followed suit Thursday -- both carriers’ payouts previously were capped at $1,350 -- and announced other policy changes to win back passenger trust. “It’s not a topic that is brand new to us,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said. “That’s one of the pain points we’d like to eliminate.” He said the airline has been reviewing overbooking policies for a couple of years and indicated that the United incident added urgency. “It puts the question under a bright light. Why not do it now?” Kelly said.<br/>
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IranAir has abandoned plans to take early delivery of a Boeing 777-300ER jetliner because the passenger plane is no longer available, the head of the Islamic Republic's national flag carrier was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Iran had been expected to receive the first of 80 aircraft ordered from the US planemaker in April or May 2018, but Iranian media and industry sources said this month it might get the first Boeing jet a year earlier than expected under a proposal to swap deliveries with Turkish Airlines. "Boeing had proposed to hand over a 777-300ER by summer after Turkish Airlines withdrew its order for it. We welcomed it ... However, when we were almost certain that we wanted the plane, it was no longer available," Chairman Farhad Parvaresh was quoted by Iran's English language Press TV as saying. Industry sources had said Boeing was in negotiations to release at least one 777-300ER originally built for Turkish Airlines, which is deferring deliveries due to weaker traffic following last year's failed coup attempt in Turkey. "We have currently stopped our negotiations in absence of the plane," Parvaresh was quoted as saying.<br/>
Jetstar is the worst airline in the world for frequently having long delays and adding "sneaky" fares to online bookings, according to the results of a new global survey. More than one in three Jetstar passengers (37.2%) said they've experienced flight delays and the average wait was four hours after the scheduled departure time, according to Daily Mail. Watchdog Choice and 10 other consumer groups surveyed about 11,000 people from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Tiger Airways was not included in the survey results because the budget carrier received less than 100 responses and the sample size was too small. Jetstar received just one star (out of five) for overall satisfaction. The airline's comfort rating was 4.51 and its website transparency score was 4.81. Jetstar's overall satisfaction rating was 6.01. A Jetstar spokesperson questioned the accuracy of the survey results. Choice head of media, Tom Godfrey, said Jetstar "needs to clean up its act".<br/>