A UN agency will broker a meeting between Qatari aviation officials and counterparts from Arab countries, as the tiny Gulf nation tries to regain air rights and mitigate the economic fallout of the crisis. Senior envoys from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain will gather at the ICAO this week to continue diplomatic discussions about the flight embargo, the UN agency said. ICAO has been reviewing requests from Qatar to ease a ban that its govt deems illegal. Qatar Airways CE Akbar Al Baker called on ICAO to declare the blockade illegal, saying Wednesday it is “in direct contradiction to the convention that guarantees rights to civil overflight.” Al Baker also said he’s concerned the carrier “will underperform” as the political standoff casts “some dark clouds.” <br/>
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British Airways expects to suffer an GBP80m cost from the IT failure last month that forced the airline to cancel 726 flights over 3 days and left at least 75,000 passengers stranded. Willie Walsh, CE of IAG, unveiled the group’s first official estimate of the financial impact of the IT breakdown at a shareholder meeting. In a speech that carried a strong note of contrition, Walsh offered his “full apologies to everyone whose travel plans were disrupted”. He added: “I know that it was a dreadful experience for many of our customers and we are truly sorry.” The outage last month has highlighted the vulnerability of complex businesses to highly disruptive IT failures, not least in the aviation industry. Rob Byde, analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, had previously estimated the cost of the IT failure at GBP100m. <br/>
Thousands of passengers departing London’s Heathrow airport were forced to fly without larger items of luggage Thursday morning after the baggage-handling system serving two of its terminals broke down. British Airways flights were worst hit, with the failure afflicting the carrier’s Terminal 5 base, as well as Terminal 3, used mainly by BA, American Airlines and their allies in the Oneworld group, as well as Virgin Atlantic Airways. And Emirates. Services departing Europe’s busiest hub between 6:45 am and 9 am were affected by the breakdown, before baggage-drop desks were reopened, Heathrow said. More than 60 flights took off from the two terminals during that period. Heathrow apologised for the breakdown, without saying what had caused it. <br/>
American Airlines and the US TSA said Thursday they were testing a new high-definition airport screening device that could allow passengers to keep liquids and laptops in carry-on luggage during screening and potentially avoid new restrictions on in-cabin electronics. The new computer tomography or "CT" scanner is being tested in a pilot project in single checkpoint lane at Phoenix International and could be a long-term solution to avoiding additional security measures. Similar testing is expected to begin in Boston later this month, officials said. The technology is similar to what is currently used to inspect checked luggage at US airports today, but traditional X-ray machines are used to inspect carry-on luggage. <br/>
An American Airlines plane flew to its destination rather than make an emergency landing after a runaway beverage cart struck a passenger's head during take-off, leaving him with a severe brain injury, according to a negligence lawsuit Thursday. A couple from Stanfordville, New York, are seeking at least US$10m in damages from American Airlines Group. The lawsuit comes at a time of increased focus on how airlines treat passengers. According to Thursday's complaint, an unmoored, fully stocked, 300-pound beverage cart struck the passenger in the head after it flew down the aisle on Flight 1941, April 28, 2016. Rather than land, the pilot flew on more than 2 hours to Charlotte, as a nurse and other passengers cared for Johnson because the cabin crew did not know how, the complaint said. <br/>
American Airlines' unfolding uniform crisis is still getting the full attention of AA management nearly 9 months after airline employees first began experiencing symptomatic reactions to new uniforms supplied by Twin Hill, a unit of Men's Wearhouse. Late Wednesday American Airlines pilots, who are members of the Allied Pilots Association, learned that the airline is making available to them new uniform pieces provided by Murphy & Hartelius (M&H), a well-respected, family-run uniform company that has been providing uniforms to airline pilots for decades. The alternative uniform items from M&H will include pants made from a wool/polyester/lycra blend fabric and a solid, white cotton blend shirt in either long- or short-sleeved styles. The M&H uniform pieces are not identical to the original Twin Hill uniform pieces, but similar. <br/>