Disruption caused by the recent US travel restrictions had the most damaging impact on Emirates' business since 9/11, the airline's president Tim Clark has disclosed, but demand is slowly recovering now. Clark said the airline was "affected very badly" by restrictions enforced on US-bound flights requiring personal electronic devices (PEDs) to be checked, as well as the temporary ban on travel from certain Muslim-majority countries. "Looking back, I don't know anything that hit us so bad apart from 9/11 and other bits and pieces," he says. "But the markets are coming back to us now – we've reinstated the daily Orlando, and I'm watching every day the Bostons and the Seattles to see if we can put back the second one because the seat factors are in the low 90s," adds Clark. <br/>
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Ryanair has been joined as a notice party to actions by local residents and others challenging an extension of planning permission for a new E320m runway at Dublin Airport. Ryanair sought to be joined over concerns any further expansion by it in Dublin will be limited unless the development proceeds. The challenges have been brought by Friends of the Irish Environment and by 22 individual resident over Fingal County Council’s decision of March 7th last extending a planning permission for development of the new 3,110 metre runway. Ryanair’s director of operations Adrian Dunne said the airline has significant interest in the construction of the proposed runway and consequently in the outcome of the legal actions. If constructed, Ryanair will become the biggest user of the new runway. <br/>
An off-duty Cleveland police officer tackled a passenger who tried to open an emergency exit during a flight to Houston Sunday, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Corpus Christi. Passengers on Southwest Airlines Flight 4519 said a woman was shouting outbursts at Los Angeles International before departure, yelling that she needed her medication and was being mistreated by the govt. They also said she was walking backward, and questioned why she was allowed on the flight. The suspect was ultimately subdued by an off-duty officer after "she had observed the irrational passenger attempting to open the exit door in mid-flight. Fearing for her safety and the safety of everyone on the plane, she took action and was able to restrain the passenger." <br/>
Virgin Australia passengers complained to the airline ombudsman more often than Jetstar passengers last year, new figures show. The industry-funded Airline Customer Advocate's 2016 annual report shows Tigerair again received the highest rate of complaints across the top-5 most complained about issues out of Australia's 4 largest carriers. Tigerair received 31.9 complaints for every million passengers over refunds, delays and cancellations, baggage services, fees and charges, and airport customer services, the report shows. That is down from 37.7 complaints per million passengers in 2015. Virgin Australia, Tigerair's full-service sister carrier, was the subject of 13.5 complaints about those issues per million passengers carried, up from 10.5 in the prior year. <br/>
Like its acquisitive parent HNA Group, Hainan Airlines Holding is looking to bolster growth by buying assets on its own outside China, undeterred by potential headwinds posed by regulatory scrutiny of the parent’s overseas deals. The carrier is exploring airlines and companies along the industry’s “value chain,” president Sun Jianfeng said, without elaborating. As part of its growth strategy, Hainan Air will double down on international flights from the nation’s second-tier cities where a travel boom is under way as it takes on bigger state-owned rivals, he said. “We’ve gone past challenging, following and imitating others,” Sun said June 23 . “We now want to build a new order and set new standards.” Hainan Air is no stranger to acquisitions, though they were all backed by HNA in the past. <br/>
LCCs such as Norwegian Air are eyeing the Asian long-haul budget market, with the airline saying that it is not facing intense competition in the area. Thomas Ramdahl, CCO of Norwegian Air, said that the airline plans to expand its network in Asia as there is big demand for budget long-haul flights into the region. "As long as we get the overflights over Russia, we are going to expand in 2018, 2019," he said. "We have 11 aircraft coming in next year and we do also look at cooperation with other Asian carriers, so we can bring them into Bangkok, Singapore for instance, and they could fly onwards with Jetstar, as an example." The airline had announced in April that it will launch a non-stop service between Singapore and London in September this year. <br/>