Emirates said measures barring laptops from the cabins of aircraft departing its Dubai base for the US have been lifted, leaving Qatar Airways as the only major carrier still affected by the ban. The moratorium, imposed in March, was removed Wednesday following work with local authorities and regulators on implementing the “heightened security measures and protocols” required by the US Department of Homeland Security, Emirates said. Dubai becomes the third major airport to normalise access to personal devices on US-bound flights. Istanbul, home to Turkish Airlines, also declared itself free of the ban Wednesday after saying Monday that that the restrictions would be dropped, while Etihad Airways hub Abu Dhabi secured exemption last Sunday, aided by the presence of a US “pre-clearance” border post there. <br/>
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Norwegian Air is coming to Chicago. The carrier, which operates Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 737 MAX aircraft on its trans-Atlantic routes, said Wednesday it will launch service between Chicago O'Hare International and Gatwick outside London, England, March 25, 2018. Norwegian initially will operate the nonstop Chicago-London service 4 times a week. A spokesman for the airline said that flight frequency is likely to increase, though he declined to say when that might happen. Norwegian launched trans-Atlantic service from the US to London in 2015 and rapidly expanded that service to a number of US markets. With the addition next March of new service from both Chicago and Austin, Texas — also being announced Wednesday — the carrier will fly from 11 US gateways to London. <br/>
Edelweiss Air announced plans to expand its network by 20% in summer 2018, adding 11 new destinations and reaching a total of 62 destinations in 28 countries. On long-haul routes, Edelweiss Air will launch flights from Zurich to Orlando, Florida (1X-weekly) from Jan 16, 2018; Denver, Colorado (2X-weekly) from June 4, 2018; and Varadero, Cuba (1X-weekly) from July 26, 2018. On short- and medium-haul routes, Edelweiss Air will add 1X-weekly seasonal flights in summer 2018 from Zurich to Djerba (Tunisia), Paphos (Cyprus), Chania (Greece), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Samos (Greece), Inverness (Scotland) and Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), as well as special flights to Svalbard (Norway). The carrier also plans to increase frequencies on existing routes during summer 2018 by adding17 weekly flights. <br/>
Embraer’s E190 aircraft is flown by airlines around the world, but has struggled to find much of a home in North America. Now the largest US operator of the plane may walk away, casting doubts on whether the next version of the jet can succeed in the market. JetBlue Airways plans to decide by the end of this year whether to join American Airlines and Air Canada in dropping the plane, ending an original plan for 100 E190s in the carrier’s fleet. It would leave Aeromexico Connect as the only airline in North America flying Embraer’s second best-selling commercial jet. JetBlue’s fleet review comes as Embraer prepares for the first commercial flight next year of the E190 E2, a new version with an engine the planemaker says will burn less fuel and have lower maintenance costs than the current jet. <br/>
El Al Israel Airlines has announced that it along with its Sun d'Or International Airlines unit have entered into an agreement with IDB Development, IDB Tourism and Israir to acquire the entire issued and paid-up share capital of Israir. According to the acquisition agreement, IDB will sell all of its shares in Israir to Sun d'Or for US$24m in cash and a 25% stake in the merged Sun d'Or entity. In turn, Israir is expected to take over Sun d'Or's operations while allocating 75% of its shares to El Al. After the merger, Israir will concentrate on low-cost, domestic flights and El Al vacation packages. The transaction’s value excludes Israir's owned fleet of 2 A320-200s and 2 ATR72-500s which will be sold and leased back from an unspecified third party. Failing that, El Al will have to buy the aircraft for at least $70m. <br/>