Airlines including Ryanair, Aer Lingus and British Airways are set to ground hundreds of flights and said more cancellations are likely as 150-km per hour winds from Storm Ophelia slammed into Ireland. Ryanair halted 92 flights from across Europe as of 12:25 p.m. Irish time, according to updates on its website. Dublin-based Aer Lingus and low-cost EasyJet canceled 50 services each while BA said stormy weather will cause disruptions in the UK, including a “small number” of cancellations at London Heathrow airport. Ireland is an important aviation market as the base for Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline, and a refueling platform for some flights across the Atlantic. Irish authorities warned some of the worst storm conditions to hit the country in 50 years will endanger lives as the country’s Met Eireann weather service extended its most severe warning nationwide for the first time. Authorities are planning for significant flood damage and severe transport disruptions and are warning people to stay indoors. Cityjet dropped three flights and Lufthansa called off two, which it said affected 500 passengers. Flybe Group Plc said it has halted 47 flights primarily around Belfast City, Dublin, Knock and the Isle of Man. Norwegian Air Shuttle said routes from Dublin to Oslo and Copenhagen have been canceled.<br/>
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Air travel in India is growing at an incredible pace. The bad news? Its airports can't keep up. The country's biggest hubs are already operating at 70% of capacity, with New Delhi and Mumbai at more than 80%, according to a new report by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Passenger numbers are likely to exceed capacity by 2022, it said. Just six airports -- Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad -- handle two thirds of the country's air traffic, according to government data. Mumbai is already "close to saturation" and is expected to hit its maximum capacity by 2019, CAPA said. Those cities have earmarked around $5b over the coming years for expansion, or to build second airports, but that's only a fraction of how much they will need to avoid bursting at the seams. CAPA estimates India will need to invest as much as $45b on top of that by 2030. Bangalore, for example, received 2.9m passengers more in the last fiscal year than it is currently built to handle, and is planning to double its 20m capacity over the next three years. Nearly a dozen smaller airports "are already operating beyond" their maximum capacity, the CAPA report added. The numbers indicate a looming crisis for India's aviation market, which is projected to overtake the UK as the world's third largest by 2026. Around 265m passengers passed through Indian airports in the last fiscal year, a number that CAPA projects will rise to nearly 300m by 2018. India is currently equipped to handle a maximum of 317m passengers. Mumbai airport is expected to hit capacity in 2019. Once the planned airport expansions take place, India's maximum capacity will be 463m. But passenger numbers are projected to continue rising to nearly 700m by 2027.<br/>
Airbus is buying a majority stake in Bombardier’s C Series programme. The two aircraft manufacturers announced the partnership on Monday evening, weeks after Bombardier was hit by a 300% import levy by the US following a complaint from rival Boeing that the company had dumped its C Series jets at “absurdly low” prices. The Canadian-owned company is due to begin delivering an order of up to 125 new jets to Delta next year. Boeing claims that aid from the UK and Canadian governments amounts to illegal subsidy. It is not yet known how the surprise move will affect Bombardier’s 4,000 employees in Belfast. The tariffs have put huge pressure on Bombardier, and unions said workers in Northern Ireland were holding their breath as they waited for the verdict of the trade dispute, fearing their jobs were at risk. Both the UK and Canadian governments had been considering hitting back at Boeing by withholding defence work from them. Airbus’s CE, Tom Enders, said: “This is a win-win for everybody. The C Series, with its state-of-the-art design and great economics, is a great fit with our existing single-aisle aircraft family and rapidly extends our product offering into a fast growing market sector."<br/>
Boeing dismissed a deal between Airbus and Bombardier to partner on Canada's CSeries jet, calling it an attempt to sidestep import duties recommended by the US Commerce Department following a Boeing trade complaint. "This looks like a questionable deal between two heavily state-subsidised competitors to skirt the recent findings of the U.S. government," a Boeing spokesman said. "Our position remains that everyone should play by the same rules, for free and fair trade to work." Bombardier earlier said it would sell control of its CSeries program to Europe's Airbus under a deal that would see some of the jets produced in the United States, where local airlines would therefore not have to pay the proposed import penalties. The Quebec government, through its financing arm, took a 49% stake in the CSeries program in 2015 for $1b. Quebec's share, most recently 38%, will slip to 19% following the deal with Airbus.<br/>
China's capital unveiled the "shining example" of its 80b yuan (GBP9.1b) new airport on Monday, tipped to become one of the world's largest when it opens in October 2019 amid a massive infrastructure drive overseen by President Xi Jinping. Representatives showed off the sprawling skeleton of "Beijing New Airport", which is made up of 1.6m cubic metres of concrete, 52,000 tonnes of steel and spans a total 47 sq km, including runways. It is expected to serve an initial 45m passengers a year with an eventual capacity of 100m, putting it on par with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. "Lined up together there's roughly 5 km of gates," said project spokesman Zhu Wenxin. "It's a shining example of China's national production capacity." The project, which broke ground in 2014, is one of the region's largest infrastructure investments under Xi's rule, which has been plagued by fears of slowing economic growth, offset slightly by a construction spree.<br/>
Middle East airlines will require 2,590 new commercial aircraft over the next 20 years, according to Airbus’s 2017 Global Market Forecast, representing a market value of US$600b for the region’s future fleet. The Middle East fleet is expected to more than double from 1,250 to 3,320 by 2036. The new aircraft will cover replacement of 520 retiring aircraft, with the remaining 2,070 as new additions to the fleet. Airbus forecasts 730 aircraft are expected to remain in service through 2036. “Most people around the world are just one flight away from the Middle East. The region’s proximity to the world’s population and growth markets has been a key in its aviation success,” Airbus Commercial Aircraft COO-customers John Leahy said. The forecast expects 1,082 single-aisle aircraft, such as its A320 family, and the same number of twin-aisle aircraft (i.e., A330 family aircraft) to make up the bulk (83.4%) of new deliveries in the Middle East, with an expected 430 very large aircraft (A350s and A380s) rounding out demand through 2036. Middle East carriers now represent orders for 1,319 commercial aircraft with Airbus, including 687 single-aisle, 409 twin-aisle and 162 very large aircraft from at least 18 regional customers. <br/>
It has reappeared in recent months: a free meal in coach. Continuing their emergence from hard economic times, some airlines have begun adding complimentary breakfast, lunch or dinner on some of their flights in the United States. “Customers look at flight price and schedule,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, who until recently was CE of online travel agent Expedia and is now CE of ride-hailing company Uber. “Airlines want to get beyond that, so they are merchandising and adding things like Wi-Fi, free entertainment and meals.” Delta discontinued complimentary meals in 2001 as a cost-cutting measure, as most of the major airlines did at the time. “We all used to complain about airline food in coach, but once it was gone we missed it,” said Gary Leff, a travel expert. The industry is getting back on its feet financially now, said Khosrowshahi in an interview at Expedia headquarters in late August, the day his appointment to lead Uber was confirmed. Last March, Delta began offering complimentary meals in the main cabin of some of its flights in 10 domestic markets. Delta’s snacks have also gotten an overhaul, moving on from “40 years of unbranded peanuts and pretzels,” said Lisa Bauer, Delta’s VP for onboard service, to a variety that includes sweet, salty, healthy and gluten-free choices that will be rotated every six months. American Airlines introduced complimentary main cabin meals in May to customers flying between Los Angeles or San Francisco, and Kennedy International Airport in New York. Depending on the time of day, customers will be offered a continental breakfast or a sandwich wrap, chips and dessert. United Airlines does not plan to bring back free meals, said Jonathan Guerin, an airline spokesman, but did start offering a free snack last year to travelers in economy class on domestic and Latin American flights.<br/>