Qatar Airways' decision to take delivery of a batch of finished Airbus A350-900s does not amount to a decision to reinstate cancelled orders. While Airbus disclosed, during a Q3, that it had reached an agreement with the carrier to take 4 finished aircraft after Qatar cancelled 4 delivery slots earlier this year. The cancellation had been revealed in Airbus's backlog figures for June, when Qatar's order for A350s was cut from 80 to 76 aircraft. Qatar's revised order comprised 39 A350-900s – down from 43 – and 37 A350-1000s. Airbus CFO Harald Wilhelm stated, during the Oct 31 briefing, that Qatar had agreed to continue taking delivery of 4 associated aircraft in Airbus's inventory by the end of this year. Three of the aircraft had already been delivered during October, he added. <br/>
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American Airlines has suspended food service on some of its flights out of the Los Angeles after listeria was discovered at a catering kitchen used by the company. The listeria was discovered several weeks ago at a facility operated by Gate Gourmet near Los Angeles International. "During food safety audits we were informed traces of listeria were found on surfaces that do not come into contact with food including drains and floor surfaces," an American Airlines spokesman said. Even though Gate Gourmet has come up with a corrective plan, American decided to suspend use of the facility Wednesday. "We were not satisfied with the clean-up efforts and decided to suspend food service out of the facility out of an abundance of caution," the spokesman added. <br/>
For the past 2 days, passengers passing through Helsinki airport may have wondered whether their airline is suffering from weight issues. At check-in, Finnair staff have been asking them to please step briefly on to a set of weighing scales. But this isn't a new "thin air" strategy to slim down the cargo. The airline is surveying customers to check that the estimates it has been using to calculate total weight, fuel and safety are accurate. "Airlines know what the aircraft weighs, what the check-in luggage weighs, but not what passengers weigh," said a communications director at Finnair. Until now, Finnair has, like most airlines, been using EASA passenger standard weight estimates. But the EASA found those averages hide a range of variables. <br/>