The lower house of Brazil's Congress Tuesday approved an Open Skies agreement between Brazil and the US that clears the way for a partnership between American Airlines Group and LATAM. The Open Skies treaty, which needs Senate approval for final ratification, was signed in 2011 but faced opposition from lawmakers lobbied by local airline interests in Brazil, who feared competition from US carriers. The accord removes limits on the number of flights between the two countries. It was a requirement for the US DoT to approve a joint business agreement between American Airlines and LATAM Airlines, which would see them co-ordinating schedules and offering more connections. The agreement should open the way for US approval of the deal. Brazil's anti-trust agency has already given the green light. <br/>
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Cathay Pacific will launch 4X-weekly Airbus A350-1000 service to Washington Dulles (IAD) from Sept 15, 2018. The new route expands the carrier’s existing US east coast services to Boston, and New York JFK and Newark Liberty airports. Cathay said it expects to take delivery of the first of 20 A350-1000s in spring 2018. The IAD A350 service will become the longest on the Cathay Pacific network in terms of distance at 7,085 nautical miles. Cathay Pacific CE Rupert Hogg said the new service has been introduced to cater to the growing demand for travel to the US capital region, “while at the same time providing US-based passengers with more access to key destinations in Asia and beyond through the airline’s home in Hong Kong.” <br/>
British Airways has begun trialling self-service biometric boarding gates on international flights out of the US, working in partnership with Los Angeles International. The new technology, created by Vision-Box, will create a smoother, quicker boarding process as passengers will no longer need to present their passport or boarding pass at the gate—only at check-in and security. Instead travellers look into a camera prior to boarding, wait for their biometric data to be verified, and then walk onto the aircraft. Similarly to facial identification built into mobile phones, the biometric gates use high definition camera technology, and allow customers to pass through by recognising their unique facial features, and reconciling them with the digital facial scan taken as part of the immigration process. <br/>