Plunging temperatures and widespread ice are expected to cause more problems for road and air travellers, after passengers voiced their anger at being stranded overnight due to cancelled flights. The Met Office has issued yellow warnings of ice for large parts of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland after snow brought major disruption and power outages to swathes of the UK on Wednesday. Tempers flared as up to 300 passengers spent the night at Stansted Airport after snow and ice forced dozens of Ryanair and easyJet flights to be scrapped or delayed. Images posted on social media showed families trying to sleep on seats in the arrivals hall in the early hours of Thursday, with one onlooker describing "tension" in the terminal as frustrated travellers found themselves facing hours of delays "because of a few centimetres of snow". Sub-zero temperatures are expected widely across the UK again on Thursday night - which could be the coldest of the year - with the mercury due to plunge below -13C (8.6F) in parts of Scotland and Wales. Wednesday's ice left officials at Stansted airport having to close the runway twice - leading to the cancellation of 27 inbound and 27 outbound flights. Around 50 flights were cancelled at Luton.<br/>
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Nearly 90 Southwest flights were cancelled at Midway Airport Thursday because of delays caused by the de-icing of planes. Midway was experiencing the highest number of flight cancellations in the country early Thursday, according to FlightStats, a website that draws information from airports and the Federal Aviation Administration. There were two flight cancellations early Thursday at O’Hare International Airport, according to the city’s Department of Aviation website. Southwest blamed freezing conditions at the airport for slowing down crews in charge of de-icing planes. “In order to minimize the impact to the rest of our system, our operational planners make the tough decision to reduce the schedule to one that’s workable with our crews on the ground and ensures we have minimal impact to the rest of our network,” said a spokesman said. Little relief from the cold is expected in the next few days. <br/>
Security officers at US airports are on pace to confiscate nearly 4,000 firearms from travellers in 2017, surpassing a record set last year by nearly 15%. The TSA publishes a weekly tally of weapons found. As of Christmas Eve, 3,888 firearms had been discovered on passengers at US airport checkpoints for the year. The final week of the year, when travel is busiest, is likely to push that total close to 4,000, according to TSA officials. At the end of 2016, the TSA reported it has taken 3,391 firearms from passengers, a 28% increase from the previous year. Although the latest numbers show that the rate of increase in firearm seizures is slowing, other aspects remain about the same. For instance, the share of guns found loaded over the past three years has held steady at 83%. The three airports that have led the nation in most guns uncovered have been Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Most of the guns have been found in carry-on bags but some have been concealed in stuffed animals, potted plants and mixed in with tools, according to the TSA.<br/>
US airlines are wagering that American tourists will keep flocking to Cancun despite rising violence in Mexico and a warning from the State Department. Southwest, Spirit Airlines and Delta are adding flights to the resort. United is using one of its biggest jets once a week to ply the Chicago-Cancun route. The extra flights suggest stable growth in US tourism even after the State Department said turf wars between crime gangs were fueling a surge in violence in two Mexican states, including the one where Cancun is located. Mexico’s top beach destination potentially could also pick up visitors from other Caribbean destinations that suffered severe hurricane damage. “It’s quickly become our largest international market,” Steven Swan, Southwest’s director of international planning, said of Cancun. It’s common for traffic to rebound after briefly dipping on travel warnings, he said. “People tend to have a relatively short-term memory.” From the airlines’ perspective, Cancun flights are good business because of their lower costs, high passenger counts and heavy sales of booze, said Mark Drusch, a consultant and former airline executive. American Airlines has more flights into Cancun than any other international destinationd. International passenger traffic to Mexico’s largest resort has climbed since the State Department’s Aug. 22 travel warning. It rose 6.3% in November from a year earlier and has increased more than 8% this year, according to the regional airport’s operator.<br/>
China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings agreed to buy 50 Airbus SE single-aisle airliners that have a combined list price of $5.42b. The transaction for the A320neo aircraft was done through an amendment of a 2014 purchase agreement, and Airbus granted the company “significant price concessions,” China Aircraft Leasing said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The lessor, which counts Air China and ANA Holdings among its customers, is expanding along with its competitors amid a flying boom that has China on pace to surpass the US as the world’s biggest aviation market by around 2024. Boeing predicts China will need 6,810 aircraft in the 20 years through 2035.<br/>
Airbus said Thursday it has finalised orders for 430 A320neo aircrafts with US private equity fund Indigo Partners, confirming the company’s largest single order, valued at nearly $50b. The deal includes 274 A320neos and 156 A321neos aircrafts for Indigo Partners’ four ultra-low-cost airlines -- Frontier Airlines in the US, JetSMART in Chile, Mexico’s Volaris, and Wizz Air in Hungary. A memorandum of understanding for the deal was signed during the Dubai Air Show in November. “The A320neo Family offers the lowest operating costs, longest range and most spacious cabin in the single-aisle aircraft market, making the ‘NEO’ a great choice for these low-cost airlines in the Americas and Europe,” said John Leahy, Airbus’ COO. <br/>
Airlines shouldn't be allowed to hide behind computer-based models when justifying higher fares, the head of the German cartel office said in an interview published on Thursday, as authorities review allegations of a recent spike in prices. In November, the cartel office asked national airline Lufthansa for information on prices after receiving complaints about rising fares following the collapse of Air Berlin, Germany's second largest carrier. Lufthansa said at the time it was cooperating fully with the cartel office and had not changed its pricing structures, which comprise up to 26 different fares per flight and were automatically determined by software. "Such algorithms aren't written by god in the heavens," Andreas Mundt told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. "Companies can't hide behind algorithms." A Lufthansa spokesman said on Thursday the airline hadn't increased fares on domestic flights or flights within in Europe in more than a year. He added the insolvency of Air Berlin had eliminated 100 planes and 60,000 seats a day. "As a result, available flights are booked more quickly," he said. "It can be the case that with booking at short notice on some routes that only relatively more expensive booking classes are available." Lufthansa's CE, Carsten Spohr, addressed the cartel office investigation in a recent interview, saying the airline would be absolved of any wrongdoing.<br/>
A Chinese government-backed training airport in northern NSW will increase its number of flights by 1000% under a development proposal as Australia struggles to avoid a local pilot shortage. The Australian International Aviation College, which is being used to train Chinese pilots for Hainan Airlines, is seeking to increase its flights in the airport from 2868 per year to 28,687 per year. Hainan, which is 8.25% owned by the Chinese provincial government, is providing funding for the training runway, one of at least three pilot training schools across Australia being used to train Chinese pilots. The federal government was forced to open up temporary visas for foreign pilots in July in a bid to stop a pilot shortage that experts warn could cripple regional air services. A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton confirmed pilots had been added to the temporary migration list following advice from the Department of Employment, but would be reviewed every six months to ensure Australian pilots were being given priority. <br/>
With more than 2m people per day moving through the nation's airports, airlines are testing new technology to improve security and speed up the boarding process. That includes new biometric technology that could mean boarding a plane with just your face. In seconds, facial recognition technology can compare a picture taken at the gate against the flier's passport picture stored in a government database. Delta is testing the technology in New York and Atlanta, as well as a facial recognition bag-drop in Minneapolis. It's part of a larger effort to allow passengers to navigate the airport with just their faces and fingerprints. "Marrying all of the technologies at each of the steps in the travel ribbon is a game changer for the experience," said Gareth Joyce, senior VP of airport customer service and president of cargo at Delta. "You can literally go from, you know, curb to plane without having to interact with a human being if you so desire." There's also Clear, a private company that stores and verifies customers' biometrics, allowing fliers to go to the front of the security line at 24 airports nationwide. But a new report questions if it's legal for the government to use facial recognition on American citizens. Two senators are asking Customs and Border Protection to halt expansion of the testing amid security concerns.<br/>
Passenger jets are poised for an electric makeover that could fundamentally change the economics and environmental outlook of the aviation industry. Up until now the fact that the necessary batteries weigh two tonnes each has limited the switch from fossil fuels to a totally electric-powered future. However, last month a consortium comprising Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Siemens said they had found a way to use hybrid electric jet engines to conquer gravity. They are converting a regional jet into a demonstration plane, called the E-Fan X, which will be ready by 2020. Paul Stein, CTO at Rolls-Royce, said: “It is a two-tonne battery pack – the batteries are still fairly heavy. Beating gravity into submission is a huge challenge, so weight is a big issue.” The BAE 146 demo aircraft, a jet that seats up to 100 people, will at first have one of its four gas turbine engines replaced with the hybrid engine. This engine will be powered by batteries and an onboard generator using jet fuel. If successful, the team will then move to two electric engines. Siemens is designing the 2MW electric motor, Rolls is building the generator that powers the engine and Airbus will integrate the system into the plane and link it to flight controls. They are developing the hybrid motor because fully electric commercial flights are currently out of reach.<br/>