Passengers aboard a Hawaiian Airlines flight inadvertently time travelled and celebrated the New Year twice thanks to a flight delay. Hawaiian Airlines flight 446 took off from Auckland, New Zealand, at 12:05 a.m. on Jan. 1 following a 10-minute delay and landed in Honolulu at 10:16 a.m. on Dec. 31, KCRA wrote. The feat was made possible thanks to a 23 hour difference. Sam Sweeney, ABC’s transportation reporter, tweeted a photo of the flight’s time travel departure and wrote, "because of an unexpected delay Hawaiian Airlines flight took off in 2018 and will land in 2017.”<br/>
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Southwest Airlines kicked a Chicago family headed for Disneyland off a flight because people accused a girl of having lice, the family says. The Newman family was waiting to board a flight from Chicago to Santa Ana, Calif., on Friday when J Newman’s wife noticed something in their daughter’s hair, NBC 5 reports. “There was some dry skin in my daughter’s hair,” the father of two said. “So, she was just kind of taking it out of my daughter’s hair.” About a half-hour later an airline employee approached the family, and they were removed from their flight even though it was never confirmed that the 6-year-old girl had lice. Southwest said that their employees were approached by several customers “…with concerns about a fellow passenger in the gate area exhibiting behavior consistent with a highly contagious medical condition. We never want to inconvenience customers but when we receive concerns from multiple people, we’re obligated to look into them.” “My daughter is hysterical because she thinks this is her fault that she’s not going to Disneyland,” Newman said. The family was told the next flight they could get on would be two days later. They said they never received an apology or any compensation for their loss. Southwest said it was working directly with the family and was sorry for any inconvenience.<br/>
Indonesia AirAsia, the Indonesian arm of Malaysia-based low-cost carrier AirAsia Bhd., has officially become part of publicly listed company PT AirAsia Indonesia following the completion of a recent acquisition. The former acquired a 57.25% shareholding in the latter on Friday. AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said its move in Indonesia followed the listing of AirAsia business entities in the stock markets in Malaysia and Thailand. “The corporate deal will bring us closer to the One AirAsia vision with which we plan to list all of our business units in ASEAN on the stock market," said Fernandes in a press statement on Friday. AirAsia said in August that it opted for a backdoor listing through publicly listed firm RMPP to expand its business in Indonesia. The decision was made to avoid lengthy and costly procedures that normally result in an initial public offering.<br/>
Indonesia's largest low-cost carrier Lion Air has launched new charter flights from Batam to two Korean cities, Busan and Incheon, as part of its attempts to expand its charter business. To run the service, scheduled once every four days, it uses Boeing 737 Max 8, which can carry 175 passengers. The airline made its maiden flight from Batam’s Hang Nadim International Airport to Busan on Dec. 23, while it kicked off its first flight from the same airport to Incheon on Dec. 24. Lion Air Group spokesperson Ramaditya Handoko said that to help lure Korean tourists to Indonesia, the company had collaborated with two Korean travel agencies, namely Global Aviation Alliance Co. Ltd. and Sky Angkor Air. “We plan to operate the charter flights until March 2018 and if possible extend the period of service, or even make it a regular one,” he recently said. Ramaditya added that Lion Air was also considering opening a new charter route to other Korean cities, such as Seoul.<br/>