Several state officials Tuesday offered Delta a new place to call home after a Georgia legislator said he would kill lucrative tax benefits to the Atlanta-based carrier as retribution for its decision to sever ties with the NRA. Officials from Virginia, Washington, New York and Ohio have volunteered their states to headquarter Delta after the carrier faced some public outcry for ending its relationship with the NRA in the wake of the recent Florida school shooting. "Any state would be lucky to call itself the home of Delta headquarters," Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, a Democrat, wrote in an open letter to Delta CE Ed Bastian. "Hey @Delta—Virginia is for lovers and airline hubs. You're welcome here any time," Virginia Governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, wrote on Twitter to his 125,000 followers. On Monday, Georgia Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle, a Republican, wrote on Twitter he would "kill any tax legislation" that benefits Delta, unless the carrier reinstated its relationship with the NRA, which advocates for the Second Amendment right for Americans to bear arms. "Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back," Cagle wrote. Delta is one of Georgia's largest private employers with 33,000 employees statewide. The Georgia legislator is considering a jet fuel sales tax exemption designed to benefit Delta that would save the airline some $40m per year.<br/>
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A woman who says she was groped during an international flight, prompting her to launch a campaign to draw attention to such mid-flight assaults, sued Delta Tuesday over what she described as its anemic response to her case. Allison Dvaladze said she was sleeping on an overnight flight from Seattle to Amsterdam in April 2016 when a man sitting beside her repeatedly grabbed her crotch, even as she yelled for him to stop. In the lawsuit filed in US District Court in Seattle, she said she eventually escaped her seat and ran to the back of the plane to alert the flight crew. The response, she said, was woeful: Though the crew members sounded sympathetic, Dvaladze said they merely told her that such incidents happen, with one suggesting she should "'let it roll off your back.'" They allowed her to switch seats with another passenger for the duration of the flight, she said, but before landing asked her to return to her original seat. She refused. The flight crew neither contacted law enforcement about the episode nor took steps to identify the passenger, the lawsuit said. It's unclear if the passenger sitting next to her was in his assigned seat.<br/>
Airbus and Delta are spearheading a new initiative intended to simplify introduction of, and access to, high-speed data networks for passengers. The initiative, known as the Seamless Air Alliance, intends to enable mobile operators to broaden their reach into airline cabins. These operators will be able to provide customers with services both on the ground and in the air, through the use of satellite technology, improving user experience. But the alliance also aims to "eliminate the immense costs and hurdles" involved in acquiring and installing data-access infrastructure. It will establish open specifications for interoperability and streamline system integration and certification as part of this cost-reduction effort. Airbus and Delta are two of the initial five members of the alliance. The others comprise satellite production and connectivity specialist OneWeb, plus respective US and Indian telecoms companies Sprint and Bharti Airtel.<br/>