Airlines are avoiding Syrian airspace as the US and other Western powers consider their response to a suspected chemical attack near Damascus last weekend. The European Aviation Safety Agency issued an alert Tuesday, prompting a number of airlines to steer away from the country’s airspace. “Due to the possible launch of airstrikes into Syria,” the agency said, “due consideration needs to be taken when planning flight operations.” The alert cited the possible use of air-to-ground and cruise missiles and the likely disruption of radio navigation equipment. The agency’s alert was transmitted by a system called Eurocontrol, which acts as the air traffic controller for the Continent. A spokesman for Eurocontrol said Thursday that the warning was not mandatory. “The notification was more of advice to the airlines, rather than instructions,” said the spokesman. Many airlines decided not to take any chances. On Thursday, the sky over Syria was largely empty of commercial aircraft, creating a conspicuous hole in the otherwise busy airspace of the Middle East. FAA rules already prohibited American airlines from flying over Syria, but carriers outside Europe also reacted to the Eurocontrol warning.<br/>
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A 36-year-old Syrian has been stuck in transit in the Malaysian capital for more than a month, he said, in a case that echoes the Steven Spielberg movie, “The Terminal”. Stranded at KLIA2, Kuala Lumpur’s budget terminal, Hassan al Kontar has been posting videos blogs of his daily life on Twitter and Facebook that has attracted the attention of human rights groups and the media. Hassan, who said he had been living at the airport since March 7, fears arrest if sent back to Syria, where a civil war has been raging for seven years. US President Donald Trump warned this week of imminent military action in Syria over a suspected poison gas attack. “I am afraid of being deported to Syria, not because I’m a coward, not because I don’t know how to fight, but because I don’t believe in fighting,” he said. “I don’t want to be a killing machine, destroying my own home and harming my own people.” Malaysia’s immigration department and the airport did not respond to requests for comment. The UN refugee agency confirmed meeting Hassan, but said it could not comment on individual cases.<br/>
Airbus expects to secure Chinese approval for the General Electric Co.-powered version of its A320neo jet by the end of this month, signalling the end of a standoff between European and Asian regulators. Final certification for the narrow-body plane is imminent after the Leap engine made by GE’s CFM International venture with France’s Safran was signed off by the Civil Aviation Administration of China earlier this week, Airbus CEO Tom Enders said. Airlines in the Asian nation should start receiving aircraft toward the end of May, Enders said. Approval had been anticipated last year but was held up by what analysts at Bernstein described as a “mini trade war” as the Chinese agency sought recognition as a certifying authority in Europe. That would allow the Shanghai-built C919 narrow-body, which also uses the Leap and is currently undergoing test flights, to be exported there.<br/>