Mexico’s civil aviation authority said on Monday it will temporarily suspend operations of Aerolineas Damojh while it reviews the Mexican airline service company after one of its planes crashed in Cuba last week, killing 110 people. The authority said it aims to make sure the company is adhering to regulations and gather information to help the ongoing investigation into the causes of the accident. The fiery crash of the aging Boeing passenger jet shortly after takeoff from Havana on Friday killed all but three of the 113 people on board, making it Cuba’s deadliest air disaster in nearly 30 years. Operations at the little-known company, which had owned three 737s before the crash, were suspended twice before during regulatory compliance reviews, the authority said. It first halted operations for about a month in 2010, after a Damojh plane made an emergency landing in the Mexican beach resort of Puerto Vallarta due to a problem with its landing gear. The authority performed another investigation in 2013 after receiving a complaint from Marco Aurelio Hernandez, who has been identified by Mexican media as a former Damojh pilot. Hernandez was quoted at the weekend by Mexican newspapers criticizing Damojh for its safety record. That probe led to a suspension for about two months.<br/>
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A business jet veered off a runway in eastern China on Sunday afternoon, causing 700 passengers to be delayed. The plane, carrying four people, ended up nearly 70m from Yangzhou Taizhou airport runway in Jiangsu province at around 3pm after it attempted to land during pilot training, according to Xinhua. A video on Weibo, China’s Twitter, shows the plane skidding to the left before veering back across the tarmac and finally coming to a halt. A photograph posted below the video shows the aircraft body intact but the landing gear and wings damaged. The incident caused the fuel tank to burst, reported China News Service, but no passengers were injured. It remains unclear what caused the plane to skid off the runway, the airport said in a statement. An investigation is under way. The airport closed following the incident, resulting in delays for 700 passengers, reported state newspaper People’s Daily. By 6:30am on Monday, operations had returned to normal, the airport confirmed. The plane was owned by Shanghai-based Star Jet, which confirmed it was carrying out pilot training at the time. The airline “deeply apologised” for the incident and to those it affected.<br/>
Philippines AirAsia will grow its fleet strongly over the next 10 years and build up its hub at Clark. CE Dexter Comendador said that PAA will operate 22 Airbus A320s by end of 2018, and add five new aircraft annually between 2019 and 2028. PAA now operates 20 A320s. Should the plan proceed as planned, the airline will have a fleet of around 70 jets by 2028. The CE however noted that the airports in the Philippines, such as those in Manila, Cebu and Kalibo are slot-constrained, and that PAA is hence looking at building up Clark for its growth. "I chose to go to Clark because I have room for my 50 [new] planes. Definitely in Manila, I cannot place my 50 planes. Manila is too full," saidComendador. "Moving forward, Clark will be established as the LCC hub of the Philippines. With the development of Clark, we hope to do something like what [Thai AirAsia executive chairman] Tassapon Bijleveld did with Bangkok Don Mueang airport."<br/>
With one billion passenger journeys a year, India is set to overtake the US aviation market, said Jayant Sinha, aviation minister. “India will become the world’s second biggest market by 2038,” Sinha was quoted as saying in Financial Times. According to forecasts from the IATA, the rapid growth in passenger travel will see India leapfrog the US but lag China, whose own growth in passenger trips will see it overtake America by 2022, reported the daily. India’s aviation sector has boomed recently, with the number of passenger trips doubling to 200 million over the past four years, Sinha said. According to Iata’s forecast, Indian passenger trip growth would put it at a more modest 478m a year by 2036. India has the fastest-growing domestic airline industry in the world. Last year, passenger volumes rose 17.4% per cent, ahead of second-placed China, which grew at 13.5%, according to Iata.<br/>
Boeing-backed startup Zunum Aero plans to deliver its first hybrid-electric plane in 2022 to JetSuite, setting the stage for a new era in regional flying. JetSuite, a small charter airline with plans to expand a commercial operation nationally, eventually will receive as many as 100 aircraft that seat up to 12 passengers each, Zunum co-founder Matt Knapp said in a statement Monday. JetBlue Airways has invested in Zunum and JetSuite. The charter operator is also backed by Qatar Airways. The new aircraft will eliminate the roar of combustion-based engines, powered instead by twin propulsors attached to the rear of its frame. The ducted, or covered, fans will be driven by electric motors. A conventional fuel-powered motor will serve as a back-up system at the outset. Battery packs, rather than fuel, will be housed in the aircraft’s wings. Zunum expects the technology to advance rapidly given the investment pouring into electric cars and aircraft.<br/>
The worst UK airports for flight punctuality have been revealed, with the longest delays at London’s Luton. Departures from the Bedfordshire airport were an average of 20 minutes late in 2017, according to a Press Association analysis of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data. Gatwick recorded the second-worst punctuality performance, followed by Jersey and Durham Tees Valley. The ranking takes into account every scheduled and charter flight from 25 of the UK’s major airports, although cancelled flights are not included. The average delay across all featured airports was 15 minutes. Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, had the best performance, with aircraft typically taking off 11 minutes late. A spokeswoman for Luton said: “We regret any delay our passengers experience.” She added that punctuality was influenced by many factors outside its control such as air traffic control strikes, late arriving aircraft, bad weather and congested airspace.<br/>
Terminal A in New York City’s La Guardia Airport can be a disorienting place. It’s a satellite terminal, meaning it isn’t connected to the rest of the airport. Upon entering you find few of the amenities familiar in America’s busiest airports today. Now, passengers arriving or departing there are greeted with a surprise: a piece of live, performance art. In a space outside security that used to be a Hudson News kiosk, the writers and close friends Gideon Jacobs and Lexie Smith, who both live in Ridgewood, Queens, have set up a writing nook with stacks of books, wooden furniture, rugs and a vintage typewriter. There they are, writing unique, fictional stories for fliers. This specific initiative, named Landing Pages, is part of a residency program established by the Queens Council on the Arts and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs La Guardia Airport. Over the coming year Queens-based artists are taking over the airport space for three months at a time to experiment with their mediums. <br/>