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A United Airlines flight from Rome to Chicago was diverted to Ireland’s Shannon Airport Monday after a message perceived as a potential security concern was discovered on board, Irish police and airline officials said. The message made reference to a bomb on the plane, a source said. The 207 passengers and 11 crew members disembarked from the Boeing 767-330 at Shannon Airport at 2:15 p.m. local time, according to Irish police. The passengers of flight UA971 were in the process of being searched, they said. United said that the landing was due to “a potential security concern”. “After assessing the situation, our crew made the decision to divert to the nearest available airport,” it said. “Additional security screenings will be performed on all customers and baggage.” The airline said on Twitter that the flight was now cancelled and would depart for Chicago on Tuesday.<br/>

United has joined the fray of carriers offering cheaper but more restrictive fares on some trans-Atlantic flights. At United, the new fares went on sale last week on some routes between North America and Europe. The fares skip perks that come with a standard coach ticket, like a free checked bag, but are more generous than the stripped-down basic economy tickets United added last year on domestic flights. As with their domestic cousins — and similar versions at Delta and American — the new trans-Atlantic fares have a lower sticker price, but anyone needing to check a bag would quickly wipe out savings. United considers the new fares a step toward offering a version of its basic economy airfares on trans-Atlantic flights, an airline spokeswoman said. On flights where tickets are available, passengers will see them displayed as “economy (first bag charge/no changes allowed).” Passengers who buy the new tickets don’t get a free checked bag, aren’t eligible for upgrades and can’t make changes to their itinerary. But they can pick a specific seat in advance, bring a full-size carry-on and personal item with no added fee, and earn frequent flyer miles, unlike passengers who buy a domestic basic economy ticket.<br/>

United has worked hard to convince travellers in the New York City area that the carrier's hub at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey isn't that far away. On billboards and bus stops around New York, United incorporated Newark's airport code — EWR — into slogans like "FASTEWR" and "CLOSEWR." Last year, it started posting the commute times from Manhattan to Newark alongside those to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens on digital displays on top of taxis to show a quicker trip to the New Jersey hub. Now the airline is offering an even faster commute for valuable travelers willing to pay for convenience: helicopters. United has partnered with helicopter operator HeliFlite to offer on-demand flights of less than 10 minutes from three Manhattan helipads to Newark. The service, which launched in mid-May, is the first helicopter transfer offered in United's network, said a spokesman for the carrier. Passengers looking to save time on their commutes to or from Newark will be charged $2,099 for up to three travellers and $2,199 for up to six people. A car transfer to the terminal is included in the service, which United is selling on its website.<br/>

Six months into the job of running loss-making South African Airways, Vuyani Jarana is mapping out a punishing austerity plan. Jarana, who faces the daunting task of turning the flag carrier around, said layoffs and other cuts were unavoidable as he contends with a draining cost-to-income ratio of 108%. “SAA cannot carry the same workforce, whether it is pilots, cabin crew or administration,” he said. “We have to make some tough decisions to save the airline. There cannot be sacred cows when it comes to SAA.” He declined to put a number to the job losses, but two sources familiar with his plan said the state-owned carrier was likely to cut between 1,000 and 1,500 people via a combination of layoffs and voluntary redundancies to bring its employee-per-aircraft ratio in line with regional competitors. SAA’s woes are emblematic of the struggles of traditional flag carriers around the world. These airlines are contending with low-cost rivals and a spike in oil prices, which puts pressure on those with the highest labor and other non-fuel costs. The problems are also an illustration of the malaise afflicting the airline industry in Africa, whose airlines have the weakest finances and emptiest planes of any region of the world. Jarana told Reuters he was also setting up other moves to reduce the airline’s 33.5b rand operating costs. They include squeezing suppliers for better deals and cutting back on its number of flights to London from twice to once a day.<br/>

South African Airways’ catering arm plans to lay off 118 workers, the union representing them said, as the struggling airline implements a turnaround strategy to restore profitability. SAA, which has not generated a profit since 2011, survives on state guarantees and is regularly cited by credit ratings agencies as a drain on the government purse. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), which represents the workers, said it had received notice of the layoffs from the catering arm, called Air Chefs, but said it wanted to deal directly with SAA on the planned job cuts. “Air Chefs intends to retrench 118 workers out of a workforce of about 1,200 people,” said the union, one of South Africa’s largest. “We shall do all we can to defend workers and their jobs at Air Chefs,” the union said. “NUMSA demands that any discussion regarding retrenchments should take place within the SAA group which is the mother company. Our members demand that any restructuring must take place at a group level and should not be decentralised.”<br/>

An empty Airbus SE A340-300 long-haul aircraft owned by Lufthansa was damaged on Monday after a tow truck maneuvering the plane around Frankfurt airport caught fire. About 10 people were taken to the hospital after for smoke inhalation, a spokeswoman for the carrier’s Lufthansa Technik maintenance unit said. The division operates plane-towing vehicles under the Leos brand in Frankfurt. The twin-aisle airliner was being moved at about 8 a.m. with no passengers on board in preparation to operate as Flight LH426 to Philadelphia, and must now be inspected for damage, a spokesman for Lufthansa said. A reserve plane will be used for the route instead, and the flight will leave on time as it’s an afternoon service, he said. The incident caused no delays or cancellations at the airport.<br/>

Turkey’s flag-carrier airline reversed a nine-day losing streak as it agreed to an e-commerce cargo joint venture with partners from China and Hong Kong. Turkish Airlines signed the deal with Chinese delivery giant ZTO Express Cayman and Hong Kong’s PAL Air, a unit of Pacific Air Holdings. The joint venture, to be based in Hong Kong, will have revenues of at least $2b in the five years to 2023, Turkish Airlines Chairman Ilker Ayci said Monday. The venture aims to cut worldwide door-to-door delivery times to as little as 72 hours, ZTO founder and CEO Lai Meisong said. The deal comes as Chinese tech company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. buys 10% of Shanghai-based ZTO for $1.4b. “The month of Ramadan is usually a slow month for passenger traffic,” said Ayci, whose company flies to 304 destinations, more than than any other airline in the world. “But we are doing everything to prop up the stock.”<br/>

An Ethiopian Airlines flight that arrived at O'Hare International Airport on Monday marked the start of the first direct flights between Chicago and Africa. The Chicago Department of Aviation and Ethiopian Airlines announced the new thrice-weekly nonstop flights between O’Hare and Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, in the East African country’s capital city, earlier this year. “We believe that the flight will further boost the growing relations between the USA and Africa in general, and Ethiopia in particular, by enabling greater flow of trade, investment and tourism,” said Nigusu Worku, US regional director at Ethiopian Airlines. When Air New Zealand begins flights between O’Hare and Auckland in November — another new service announced in March — Chicago will join the ranks of just five cities that have nonstop passenger flights to all six major inhabited regions of the world, according to Department of Aviation spokeswoman Lauren Huffman.<br/>

Air NZ is increasing fares on international routes by up to 5%. Some long-haul fares will be pushed up by more than $100 and the airline is blaming the increases on higher operating costs. The increases come into force from Thursday. In advice to travel agents, the airline said fares on flights to the US, Canada, Argentina and Asia would increase by an average of 3% on all levels as well as the introduction of a day-of-week special surcharge of $30 or $60 for travel on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. On the Tasman, Air NZ is pushing up prices from $10 one-way for economy saver fares, $20 one-way for economy flexi and premium economy; and $30-$40 (for Perth) in business premier. <br/>