Thousands of passengers were finally getting off the ground Monday after weekend crowds at security lines in Frankfurt Airport forced 3,000 people to miss their holiday flights. Lufthansa had hefty criticism for the country's biggest air hub for not having enough personnel on duty during the busiest weekend of the year. The security checkpoints at Frankfurt's Terminal 1, which handles many long-haul international connections primarily to Asia and the Middle East, were so backed up that many travellers had to wait more than 90 minutes to get through. According to Lufthansa, which also operates out of Terminal 1, this caused 88 flights to be delayed because when passengers could not reach their gates in time, their luggage had to be taken off the aircraft. <br/>
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Belgian investigators have disclosed that a Brussels Airlines Airbus A330-200 suffered failures in both engines while en route from Kinshasa Dec 11. The aircraft had been cruising at 40,000ft when the left-hand Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine failed, says French investigation authority BEA citing Belgian counterparts. Its crew transmitted an urgency call, and considered diverting to Djerba, off the coast of Tunisia, as a precaution. But the pilots managed to relight the engine and opted to proceed to Brussels. BEA states, however, that during the approach to Brussels the right-hand engine failed “several times” and relit automatically. The aircraft landed at Brussels with both engines operating. The aircraft is an 18-year old airframe introduced to the Brussels Airlines fleet in 2013. <br/>
Air Canada's acquisition of the Aeroplan loyalty program has received all required federal regulatory approvals ahead of a shareholders' vote on a C$450m agreement reached by the airline in November. Shareholders of current Aeroplan owner Aimia Inc. are scheduled to vote on the cash deal Jan 8. Under their agreement, Air Canada will buy the Aeroplan business from Aimia for cash and also assume $1.9b of liabilities to points holders — partially backed by 2 banks that offer Aeroplan credit cards. Toronto-Dominion Bank and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will pay Air Canada about $1.2b in total. The banks and Visa have agreed to stay with the loyalty program until at least 2030. Aimia and the airline said Monday they've received required clearances under the Competition Act and Canada Transportation Act. <br/>