A fire aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight headed to London has forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Boston. Massachusetts state police said that the crew extinguished the fire caused by a suspected faulty battery charger on board the A330 Airbus plane on Thursday night local time. All 217 passengers on flight 138 from JFK airport in New York to Heathrow were safely evacuated after landing along with the crew. One passenger refused treatment for a smoke-related complaint. An external phone charger appears to have caused the fire. Massachusetts state police bomb disposal officers examined the aircraft after it landed and found a device between the cushions of a seat which had ignited. “Preliminary investigation suggests it is a battery pack consistent in appearance with an external phone charger,” a police spokesman said. Virgin Atlantic said it was “investigating” what led to smoke appearing in the cabin. “The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority and we are currently investigating to fully understand the circumstances,” a company spokeswoman said. “We’d like to thank our customers for their patience as we work with them to provide local accommodation or to rebook alternative flights to their final destination.”<br/>
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Saudi Arabian budget airline flyadeal will not proceed with a provisional $5.9b order for Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, instead opting for a fleet of Airbus A320 jets. Flyadeal has been reconsidering a commitment to order the Boeing jets after two MAX aircraft crashed in Ethiopia in March and Indonesia last October. The two disasters killed a total of 346 people, triggered the global grounding of the aircraft and wiped billions off Boeing’s market value. Flyadeal announced on Sunday it would take delivery of 30 A320neos ordered by its parent, state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines, at the Paris Air Show in June. “This order will result in flyadeal operating an all-Airbus A320 fleet in the future,” it said. Flyadeal, which has operated leased A320 jets since launching in September 2017, will take delivery of the new Airbus aircraft from 2021. “We understand that flyadeal will not finalize its commitment to the 737 MAX at this time given the airline’s schedule requirements,” a Boeing spokesperson said. Flyadeal signed a commitment to order 30 737 MAX jets in December, choosing the aircraft over the A320neo. The provisional order, which included additional purchasing options for 20 MAX jets, was worth $5.9b at list prices, according to Boeing.<br/>
European Union antitrust regulators cleared on Friday the $2.8m acquisition of British airline Flybe by Connect Airways, a consortium created by Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group and investment adviser Cyrus Capital. The final approval of the merger, whose details were made public in January, is conditional on the release by Connect Airways of slots for the routes connecting the English city of Birmingham to Amsterdam and Paris, the EU executive said. “Today is an important day as Connect Airways takes full control of Flybe,” said Lucien Farrell, chairman of Connect Airways. The merged company will now focus on expanding its regional network and franchise business in Britain and Ireland, it said. Under the deal, the consortium will provide a GBP20m bridging loan facility to support Flybe’s working capital requirements and up to 80m pounds of funding would be made available once the deal is completed. Brussels was concerned that after the merger those routes could have fallen under a near monopoly in favor of the Franco-Dutch giant Air France-KLM, which has acquired Virgin Atlantic together with Delta and the Virgin Group of Richard Branson.<br/>