The head of the FAA Saturday said travelers will face serious consequences for unruly behavior on aircraft, a stern warning that comes after several on-board incidents in the past week involving pro-Trump chanting and passengers’ refusal to wear masks, a requirement to fly on US airlines. “The FAA will pursue strong enforcement action against anyone who endangers the safety of a flight, with penalties ranging from monetary fines to jail time,” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said. Unruly passengers can face fines of up to $35,000. Alaska Airlines on Friday said it banned 14 passengers on a Washington DC-Seattle flight. The travelers “were non-mask compliant, rowdy, argumentative and harassed our crew members. Their behavior was unacceptable,” said an Alaska Airlines spokesman. “We apologize to our other guests who were made uncomfortable on the flight. Videos of several incidents were shared on social media. An American Airlines pilot on a Washington-to-Phoenix flight warned travelers he would “put this plane down and dump people off in the middle of Kansas” to convince passengers to “behave” on board. “At American, we take the safety of our customers seriously and we value the trust they place in our team to care for them throughout their journey,” American said. The pilot made an announcement emphasizing the importance of following crew member instructions and complying with mandatory face-covering policies.” “I expect all passengers to follow crew member instructions, which are in place for their safety and the safety of flight,” said Dickson. “The FAA monitors and tracks all commercial passenger flights in real time, and reporting mechanisms are in place for crew members to identify any number of safety and security concerns that may arise in flight.” Dickson said unruly behavior can distract crews and threaten crewmembers’ ability to perform safety-related duties.<br/>
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Canadian relatives of those killed when a Ukrainian airliner was shot down by Iranian Revolutionary Guards one year ago Friday held a vigil in Toronto and pledged to “protest and persevere” in their quest to know what happened that day. The families of the 176 victims - 138 of whom had ties to Canada - were still grieving when the country went into lockdown for COVID-19 in mid-March. The vigil was held virtually and in person outdoors, with attendees holding photos of those killed. “All of us are the remains of broken families who stand together in mourning, leaning on the shoulders of one another,” Amirali Alavi, whose mother died in the crash, said in a pre-recorded message. “After a long and difficult year we continue to protest and persevere,” Alavi said. In Tehran, military prosecutor Gholam Abbas Torki told state television on Friday that 10 officers had been subject to disciplinary action including dismissals or demotions, and that they would soon go on trial. He did not give a timeframe. The Revolutionary Guards have said they shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane in error shortly after takeoff, mistaking it for a missile at a time when tensions with Washington were high over the US assassination five days earlier of Guards General Qassem Soleimani. Ukraine, Canada, Sweden, Britain and Afghanistan - representing the home countries of most of the passengers who did not live in Iran - issued a joint statement on Friday calling for “a complete and thorough explanation ... including concrete measures to ensure that it will never happen again.”<br/>
Canada and other nations whose citizens died in Iran's downing of a Ukrainian jetliner one year ago on Friday called on Tehran to come clean about the tragedy and "deliver justice" for the victims' families. "We urgently call on Iran to provide a complete and thorough explanation of the events and decisions that led to this appalling plane crash," the coordination and response group made up of Canada, Britain, Ukraine, Sweden and Afghanistan said. They also said they "will hold Iran to account to deliver justice and make sure Iran makes full reparations to the families of the victims and affected countries." In Toronto, in Canada's Ontario province, nearly 200 people gathered under cloudy skies Friday afternoon in front of the University of Toronto before holding a march in honor of the crash victims.<br/>
Madrid’s international airport is now ready to resume outbound operation after heavy snowfall covered the Spanish capital and much of the rest of the country prompting its closing, Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos said. A full reopening is going to be “gradual” as airlines canceled almost all their flights and are now reorganizing their schedule, he said. The airport is expected to be ready to receive incoming flights in the next hours. Spain’s biggest hub was closed Saturday and will kept its operation halted through Sunday. The snowfall also led to the suspension of high-speed and other train services to and from Madrid, which have been partially resuming their operation.<br/>
China will continue to suspend flights to and from Britain, the country’s airline regulator said on Sunday. The Civil Aviation Administration said in a notice that the new suspension will take effect on Monday.<br/>
The recent Covid-19 outbreak has seen Thailand's domestic air travel drop by 60% since the start of the year, says the Department of Airports (DoA). The figures were drawn from 20 airports supervised by the DoA nationwide, according to Apirat Chaiwongnoi, acting director-general of the department. Domestic passengers passing through the 20 airports also plunged from an average 30,000 a day before the New Year to 12,000, he said. The number of aircraft in the sky also fell. Before the long New Year weekend, 160 flights operated into and out of the 20 airports on average each day. After the holidays, flights were down 40% to 100 per day on average. The big reduction in demand has forced airlines to scale back their flights. Some airlines also asked the department to extend remedial measures, including landing fee discounts, which expired on Dec 31. Apirat said details of the help to be offered will be put up for discussion soon.<br/>
Australians stranded overseas say a decision to slash the number of international passengers allowed to return each week by almost 50% is a “disheartening blow” while others have labelled the move “despicable”. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced on Friday that national cabinet had decided to temporarily halve the number of hotel quarantine spots available each week in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia. The move comes as authorities work to keep a more infectious variant of Covid-19 – that has emerged in the UK and South Africa – from circulating in Australia. The caps reduction means about 2,500 fewer people will be able to enter the country each week until at least mid-February when national cabinet will review the policy. Many Australians stranded overseas have endured multiple flight cancellations with only those able to afford business class or first class fares able to return swiftly. In late 2020, some 36,000 Australians were still registered as being stuck overseas, unable to get flights back to Australia due to the caps on hotel quarantine.<br/>
Europe’s Airbus posted stronger-than-expected deliveries of 566 jets in 2020, remaining the world’s largest planemaker as a year of pandemic-induced upheaval for air travel coincided with a grounding crisis at US rival Boeing. Deliveries fell by 34% from a record posted a year earlier, when travel demand was riding high on the increasing mobility of consumers in fast-growing markets across Asia. Now, the aerospace industry is wrestling with the reluctance of most airlines to take delivery of jets as they struggle to save cash, and a drop in air traffic that Airbus says could take until 2023 or 2025 to regain the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Still, Airbus said it had delivered 566 aircraft in 2020, exceeding estimates earlier in the year when the coronavirus crisis led to a lockdown of major travel markets. “We can be cautiously optimistic for 2021...but challenges and uncertainties remain high,” CE Guillaume Faury told reporters. The announcement confirmed a Reuters report on Tuesday that Airbus had delivered more than 560 jets in 2020.<br/>
Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft said Friday that a US leasing company had cancelled an order for up to 20 SpaceJet passenger planes, marking the first such withdrawal since the troubled regional jet program was put on hold last fall. Aerolease Aviation ordered 10 SpaceJets in 2016 with an option to purchase 10 more. The company cancelled the order for the 90-seater craft at the end of December. This cuts the total number of SpaceJets on order to 267, including jets that are optioned. Aerolease Aviation said it would reconsider the SpaceJet if development goes back on track. "We wish the team success in eventually restarting the program as soon as practicable, and we remain interested in resuming our relationship with them when that happens," Managing Partner Jep Thornton said, according to Mitsubishi Aircraft. Parent company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries poured about 1t yen ($9.6b) into developing the SpaceJet, but a string of problems delayed the initial delivery date six times. In October, President Seiji Izumisawa announced a "freeze" in development of the plane, which was original conceived as the Mitsubishi Regional Jet. Mitsubishi Heavy has slashed the annual budget for the program by 90%.<br/>