United has a new twist on the marketer’s phrase “fly directly to the slopes” this ski season with a plan to sell tickets to a destination only 100 yards from the ski gondola in the resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado. The twist: Passengers and their bags transfer to a bus at the Denver airport, the connecting point to their final destination 105 miles to the west. United said daily trips starting March 11 will be the first time Breckenridge has “airline” service, as it were. A second United coach route introduced Friday will connect Denver International and Fort Collins, 70 miles to the north. This “flight” will take off four times daily starting on April 1. Both will be operated by The Landline Co., a Los Angeles-based startup, with buses painted in United’s livery colors. The arrangement allows airlines to sell destinations where they don’t fly—such as Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Fort Collins—but retain a passenger’s full journey and adjust fares for the entire trip just as they do with air-only itineraries. Partner Landline pitches itself to carriers as a “single-brand” experience that offers the same “seamless” passenger connection at hubs as a regional airline. United chose its Denver hub for the busing trial because “you have so many ski resorts or second homes there and these are all in the 50-to-100 mile segment,” said Ankit Gupta, United’s vice president of domestic network planning.<br/>
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United agreed to pay $49.5m to resolve criminal charges and civil claims relating to fraud on Postal Service contracts for transportation of international mail, the US Justice Department said Friday. “United defrauded the US Postal Service by providing falsified parcel delivery information over a period of years and accepting millions of dollars of payments to which the company was not entitled,” the Justice Department’s acting criminal division chief Nicholas L. McQuaid said. United did not immediately comment. The Justice Department said between 2012 and 2015, United defrauded the USPS by submitting false delivery scan data. The government said United submitted automated delivery scans based on aspirational delivery times. The government said some individuals at United sought “to hide the automation practices included efforts to revise the falsified delivery times to make the automated scans appear less suspicious to USPS.” United agreed to strengthen its compliance program and to submit yearly reports to the Justice Department detailing the status of remediation and implementation of United’s compliance program and internal controls.<br/>
Relatives of victims of a Boeing 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia that occurred five months after an Indonesian Lion Air disaster are stepping up pressure on the American planemaker and the federal government, according to a court filing and a letter to US lawmakers. Families have called for testimony from Boeing CE Dave Calhoun, his predecessor and other current and former employees as part of their legal case in Chicago, court documents show. Separately, the families urged lawmakers in letter to demand that the US FAA turn over internal emails and documents spanning the Lion Air crash and one month after the Ethiopian crash. Together, 346 people died. A Senate report in December detailed lapses in aviation safety oversight and failed leadership in the FAA. It found that FAA leaders obstructed that report as well as a DOT watchdog review of the regulator’s oversight, the results of which were released on Wednesday. “There is serious unfinished business,” the families said in the letter. Boeing has mostly settled civil litigation stemming from the Lion Air crash, but still faces over 100 lawsuits in Chicago federal court related to the second crash. The plaintiffs’ lawyers are focusing on what Boeing knew about the causes of the first crash and why the plane continued to fly. They want to schedule depositions of Calhoun and Muilenburg between May 3 and June 18.<br/>
An SIA cargo plane is undergoing repairs in Brussels after holes were spotted on the bottom of the plane. SIA said on Sunday evening that the affected plane was a Boeing 747-400 freighter, which operated on the SQ7951 service from Dallas to Brussels on Feb 26. The flight crew had conducted the necessary aircraft visual checks according to procedure, said SIA. The flight then took off and landed in Brussels without incident, the carrier added. But the plane was "found to have had some damage on its body during a post-flight inspection". SIA said: "Investigations are underway to determine the cause of the damage. The aircraft is undergoing repairs at Brussels and will return to Singapore after the repairs have been completed." Aviation news website The Aviation Herald had posted photos showing what it said were multiple punctures on the bottom of the plane. In one photo, a rock is seen stuck in one of the holes. The website suggested that the damage was caused by stones that were thrown upwards by aircraft wheels while the plane was landing on the runway.<br/>
Air New Zealand has cancelled 59 domestic flights on Monday as Auckland’s alert level 3 restrictions take hold. Auckland went into level 3 lockdown from 6am on Sunday, while the rest of the country moved into alert level 2 after the discovery of a community case. The restrictions will be in place for seven days. A spokeswoman for the national carrier says “as essential and transit travel only is permitted into and out of Auckland under Alert Level 3, Air New Zealand is seeing a number of customers choosing to rebook flights or cancel and opt for credit.” As a result, 18 main trunk jet flights and 41 regional turboprop flights have been cancelled on Monday, March 1. There were lengthy delays at Auckland Airport’s domestic terminal on Sunday as travellers attempted to leave the city. Schedules on Sunday ran largely to normal as airlines allowed passengers to get home.<br/>
Lufthansa has announced plans to commence a new Frankfurt service from Cork Airport in Ireland mid this year. The twice-weekly Cork-Frankfurt service will connect Cork and Frankfurt for the first time in 18 years. With a flight time of two hours and five minutes, Lufthansa will operate two flights per week, on Monday and Friday, starting from 25 June. This new service from Lufthansa will complement the current Swiss International Airlines service, with both carriers providing connectivity via their Lufthansa Group Hubs at Frankfurt and Zurich respectively.<br/>