American Airlines ordered everyone on a Miami-bound flight to put their hands on their heads for about an hour due to an unspecified “possible security threat”, passengers say. “Passengers were ordered to put their hands on their heads for 45-60 minutes before landing,” Chris Nguyen, who was on the flight, wrote on Twitter. “Strangely, passengers were repeatedly told not to film on the plane.” Flight 2289 departed from Los Angeles and landed in Miami on Wednesday afternoon. But about an hour before it landed, passengers say, the flight’s crew ordered them all to put their hands up, citing the unnamed security threat. Once the plane was on the ground, Nguyen says, armed police boarded the aircraft and made an arrest. “Any idea why law enforcement came on with machine guns and arrested a guy on @AmericanAir Flight 2289 from LAX to MIA?” the customer asked local news station KTLA. Passengers were then led off the plane and told to wait in a terminal. American Airlines confirmed this part of the story, but still did not disclose what the security threat was. “On July 7, American Airlines flight 2289, a Boeing 777-300 operating from Los Angeles (LAX) to Miami (MIA), was met by law enforcement upon landing at MIA due to a possible security threat on board,” the airline said. “Passengers were deplaned and bused to the terminal, and the aircraft was inspected by authorities. Safety and security is our top priority and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this caused.”<br/>
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Finnair is to branch into long-haul operations from the Swedish capital Stockholm, operating to destinations in the USA and Thailand. The airline will operate Airbus A350-900s on the services to Miami, Bangkok and Phuket during the winter season. It is stepping into the main base of SAS and picking up long-haul routes previously abandoned by budget carrier Norwegian last year. Norwegian had been operating Boeing 787 services from Stockholm to the USA and Thailand, with destinations including Bangkok and Florida’s Fort Lauderdale. The carrier had claimed at the time of its decision that the long-haul market from Scandinavia was “not large enough” to maintain intercontinental flights from the Nordic capitals. But Finnair is confident that there is sufficient demand in the Swedish holiday market for a five-times weekly service to Bangkok from 22 October – rising to seven in November – and continuing to 22 April 2022. It will serve Miami twice-weekly from 23 October, increasing to four-times weekly at the end of November. Phuket will initially be a weekly service but increase to three-times weekly.<br/>
Japan Airlines plans to enter the flying car business in fiscal year 2025. The airline will start a passenger transportation service connecting airports and tourist destinations in Mie Prefecture, among other areas. It plans to develop the business into one that can carry people around various locations as a taxi does. The move comes amid growing competition to put flying cars to practical use in markets around the world. Putting in place the necessary safety regulations will be key for the industry to take off in Japan. JAL will use the aircraft of Volocopter, a German startup in which it invested in 2020. It is a two-seater drone-type aircraft called eVTOL, or electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, with a cruising range of 35 km. It can fly at up to 110 km per hour. JAL recently signed a cooperation agreement with Mie Prefecture to conduct trials and commercialize the service. First, it will experiment with flights over a short distance of 20 km, before considering a medium distance of 50 to 150 km that connects local cities. When it enters commercialization in fiscal year 2025, the service is expected to connect tourist destinations with the prefecture's main airport, where it will be easy to set up departure and arrival ports. Ultimately, JAL envisions a taxi-like business that can carry passengers anywhere within a medium distance range.<br/>