An Arizona man was jailed for 17 days after American Airlines mistakenly identified him as a suspect who had broken into a duty-free shop at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and then boarded an American flight to Reno, Nev., he claims in a lawsuit. The man, Michael Lowe, contends in the suit that he had lived in “a constant state of fear” while he was jailed at the Quay County detention center in rural New Mexico, where violent outbursts erupted over trivial disputes and he saw an inmate punch another, staining the wall with blood. The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in Tarrant County District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, and seeks unspecified monetary damages, involves “the arrest and imprisonment of an innocent man because of American Airline’s negligence,” the complaint states. In an email on Tuesday, an American Airlines spokesman wrote, “We’re reviewing the lawsuit.” Lowe’s ordeal began, the lawsuit states, when a man burglarized a duty-free shop at the Dallas Fort Worth airport on May 12, 2020, and then boarded American Flight 2248 to Reno. Mr. Lowe, a Grand Canyon tour guide, boarded the same flight to visit a friend, the lawsuit states. To identify the culprit, the airport police obtained a search warrant ordering American to produce “any and all recorded travel data for all individuals” on the flight, the lawsuit states. But according to the complaint, American gave the police information about a single passenger: Lowe. Story has details.<br/>
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The Hong Kong government has given Cathay Pacific another year to draw down a HK$7.8b ($1b) loan, in a sign that the carrier’s business remains tenuous even as other airlines in the region are planning to wean themselves off state aid. The loan is part of the HK$39b in state aid the Hong Kong government extended to Cathay Pacific at the onset of the pandemic, in June 2020. The extension runs through June 9, 2023. The airline said it has not had to draw on the loan for the last 12 months but added the extension gives it “the flexibility to manage our liquidity position.” Cathay Pacific ended 2021 with HK$30 billion in liquidity. The carrier said it is planning to increase capacity, which will have a “positive impact on the airline’s business.” Still, it expects to burn HK$500m per month in the near term. “The unprecedented impact of the pandemic has necessitated some very difficult decisions, namely our restructuring in 2020, but through this and our recapitalization, we have created a more efficient, more competitive and more focused business,” Cathay Pacific CEO Augustus Tang said. “We have already recommenced hiring as we plan for the anticipated recovery in Hong Kong and global aviation in the 18-24 month period ahead.” Despite Tang’s optimism, the present is pretty grim for Hong Kong’s flag carrier. In its most recent traffic report, Cathay Pacific said April traffic was down 98.5% from three years earlier. Capacity in April was down 97.7% from 2019. Compared with last year, traffic in the first four months of 2021 was up 16% while capacity was down 60%. Even cargo traffic — a lifeline for the struggling carrier during the pandemic — was down 43% in the first four months compared with last year.<br/>