Alaska Airlines is rolling out electronic bag tags in an effort to speed up the airport check-in process for customers, the company said Tuesday. The new option, which Alaska is billing as the first of its kind for a US airline, will allow customers to skip the step of printing baggage tags when checking in at an airport. Customers will instead be able to activate the electronic bag tags via the Alaska Airlines mobile app up to 24 hours before a flight. After arriving at the airport, the customer simply touches their phone to the tag to display their flight information. "This technology allows our guests to tag their own bags in just seconds and makes the entire check-in process almost all off-airport," said Charu Jain, senior vice president of merchandising and innovation at Alaska. The company expects it will cut time spent dropping off luggage by nearly 40% and also free up employees to deal with other issues at the airport.The availability will be limited to start. These programmable devices will be launched in phases, beginning with the San Jose International Airport in California. Alaska Airlines also rolled out a self-bag drop system in March at the San Jose airport, which will work with the electronic tags to make the baggage check-in experience as hands off as possible. The electronic tag option comes as airlines around the country face big lines and major delays thanks to pandemic-era travel highs, staff shortages and bad weather. <br/>
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Large sporting events are often known for their athleticism and big shows of national pride by the host. A successful Olympics or World Cup can go so far as to put a country on the map in terms of global recognition. But these events are often a different story for airlines. They can be a drag on revenues — potentially even loss makers — as lucrative business travelers, and other non-event related trips, are postponed or ditched completely during these periods. That’s what Qatar Airways is preparing for when its namesake country hosts the Federation Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA) World Cup later this year, from November 21 to December 18. “It is a pain that we will have to take, and it is only for a period of 30 days,” Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said of the sporting event at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK on Tuesday. While Al Baker did not go as far as to say the airline would lose money during the matches, Qatar Airways will suspend flights or reduce schedules to more than 30 destinations around the world. It will also revamp its schedule at the Doha airport in order to “release” space for other airlines to add flights during the World Cup, he added. Destinations that will see reduced service are ones where few spectators are expected to travel to see the matches, for example from countries that did not qualify for the cup.<br/>Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar, Tanzania, and Mogadishu, Somalia are among destinations that Qatar Airways will suspend during the cup, Cirium schedules show. At the same time, the airline will add flights to other markets, including Chicago O’Hare and Madrid. Overall, it will operate 10% fewer flights globally in November, when the World Cup begins, than during the month before.<br/>
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker has made the implication that the UK’s departure from the EU, or Brexit, may be a contributing factor in the staffing-related operational woes at its airports this summer. “Another mistake is, with Brexit, there are certain professions that cannot be done by non-British. These are the kind of works that were being done by people who were coming from the continent,” Al Baker said at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK on July 19. While he declined to directly attribute the operational constraints at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports to Brexit, the implication was that the UK’s leaving the EU in 2020 has contributed to the labor challenges many industries face in the country, and around the world. People who would otherwise work at truck drivers or tug operators at airports can find better paying jobs in other sectors that also do not require a several-month long security clearance process, said Al Baker. London Heathrow capped numbers at 100,000 passengers a day earlier in July. The restrictions, which airport CEO John Holland-Kaye said was to protect flights for the “vast majority of passengers” and give them “confidence” in a reliable journey, will continue into September. The move followed a cap on the number of flights at Gatwick airport in June that extends through August. Holland-Kaye attributed the limits to understaffed ground handling operations at the airport. “It’s having a huge financial impact on airlines,” Al Baker said of the Heathrow cap, as well as those at other airports around Europe. To be fair, it’s not just a Heathrow issue, Amsterdam and Frankfurt have also restricted capacity to ease operational issues this summer. Staffing issues have impacted airline operations in Australia, Canada, and the US as well. Qatar Airways reduced capacity at Heathrow by 30-40% following the introduction the cap, Al Baker said. It is achieving that by both capping the number of passengers on flights, as well as pulling down its schedule. He added that the short notice that airlines were given to reduce capacity — they were expected to meet the caps within days of the airport’s notice — into the airport was “very difficult.”<br/>
Malaysia Airlines is nearing a deal for Airbus A330neos to replace its fleet of 21 earlier-model A330s, two sources familiar with the matter said. Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Izham Ismail said last month that the carrier was looking to make a decision on a one-for-one replacement of its A330 fleet by mid to late July. At the time, he declined to say whether the airline would order the planes, meant to replace 15 A330-300s and six A330-200s, from a manufacturer directly or from lessors. Malaysia Airlines has A330s and A350s in its fleet and had placed a provisional order for Boeing 787s in 2017 but let the deal lapse. The sources, who could not be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the matter, told Reuters that the A330neo had been selected as the preferred model. A Malaysia Airlines spokesperson said on Wednesday that the carrier had not yet made a decision on an A330 replacement. "We are still going through the process," the spokesperson said. The fleet modernisation plan designed to help lower carbon emissions comes as the airline, which was loss-making for years even before the pandemic, has been reporting positive cashflow since October.<br/>
A Qantas crew was forced to declare an emergency to get priority landing at Perth airport when fuel stocks started running low. The Australian Safety Transport Bureau is investigating the incident involving the QF933 flight from Brisbane. The bureau reports a Boeing 737 was on its way from Brisbane when the crew declared an emergency on descent over Wave Rock, Western Australia, on 18 July. “A final report will be released at the conclusion of the investigation,” the bureau said. “However, should a critical safety issue be identified during the course of the investigation, the ATSB will immediately notify relevant parties so appropriate safety action can be taken.” Before departure, air traffic control advised the pilots to carry an extra 10 minutes’ worth of fuel due to expected delays in Perth, but the wait then blew out to 16 minutes. After 10 minutes of holding, pilots requested a priority landing and were told they needed to call a “mayday” for that to happen. The plane landed with 10 minutes of fuel stocks as well as 30 minutes’ worth of reserve fuel. Qantas’ chief pilot, Dick Tobiano, said there was “no safety issue”.<br/>