The pilot of a Southwest Airlines flight threatened to cancel takeoff after someone on the plane sent a naked photograph to other passengers. The incident, involving Apple's AirDrop file transfer service, involved a flight from Houston's William P. Hobby Airport to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. "So here's the deal, if this continues while we're on the ground I'm going to have to pull back to the gate, everybody's going to have to get off, we're going to have to get security involved and ... vacation is going to be ruined," the pilot could be heard saying in a video that's been seen about 2.7m times on TikTok. "So you folks, whatever that AirDrop thing is, quit sending naked pictures and let's get yourself to Cabo." Passenger Teighlor Marsalis shot the video and told CNN that she and her friends had just boarded the plane when she and the people around her received notification of files being shared via AirDrop. Marsalis said she had declined the file, but two women in front of her accepted it and showed her the photo. "It was a nude man that had AirDropped himself to everyone," she said. Marsalis said she saw another woman get upset by the photos and report what was happening to a flight attendant. A flight attendant went to tell the pilot what had happened, and Marsalis said she started taking video because she thought something was going to happen. Story has more.<br/>
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Latvian carrier Air Baltic has turned in first-half net losses of E59.3m, a similar level to the interim deficit of E61.5m recorded last year. Air Baltic says its performance over the first six months has been “significantly impacted” by persisting complexities, notably the conflict in Ukraine. It also cites uncertainty over the pandemic during the period as well as rising fuel prices and supply-chain issues. “These global challenges have affected Air Baltic,” says CE Martin Gauss. But he points out that the airline has experienced “tremendous growth” as demand recovered, transporting 1.3m passengers. This enabled the carrier to generate revenues of E191m, approaching four times the figure for last year’s first half. “We have recorded a strong summer,” says Gauss. “Our core mission for the future remains to be the main connectivity provider to and from our home cities of Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius and Tampere.”<br/>
Emirates will resume flights to Lagos from Sept. 11 after Nigeria released a portion of funds owed to the Dubai-based carrier. “We continue to engage with the Nigerian authorities to ensure the repatriation of our outstanding and future funds may continue without hindrance,” Emirates said. Nigeria’s central bank released $265m to settle ticket sales owed to airline operators, it said on Friday. The country owes carriers $464m, the IATA said in August. Emirates said on Aug. 18 that it would suspend flights to Nigeria from September because of blocked funds, while Lagos-based Punch Newspapers reported on Saturday that British Airways stopped travel agents in Nigeria from selling its tickets.<br/>
Emirates is aiming to have 85 of its 118 Airbus A380s, over 70%, back in operation by the end of this year, as it prepares to operate the type with a premium-economy cabin on additional routes. The airline is intending to retrofit 67 A380s with the premium-economy seats along with 53 of its Boeing 777s from November, having initially introduced the change on a limited number of aircraft early last year. Emirates will put the retrofitted A380s on services to New York JFK in December. It will then introduce the modified configuration on A380 routes to Auckland in mid-January 2023, Melbourne and San Francisco in February, and Singapore in March. Emirates adds that it will also be offering more A380 services with the premium-economy cabin to London Heathrow and Sydney – with a debut to Christchurch in March – and will also reinforce the JFK service. It also already offers the cabin on flights to Paris. The Dubai-based carrier expects to have recovered three-quarters of its pre-crisis A380 network by the end of this year. Emirates claims the customer feedback to the new cabin – comprising 56 seats in eight-abreast in the forward main deck – has been “overwhelmingly positive”, and that demand has exceeded expectations.<br/>
Shares of India's SpiceJet tumbled nearly 15% on Thursday to a one-month low, after the low-cost carrier posted a bigger quarterly loss due to higher fuel costs and unfavourable foreign currency rates, and said its finance chief had resigned. SpiceJet on Wednesday reported a net loss of 7.84b rupees ($98.50m) for the quarter ended June 30, compared with a loss of 7.31b rupees a year earlier. The cash-strapped airline has recently struggled to make timely payments to vendors and lessors, prompting some to deregister planes. Last month, Reuters reported lenders IDFC First Bank, Yes Bank and Indian Bank had put their loans to SpiceJet in the high-risk category. The airline rejected the claims. In July, India's aviation regulator had ordered SpiceJet to slash its approved fleet to 50% this summer for eight weeks citing safety snags and said it would subject the airline to "enhanced surveillance". SpiceJet's managing director, Ajay Singh, said despite "the complex operating environment and highest ever input costs", the airline had been able to sustain its operations and would soon engage investment banks to raise up to $200m.<br/>