Airlines canceled another 2,000 U.S. flights on Wednesday as a severe winter storm coated roads in ice and knocked out power in parts of Texas, as federal forecasters warned of worsening conditions. More than 1,300 flights to and from American Airlines’ hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport were canceled, about 75% of the airport’s schedule, according to flight tracker FlightAware. American proactively canceled flights due to the weather. Even if runways are cleared and it’s safe for planes to take off, dangerous road conditions can impede employees and passengers from getting to the airport. Airlines routinely cancel flights ahead of time so travelers and crews don’t end up stranded at the airport, which can make it harder to recover from a storm. More than 380 flights at Dallas Love Field, where Southwest Airlines is based, were canceled, amounting to about 70% of the airport’s schedule. More than 40% of the schedule at Austin’s main airport was canceled. The National Weather Service issued an ice storm warning for the Dallas-Fort Worth area and other parts of Texas until 9 a.m. CT on Thursday. “Conditions will worsen today,” the warning said. “Travel could be nearly impossible through Wednesday night. Dangerous travel conditions will continue into Thursday morning.” Close to 2,000 US flights were canceled on Tuesday. The FAA slowed arrivals into both airports. Airlines lifted fees or fare differences for travelers affected by the weather if they can fly in early February instead. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport warned travelers about dangerous road conditions and closures heading to the airport. Airlines canceled more than 1,100 US flights on Monday, about 4.6%, the biggest share since year-end holiday disruptions, according to FlightAware data.<br/>
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President Joe Biden took swipes at airlines and hotels Wednesday as he called on Congress to limit certain extra charges they impose on consumers. “These unfair fees add up,” he said, speaking just before a meeting of the White House Competition Committee. Biden said Congress should restrict airline seat-assignment fees imposed on families trying to sit together, so-called resort fees that many hotels now tack on to the bill, excessive service charges on tickets for concerts and sporting events, and fees to switch or cancel internet, cable or cellphone service. “Some airlines charge extra to pick your seat, including for parents who just want to sit next to their child on a plane,” Biden said. “They charge extra — you don’t know that going in though — and it’s wrong.” A spokeswoman for Airlines for America, a trade group that represents the largest US carriers, said its members — including American, United, Delta and Southwest — don’t charge family-seating fees, although some budget airlines do. The larger airlines “make every effort to accommodate customers traveling together, especially those traveling with children, without additional charges, and consumers are offered a range of choices at the time of ticket purchase, including various seating options,” said the spokeswoman, Marli Collier.<br/>
A group representing major US airlines on Wednesday blasted White House proposals on competition in the industry as "short-sighted" and said they would "drive-up costs and reduce choices" for consumers. The White House said on Wednesday the Transportation Department (USDOT) will propose new regulations to bar airlines from charging family members to sit near young children after DOT in 2021 proposed requiring airlines to refund fees for delayed bags. "The federal government should be focused on 21st century policies and procedures that drive our nation’s aviation system forward, rather than making efforts that threaten to reduce access and affordability for consumers," said Airlines for America (A4A), a group representing Delta, United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest and others. A4A said its member airlines "make every effort to accommodate customers traveling together, especially those traveling with children, without additional charges." The Biden administration has taken steps it says will inject more competition into the airline industry. The US Justice Department sued to unwind American Airlines Northeast Alliance with JetBlue Airways and USDOT reassigned 16 peak-hour flights at congested Newark Airport to Spirit Airlines. A4A on Wednesday said "the White House should get the facts straight amid efforts to impose new policies and regulations on our nation’s aviation industry." The White House declined to comment.<br/>
To the immense relief of tens of thousands of prospective British visitors to the US, Washington DC has quietly U-turned on a punitive sanction against people who have been to Cuba in the decade up to 2021. In one of his last acts as president, Donald Trump added Cuba to Washington’s list of “state sponsors of terrorism” (SST) just before leaving the White House. The effect is to prevent people who have been to the island from using the swift and easy online permit known as Esta. Instead, British travellers must apply in person in London or Belfast for a visa, at a cost of $160 (£130). The US move was designed to hit Cuba’s tourism industry and deter future visits to the island. But it also has the effect of punishing people who have visited Cuba in the past. For months, the US State Department insisted that the Esta ban was backdated to 1 March 2011. But overnight US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been telling UK travellers that the relevant date is now the so-called “designation date” of 12 January 2021. That position has now been confirmed in multiple emails sent by CBP – many of them in response to enquiries from months ago.<br/>
The Mexican government and some airlines have reached an agreement to move cargo operations to a new airport on the outskirts of Mexico City to ease congestion at its main hub, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday. Lopez Obrador said earlier this month cargo flights would be moved due to lack of space at the Benito Juarez International Airport. Around 3% of flights at the airport last year were for cargo, according to flight data. Lopez Obrador said cargo operations will be transferred to the new airport in about four months. He named DHL as one of the companies working on the transition. The first cargo plane will arrive at the Felipe Angeles International Airport the third week of February, Lopez Obrador said.<br/>
The fallout from the December travel chaos continues, as the backlog of complaints made to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) keeps growing. As of Jan. 31, there have been 6,395 new complaints made to the agency since Dec. 21. Of these complaints, 2,028 are related to Air Canada, 1,951 are related to WestJet and 761 are related to Sunwing, the CTA told CTV National News on Tuesday. Under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, Canadians are entitled to receive up to $1,000 in compensation for delays and cancellations, depending on the size of the airline and the length of the delay, as long as the delay was within the airlines' control and not related to safety. Filing a complaint with the CTA is supposed to be a last resort, when Canadian air passengers are denied compensation and unable to resolve their dispute while dealing directly with the airline. But instead of a prompt resolution, passengers are being told to take a number. In total, the CTA says it's dealing with a backlog of more than 36,000 complaints, with complainants facing wait times of up to 18 months for a decision. "We have received more complaints than we have been able to process in a given period of time," Tom Oommen, chief compliance and enforcement officer of the CTA, told CTV National News.<br/>
Boeing’s CEO says it’s a matter of when — not if — self-flying planes will debut in commercial aviation. The planemaker’s autonomous flight technology being developed for military applications will eventually appear on commercial aircraft in the future, Dave Calhoun said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “Autonomy is going to come to all of the airplanes eventually,” Calhoun said on the sidelines of an event commemorating the final delivery of its iconic 747 jumbo jet in Everett, Washington. “The future of autonomy is real for civil” aviation, he said. Boeing’s next iconic design may stem from its partnership with NASA to test-fly a prototype aircraft with a new wing design that Calhoun said could yield as much as a 30% fuel efficiency improvement over current-generation narrow-body jets such as the 737 Max. Known as the “transonic truss-braced wing,” Boeing and NASA aim for test flights in 2028 for what Calhoun said he hopes could become a successor to the 737. “Now we have to prove that it can be commercialized,” the CEO said. “We hope to prove to ourselves that this kind of technology can come to the marketplace.” Calhoun also said his company is taking advantage of layoffs at technology companies, including Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., to bolster its ranks of skilled workers. “We had 15,000 hires last year. We’ll have another 10,000 this year,” he said, adding that “many” of the software engineers being brought on are coming from Amazon.<br/>