More than 1,400 flights within, to and out of the United States were canceled Wednesday as severe weather wreaked havoc with massive storms threatening to bring record snowfall across America. Residents across the northern Plains will be hunkering down as the storm hits, with schools across the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin announcing closures ahead of the severe weather system, which is expected to affect millions while California contends with strong winds and sweeping power outages. The National Weather Service issued winter storm, blizzard and high-wind advisories for swaths of the western and the north-central US, with up to 2 feet of snow expected in some areas through Thursday. Officials have also warned residents to stay off the roads because of potential “whiteout” conditions. In normally sunny Southern California, blizzard warnings were issued for mountain regions of northern Los Angeles County, the first such alerts in more than 30 years. At least 2,770 flights, within, into or out of the United States, were delayed mid-afternoon Wednesday, according to the online flight tracker FlightAware. There were more than 1,434 US flight cancellations by 2 p.m. EST, and at least 416 of those called-off journeys were related to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. At least 243 cancellations were listed out of Denver International Airport.<br/>
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Cockpit recordings from a series of recent air-safety incidents in the US, including three near-collisions on runways, aren’t available to investigators — raising questions about whether rules related to the devices are sufficient. Black boxes on all six jetliners involved in four close calls since December were automatically overwritten after crews continued on flights or conducted other routine operations, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The loss of the data has renewed longstanding calls by the NTSB for the US government to require airlines to capture 25 hours of sound — the standard in Europe since 2021 — increasing the odds that they’ll have useful recordings. Currently, devices in the US record two hours of sound and, when available, can be one of the most helpful tools in determining how accidents occur. “Twenty-five hours should be the standard across all the countries,” Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB chairwoman, said in an interview. “For us coming late to this, following the European standard, is embarrassing.” Changing the rules for cockpit recorders faces a number of challenges. In September, the FAA, which regulates the aviation industry, dropped its effort to require extended recorders. An FAA advisory committee rejected the creation of a new rule “due to competing priorities and resources,” FAA acting Administrator Billy Nolen said at the time in a letter to the NTSB. The regulator has said it plans to resubmit its request for a 25-hour rule this year and a spokesman referred to the letter when asked to comment. Pilot unions say they need assurances the privacy of crew members will be prioritized. While the NTSB is prohibited from releasing the raw recordings from the cockpit, there is a “lack of protection” against carriers and others from leaking it, the Air Line Pilots Association, the largest flight-crew union in North America, said in a 2015 letter to the FAA. JetBlue Airways CEO Robin Hayes defended the existing recorder standard in an interview, saying so much flight data is available through other sources there is little to gain by changing it. The Airlines for America trade group said it generally supports going to 25-hour recorders, but added there are “many details and considerations that need to be addressed.” <br/>
South Korea will not require travellers from China to test for COVID-19 upon arrivals from next month although they will still need to take pre-departure tests, a South Korean official said on Wednesday, its latest easing of rules to stop the virus. South Korea imposed several restrictions on passengers from China after it lifted its stringent zero-COVID policy late last year, but it has been easing them, citing an improved COVID situation in its neighbour. "Additional easing of quarantine measures appears possible as the positive rate among arrivals from China has dropped from 18.4% in the first week of January to 0.6% in the third week of February," Kim Sung-ho, a vice ministerial official at the Ministry of Interior and Safety, said during a meeting on the COVID response. Effective March 1, South Korea will also allow flights from China to land in airports other than its main Incheon International Airport, which has been the sole gateway for flights from China since early January. Mandatory PCR tests before departure for passengers from China will remain in place until March 10, Kim said, to monitor and evaluate the impact of the rule relaxation. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Beijing was willing to consider reciprocal measures when the time was appropriate.<br/>
Vietnam's air passenger traffic in the first two months of 2023 surged 91.5% year on year, with the most significant increases recorded for international travelers, Vietnam News Agency cited the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam as reporting on Wednesday. Passenger traffic jumped to nearly 20m in the January-February period as global airline traffic is on the way to full recovery, data showed. Vietnamese airports handled 4.7m international passengers, up 20-fold from that in the same period last year, while the number of domestic passengers increased 48% to 14.8m, according to the aviation regulator. The IATA expected this year's international passenger traffic to surge to 80% of the pre-pandemic levels after global air traffic recovered to 68.5% of 2019 levels last year. Vietnam's aviation industry is set to fully recover by the end of this year when the number of passengers and cargo transported by air this year in the Southeast Asian country will rise 45.4% and 15% from 2022 respectively, or up 1% and 14.8% over the pre-pandemic period in 2019, said the global aviation body.<br/>
Auckland International Airport returned to profit as it benefits from pent-up demand for travel after the Covid-19 pandemic. The country’s biggest international gateway reported an underlying first-half profit of $68m in the six months to December 31, from a loss of $11.5m last year. Auckland Airport is benefiting from a surge in travel demand after the country’s borders progressively opened last year, with full planes and increased flights expected to fuel the ongoing recovery. It follows two years of losses after the pandemic brought global travel to a standstill. CE Carrie Hurihanganui said it was reassuring to see the airport return to profitability, reflecting a significant increase in capacity with 23 airlines now flying from Auckland Airport to 35 international destinations. “We've seen the return of international airlines, increasing demand and record high load factors so all that is incredibly positive,” she said. “The recovery is well and truly underway.” The company’s shares lifted 2.6% to a three-year high of $8.80 in midday trading on the NZX on Thursday. The airport handled 7.6m international and domestic travellers in the first half, which was 71% of the travellers that came through the airport in its 2019 financial year, before Covid. Some 4.1m of those were domestic passengers, 85% of pre-Covid levels, while 3.5m were international passengers, 60% of pre-Covid levels. Domestic passenger volumes had quickly recovered, but stabilised below pre-Covid levels because of lower airline capacity, while international travel continued to strengthen as connectivity improved.<br/>