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The Transportation Department fined American Airlines $4.1m on Monday, saying the carrier violated federal rules by keeping passengers stranded on airport tarmacs for hours on dozens of occasions in recent years. The agency said the fine was the largest penalty it had ever doled out for tarmac delays. The violations stem from 43 domestic flights between 2018 and 2021 in which passengers were stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours without being given a chance to deplane, according to the department. A majority of the delays occurred at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, the largest hub for American Airlines. Others took place at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, San Antonio International Airport and Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington. The most extensive delay was in San Antonio, when a flight carrying 105 passengers sat on the tarmac for six hours in August 2020. “This is the latest action in our continued drive to enforce the rights of airline passengers,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “Whether the issue is extreme tarmac delays or problems getting refunds, DOT will continue to protect consumers and hold airlines accountable.” Sarah Jantz, a spokeswoman for American Airlines, said the carrier had made substantial efforts to reduce tarmac delays, such as deploying a tool that adjusts the timing of flights in response to bad weather. “While these delays were the result of exceptional weather events, the flights represent a very small number of the 7.7m flights during this time period,” Ms. Jantz said in a statement. “We have since apologized to the impacted customers and regret any inconvenience caused.” American Airlines will have to pay only half of the $4.1m fine to the federal government. For the other half, the government is giving the airline credit for compensation provided to passengers for delays. The federal prohibition on lengthy tarmac delays dates to the Obama administration. For domestic flights, airlines are not allowed to keep passengers sitting on the tarmac for more than three hours without giving them a chance to deplane. For international flights, the limit is four hours.<br/>

Qatar Airways is optimistic about Brazil and the overall Latin American market as part of a global network expansion strategy on the heels of World Cup-driven surge for its business. The Doha-based airline reported a record annual revenue of $21b in 2022, up 45% from the year before, and a $1.21b net profit, driven by the huge flow of passengers it transported to the FIFA World Cup in the Middle Eastern country. But even without that non-recurring boost in coming years, the airline still projects a bright future ahead. "That's a precursor to how we see 2023, 2024 shaping up," Craig Thomas, the carrier's vice president of sales in the Americas, said in an interview on Friday afternoon. The World Cup was part of Qatar's strategy to attract 6m visitors per year by 2030, he said, and the goal now is to capitalize on the legacy left by one of the world's biggest sporting events. That includes promoting improved infrastructure, such as hotels and restaurants, and encouraging travelers who make a connection in Qatar to stay for a few days, Thomas said. The carrier revealed this year it could expand its destinations to more than 255 from 170, although that would depend on a bigger expansion of its fleet. Expansion plans include Latin America, where the carrier is bringing back flights to Buenos Aires via Sao Paulo, looking to attract both Argentines to the country where their national team won the World Cup and transport Brazilians to one of their top international destinations in the neighboring country.<br/>

Malaysia Airlines is set to reopen its in-town flight check-in and baggage drop facilities at KL Sentral beginning Sept 1. In a joint statement, both Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd and Malaysia Airlines said the reopening aims to offer air travellers convenience, time-saving benefits and the luxury of arriving at the airport luggage-free. “The service will be exclusively accessible to Malaysia Airlines’ passengers for the time being upon the resumption of operations and will be joined by other airlines subsequently. “Travellers will have the convenience of checking in for their flights and luggage drop at KL Sentral during the airline’s counter operation hours from 6am to 10pm. “Passengers who check in at KL Sentral will receive their boarding pass, and all their checked-in baggage will be security scanned and tagged to their final destination, just like in the airport,” it said Monday. ERL CEO Noormah Mohd Noor said they were delighted to finally reopen the in-town flight check-in facility for loyal passengers who had been asking for the service after the pandemic. “With our ridership growing, the time is right to restart check-in services. When we first began operations in 2002, Malaysia Airlines was the first airline to offer check-in services and it is only right to relaunch them again.<br/>

Virgin Australia chief Jayne Hrdlicka has rubbished Qantas boss Alan Joyce’s claims that Qatar Airways’ application to fly extra international services would have created “market distortion”, arguing that the extra seats would have brought down the prices of airfares. In a two-hour grilling from the Senate committee on the cost of living crisis on Monday, Joyce defended the government’s decision to reject Qatar Airways’ application, which would have added 800,000 to 1m additional seats between Australia, Doha and Europe each year. Joyce said Qantas made a submission to the federal government last October that Qatar Airways doubling its services would “distort the market” by hurting the recovering capacity of other airlines. But Hrdlicka on Tuesday said adding additional seats would push down sky-high overseas airfares, in turn increasing demand for international travel. Virgin has a codeshare partnership with Qatar Airways, which means it would have profited from the additional bilateral air rights. Virgin’s market share on the Australia, Europe and Middle East routes would have risen from 25 to 27%. Rival Qantas, which has the same codeshare arrangement with Emirates, sits at 43% across those routes. “The reality is, that many of those airlines that provided those seats pre-COVID won’t recover that capacity back into Australia, those seats won’t come back. It’s really important that we take advantage of every opportunity to get more seats into and out of Australia as fast as we possibly can,” she told ABC’s RN Breakfast program. Hrdlicka also refuted Joyce’s assertion that Qatar Airways could fly bigger aircraft to smaller cities, like Adelaide and Darwin, if it really wanted to boost seat capacity in Australia. “The constraints are in these major capital cities, and so it’s a bit of an obfuscation to say ‘oh, fly into places where we don’t have enough people in Australia to support those seats’,” Hrdlicka said. Additional seats need to be added to the major capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, where the volume of demand is, she added.<br/>