general

Hurricane Idalia barreled into southern Georgia after hitting Florida’s Gulf Coast with life-threatening storm surges, leaving at least two people dead and hundreds of thousands without power. More than 275,000 people in Florida were without power as of late afternoon, according to PowerOutage.US. At least two people died in weather-related car crashes in Alachua and Pasco counties, police said. About 190,000 people were without power in Georgia. At least 30 of Florida’s 67 counties issued some type of evacuation order prior to the storm. People who did not evacuate should shelter in place, according to the state’s emergency management agency. American Airlines has suspended operations in Tampa; Sarasota; Tallahassee; Gainesville; and Savannah, Georgia, with 167 flights canceled so far. The airline is planning to continue normal operations in Ft. Myers, Key West, Orlando and Daytona Beach. DeSantis said the Tampa airport will reopen at 4 p.m. Wednesday to incoming flights and fully reopen at 3 a.m. Thursday. Gainesville airport will reopen Wednesday night and Tallahassee airport first thing in the morning, the governor said.<br/>

Andrea Nissen is trying to prepare her 65-year-old husband, who has Alzheimer’s disease, for a solo flight from Arizona to Oklahoma to visit family. She worries about travelers and airport officials misinterpreting his forgetfulness or habit of getting in people's personal space, and feels guilty about not being able to accompany him. “People say, ‘He has dementia. You can’t let him go by himself,’” Nissen said. But attending a dementia-friendly travel workshop in July helped ease some of those fears. She learned about the resources available at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and what assistance airlines can offer when asked. It was the first time the city of Phoenix hosted such a workshop, making it the latest U.S. city pledging to make flying friendlier for people with dementia. Over 14m people are expected to check into airports nationwide for Labor Day weekend and, inevitably, some will be travelers with dementia or another cognitive impairment. Nearly a dozen airports — from Phoenix to Kansas City, Missouri — in the last few years have modified their facilities and operations to be more dementia-friendly, advocates say. They've added amenities like quiet rooms and a simulation center where travelers with dementia can learn about flying or get a refresher. Looking for a gate, trying to remember flight times or following terse commands from TSA agents while in line with others can overwhelm someone with dementia. Symptoms like forgetting words can be mistaken for being under the influence of alcohol or drugs. But most large US airports are behind the curve on serving travelers with dementia when compared with some airports in Australia and Europe. Dementia isn't covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, so nobody is compelled by law to make changes, said Sara Barsel, a former special education teacher and founder of the Dementia-Friendly Airports Working Group, which lobbies for airports and airlines to enact dementia-inclusive policies. Part of the reason she suspects there aren't more quiet rooms or family restrooms with adult changing tables is because that doesn't generate revenue, she said.<br/>

The United States is asking Mexico to review whether the labor rights of pilots at a small cargo airline are being infringed, the eight such request Washington has made this year, US officials said on Wednesday. Since the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade took effect in 2020, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative has now launched a total of 13 labor rights complaints against facilities in Mexico. The United States wants Mexico to probe if pilots at Mas Air, a Mexico City-based cargo airline, are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The carrier's web page says it operates five planes. "Today's action highlights the United States is committed to safeguarding the labor rights enshrined in the USMCA across industries and sectors," Trade Representative Katherine Tai said. Washington wants the Mexican government to review the matter under the USMCA's Rapid Response Labor Mechanism. Mexico has 10 days to agree to conduct a review and, if it agrees, 45 days from Wednesday to complete the review.<br/>

Mexico's government plans to cap flights at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) to 43 an hour, according to an internal government document order seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The resolution, sent by the Transportation Ministry to the airport, is expected to be published in Mexico's official gazette soon, a source familiar with the matter said. An internal airport planning committee is expected to meet with airline representatives on Thursday to discuss the changes, the source added. The cuts follow previous flight caps at the airport last year, as the government attempts to reduce saturation in the Mexican capital's airspace. Earlier on Wednesday, the IATA urged Mexico to take alternative measures to its plans to announce flight reductions at AICM. The IATA said that it could not accept "any unilateral and uncoordinated decisions" that would hamper connectivity. "Given the impact that this measure could have on passengers, air connectivity and tourism, we hope that the authorities will consider alternatives," IATA said. According to the document, the measure is set to take effect once the winter season begins, which IATA defines as the last Sunday of October to the last Saturday of March. While flights have been reduced in the past, the Mexican government has not yet announced a fresh round of cuts at the busiest airport in Latin America. Officials have previously capped flights at the airport in an attempt to reduce saturation of the capital's airspace. AICM director Carlos Velazquez told Reuters earlier this month that flight cuts were being considered, among other measures.<br/>

The air traffic control glitch which caused thousands of flight cancellations and delays into and out of Britain has been fixed and will not be repeated, the head of NATS, the country's air traffic control provider, said on Wednesday. Thousands of Britons remain stranded abroad after 1,500 flights were cancelled on Monday and disruption to schedules persisted into Tuesday. The peak holiday period means those affected are not being offered alternative flights for days. Martin Rolfe, the CEO of NATS, said the technical problem was caused by a flight plan which was "not sufficiently standard". He said the issue had been fixed. "We've worked incredibly hard since we restored the service back on Monday to make sure that this type of event can't happen again," he told the BBC. Ryanair criticised NATS on Tuesday for not having a back-up system. With crews and planes in the wrong places, airlines are now scrambling to get passengers home, a process with which NATS is involved. EasyJet said it was adding five extra flights from holiday hotspots in Portugal and Spain later this week to fly people home. NATS will present a report on what went wrong to the transport minister on Monday, Rolfe said. Once the immediate headache of repatriation is resolved, airlines will be focused on the bill. The cost to carriers will be substantial said Willie Walsh, the former CE of British Airways who now heads up global airlines body IATA. "I would imagine that at an industry level, we've been getting close to GBP100m of additional costs that airlines have encountered as a result," Walsh told BBC radio, adding that authorities needed to look at who bears that cost. "It's very unfair because the air traffic control system which was at the heart of this failure doesn't pay a single penny."<br/>

Passenger numbers at Gatwick airport soared to 19m during the first six months of the year, according to its operator, although air traffic control strikes across Europe contributed to an increase in delayed departures and landings. Demand for travel resulted in 41% more passengers travelling through the airport between January and June compared with 2022 – when Covid restrictions were still in place – Gatwick said as it released half-year results. The airport reported a net profit of GBP79m for the first six months of the year, a 56% increase compared with the same period in 2022. However, the results, which do not include the impact from the failure of the UK’s air traffic control system on Monday, show flights remained at 86% of their pre-pandemic level. Gatwick said the number and punctuality had been affected by strike action at airports across Europe. Strikes by air traffic control managers have also restricted routes and forced airlines to divert to longer flight paths, with France particularly affected. Gatwick’s biggest airline, easyJet, cancelled 1,700 summer flights primarily from the Sussex airport in an attempt to try to limit the disruption from strikes.<br/>

As India’s airline market transforms into a duopoly, ticket prices that have long known to be dirt-cheap are climbing. Airfares on India’s busiest route, Mumbai–New Delhi, were 23% higher during January through August than 2022, according to Thomas Cook India and SOTC Travel. India also saw the highest airfare surge — 41% — in the region in the first three months of this year compared with 2019, a study by Airports Council International Asia Pacific found. The higher prices come at a time when two domestic carriers — IndiGo and Air India Ltd. — are set to control the bulk of one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, while most smaller rivals struggle to stay afloat in the notoriously competitive market. IndiGo, India’s biggest carrier with a market share of 63%, is poised to capture more passenger traffic with a record order of 500 Airbus SE. planes, due to join its fleet from 2030. Air India, the country’s No. 2 airline, also made a giant aircraft deal. It will grow bigger with plans to subsume Vistara — currently co-owned by Tata Group and Singapore Airlines Ltd. — by next year, provided it clears antitrust concerns raised. Air India is also acquiring AirAsia’s local unit and merging it with Air India Express. While big airlines are going bigger, small ones are retreating. Go Airlines India Ltd. stopped flying in May after it went belly up, blaming failing RTX’s Pratt & Whitney engines. Its revival is in limbo as it struggles to attract funding and hundreds of pilots leave the insolvent airline. No-frills SpiceJet Ltd. is also under pressure after reporting losses for the past five years. “The aviation market in India is transitioning to a few large players,” said Rajat Mahajan, a partner at Deloitte Consulting. “With this consolidation, a couple of airlines are projected to capture about 75% of the market. This leaves a mere 25% for other players, consequently leaving consumers with fewer choices and hence pricier tickets,” said Mahajan, who is also the firm’s travel and hospitality expert.<br/>

Regular users of Google Flights might notice a new feature the next time they go to the site to check out airline schedules and compare flight prices. The new feature officially announced this week in a news release is Google guidance on the cheapest time to book a flight, which supplements price tracking alerts and a price guarantee option already in place. Story writes aboutwhat to expect on the new feature plus some details on the others: Cheapest time to book: Google Flights said it already lets users see whether current prices for a search are low, typical or high compared with past averages for the same route. But starting this week, searches that have reliable trend data will also let users see in what time frame prices have typically been lowest. Users can then better decide whether to book now or later, Google said in the release. Price tracking: Users who want to wait for lower fares before booking can use a price tracking feature that "can do most of the heavy lifting for you," Google said. People who enable price tracking will be automatically notified if flight prices drop "significantly," Google said. It can be set up to track for specific dates or for "any dates" price tracking. Users must be logged into their Google accounts to use this. Story has more.<br/>