Japan’s flagship carrier has been forced to lay on an extra flight at short notice after concluding that two of its planes were at risk of exceeding their weight limits. The culprit was not excess baggage, however, but a passenger list that included some of the country’s heaviest men. Japan Airlines took the “very unusual” step of transferring a number of sumo wrestlers to a hastily arranged special flight last week over concerns that the two aircraft they had originally been due to fly would be unable to carry sufficient fuel due to weight restrictions. The sumo rikishi were scheduled to take Boeing 737-800 flights from Haneda airport in Tokyo and Itami airport in Osaka to Amami Oshima, an island in the far south, where they were due to compete in a sports festival, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said. Concern over fuel capacity emerged when staff learned late on Thursday that the passenger lists included sumo wrestlers, whom they estimated weighed an average of 120kg – far more than the 70kg average, the Yomiuri said. The Amami airport runway would have struggled to accommodate a larger aircraft, the newspaper said, forcing JAL to lay on an additional service for 27 wrestlers, including 14 who had to fly from Itami to Haneda to board the special flight. “It is extremely unusual for us to operate special flights due to the weight restrictions on this aircraft,” a JAL spokesperson told the regional newspaper the Minami Nihon Shimbun. Additional flights were also laid on to take the wrestlers home after the tournament ended on Sunday, according to Japanese media.<br/>
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Officials say passengers on a Cincinnati-bound flight were evacuated after an aborted takeoff at Philadelphia International Airport, but no injuries were reported. Airport spokesperson Heather Redfern said the PSA Airlines flight being operated for American Airlines experienced mechanical issues and aborted its takeoff about 9 p.m. Saturday. Redfern said Sunday that there were no injuries to the five crew members or to the 76 passengers who were taken off the plane using stairs and then were taken back to the terminal by shuttle. The plane was towed from the runway back to the terminal and airport operations weren’t affected, she said. American Airlines told The Philadelphia Inquirer that American Eagle flight 5583 “reported a possible mechanical issue while on the runway prior to takeoff” and would be inspected by the company’s maintenance team.<br/>
Qantas’ loyalty programme chief Olivia Wirth has announced her departure, the latest in the string of high-ranking executive resignations to hit the embattled carrier. The airline says Wirth, who has helmed Qantas Loyalty portfolio from 2018, will leave in February 2024 “to pursue other opportunities”. Qantas says it will kickstart the process of appointing Wirth’s successor. She joined the airline in 2009, holding several senior leadership roles, including as chief customer officer, as well as the head of the airline’s brand, marketing and corporate affairs division. Wirth had been reportedly in the running for the airline’s top job, taking over from ex-CEO Alan Joyce, who in September also left the airline. Paying tribute to Wirth’s contributions, Qantas group chief Vanessa Hudson says: “As CEO of Loyalty, she drove huge expansion of what the programme offers and that shows in the growth in members and their engagement levels. There are many improvements for customers in the pipeline that Olivia will continue working on with her team over the next few months, as part of setting this part of the business up for continued success.” Wirth’s departure comes amid a senior management shake-up within Qantas. Long-serving CEO Joyce stepped down abruptly in early September – months ahead of his planned retirement – amid mounting public anger over a string of controversies. A month later, airline chair Richard Goyder also announced he was stepping down – along with several members of the airline board – as part of efforts to repair its tattered reputation. The airline is facing legal action from Australian competition regulators for allegedly selling seats on thousands of flights between May and July 2022 that never took off. The Australian High Court also found that Qantas’s sacking of thousands of ground handlers during the pandemic was illegal.<br/>