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Storm Debi brought wind gusts of more than 70mph to parts of Britain and Ireland on Monday, disrupting travel and leaving more than 100,000 without power. British Airways cancelled 50 flights to and from London Heathrow, while ferries and trains were also disrupted. Gusts of 77mph were recorded in Gwynedd, 74mph at Killowen in Northern Ireland and 68mph on the Isle of Man as the low pressure system moved across the Irish Sea. Yellow warnings for rain were also in place across much of Northern England and northern Wales, part of North East Scotland and Northern Ireland. Some of the BA cancellations were to the hard-hit island of Ireland, in particular Dublin and Belfast City. Domestic departures to Aberdeen, Manchester and Newcastle were grounded, along with two flights each to Edinburgh and Glasgow. The return legs were also cancelled. Many European services have been axed: Amsterdam, Billund, Brussels, Dublin, Luxembourg, Lyon, Milan, Marseille (2), Nice, Oslo, Prague, Rome, Stuttgart, Toulouse, Warsaw and Zurich. A British Airways spokesperson told The Independent: “Like other airlines, we have had to make schedule adjustments due to the adverse weather conditions across the UK and Europe caused by Storm Debi. We’ve apologised to our customers for the disruption to their travel plans and our teams are working hard to get them on their way as quickly as possible.” At Dublin airport, morning arrivals from New York on Aer Lingus and from Helsinki on Finnair were diverted to Shannon in the west of Ireland. The Isle of Man’s airport has seen many cancellations, including Loganair to and from Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London City, London Heathrow and Manchester. An easyJet flight from Manchester to the island in the Irish Sea turned back after it made an unsuccessful attempt to land.<br/>

The CE of Royal Jordanian said on Monday the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza was leading to some cancellations in bookings and making it operate longer, costlier flights, which could hurt the airline's profitability in Q4. The airline made a nine-month profit of 10.7m Jordanian dinars ($15.1m) and prior to the war expected the last quarter to increase profitability. CE Samer Majali said the airline was no longer sure, warning that costs had increased substantially as it had to fly longer flights to avoid neighbouring airspace. "We've seen some reduction in traffic and obviously we have additional costs because we have to fly longer routes to avoid the conflict areas," he told journalists at the Dubai Airshow. Travellers have cancelled bookings to the region amid fears the war, now in its fifth week, could spillover into a regional conflict. Majali, however, urged people to visit Jordan, which he described as an "oasis of stability". The airline signed an agreement at the Dubai Airshow with Boeing to purchase six 787-9 Dreamliner jets, of which Majali said two were of the same aircraft that had earlier been cancelled and now reordered. EgyptAir Chairman Yehia Zakaria similarly said that the airline was seeing some bookings cancelled, which like Royal Jordanian, were typically those made by foreign tourists. "It's not more than 10%," Zakaria said of the cancellations, describing it as a "very low" and "not considerable". He said that the cancellations were not at a critical level and that tourists were still visiting Egypt, though certain destinations were being avoided due to the war in Gaza. Jordan and Egypt both neighbour Israel, while Egypt also shares a border with Gaza.<br/>

Royal Jordanian has ordered six Boeing 787-9s from the manufacturer and is set to revamp its existing 787-8s. The Gulf carrier was a Middle East launch customer for the Dreamliner and has announced a deal for four newly-ordered 787-9s while reconfirming orders for two more during the Dubai air show. Speaking during a press conference in Dubai, Royal Jordanian CE Samer Majali explained the two-aircraft reconfirmation. “Because of issues in the region, Arab Spring and so on, we curtailed our original order and reduced it,” he says. ”So now we are bringing back those aeroplanes we reduced and adding to them. So two of them are basically an old order that was cancelled and reactivated, and four additional on top of that.” The airline is also leasing three more 787-9s. “The leased ones are coming first, two in 2025 and one in 2026. Then the Boeing ones will come, one in 2027, one in 2028 and so on. Almost one or two a year.” “We still continue to use the 787-8 and we are very pleased with this aeroplane,” he adds. ”The -9 is obviously bigger and more efficient, but the -8 is also very good and, in this climate of lack of aeroplanes, we are also going to refurbish our 787-8s in co-operation with Boeing to be able to extend their life as long as possible, “We are working with Boeing Services and our main [buyer-furnished equipment] supplier to have it ready, very close to the time that we are receiving our new 787-9s.” Majali states: ”We want to make sure these aeroplanes are compatible with that [new aircraft] standard. Our current 787s are eight or nine years old, so still fairly young and worth investing in. So the idea is to bring them up to the -9 standard.”<br/>