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A United Airlines flight made an emergency landing at San Francisco International Airport Monday night, United confirmed. Flight UA1909 was headed from Los Angeles to Vancouver, but it touched down in the Bay Area due to “a potential security issue on board,” United said. According to Flight Aware, the plane took off at 7:13 p.m. and landed at SFO at 9:28 p.m. “United flight 1909 diverted to San Francisco this evening due to a potential security issue on board. The flight landed safely and was met by local law enforcement. We are working to get our customers to their final destination as soon as possible,” United said. There were 148 passengers on the plane, and it had an eight-member crew. United did not expand on the nature of the possible threat. KRON4 has reached out to the San Francisco Police Department for more and are awaiting a response.<br/>

Air Canada plans to boost capacity in the Asia-Pacific region through the next Northern Hemisphere summer as it seeks to capitalise on stronger-than-expected demand for trans-Pacific air travel. The carrier said on 14 November that it will operate 57 weekly flights between Canada and Asia starting in mid-December, and ramp up to a peak of 64 weekly flights in summer 2024. It is also planning to deploy Boeing 777-300ERs on several routes to China, Japan and South Korea. ”Air Canada will have up to double daily flights to Hong Kong and larger aircraft operating to Shanghai during the December holiday and Lunar New Year travel periods,” says Mark Galardo, executive vice-president, revenue and network planning. Much of the carrier’s focus is on growing its Vancouver hub on Canada’s Pacific Coast. Air Canada will operate its Vancouver-Hong Kong route 11 times weekly beginning in December. It will also step up flights between Vancouver and Bangkok to once-daily from 8 January to 28 February. Additionally, Air Canada will increase capacity to Japan by 96% this winter compared to the same period last year. Air Canada will operate 400-seat 777-300ERs – rather than 298-seat 787-9s – from Vancouver to Narita until 30 April. It will also fly the larger widebody aircraft from Vancouver to Seoul, and Montreal and Toronto to Narita, “for the full summer season”. The carrier recently launched nonstop flights from Vancouver to Dubai and is planning four weekly flights from Vancouver to Singapore starting in April. Most of the airline’s recently added international routes have performed better than expected, Air Canada said during its 30 October earnings call. ”We see a strong opportunity to redeploy capacity into the Asia-Pacific sector over the coming months,” Galardo said during the call. ”We are increasing our capacity to Japan and Korea, adding frequency to our successful new route to Bangkok and adding an additional red-eye flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong.”<br/>

Turkish Airlines has signed new lease contracts for twenty narrowbody aircraft and one widebody from CDB Aviation, Jackson Square Aviation, and DAE Capital, with deliveries due by the first quarter of 2026. The carrier said that it would lease six narrowbodies from CDB Aviation with deliveries due between the first quarter of 2025 and Q1 2026, four from Jackson Square Aviation to be delivered in Q1 2025, and ten from DAE Capital to be delivered between the fourth quarter of 2024 and Q1 2025. All narrowbodies will be leased for 12 years. The single widebody aircraft from CDB Aviation will be delivered in the Q2 2024 and will be leased for six years. Turkish Airlines did not disclose the types of the aircraft and did not respond to ch-aviation's request for comment. The airline has yet to place the long-touted order for as many as 600 narrow- and widebody aircraft. In the meantime, it is signing incremental smaller contracts with lessors.<br/>

Airbus is closing in on a sale of widebody aircraft to Ethiopian Airlines Group and is set to announce the deal on the third day of the Dubai Air Show, people familiar with the talks said. The two sides are negotiating the purchase of about 10 A350-900 widebody jets, with an announcement possible on Wednesday morning, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. Airbus and the airline declined to comment. The accord has not be signed and elements of the deal or timing could still change, the people cautioned. An accord with the African carrier would give Airbus a late boost at the show, which was dominated by arch-rival Boeing Co., particularly on the first day when the US company pulled in massive orders from regional carriers like Emirates. Airbus, by contrast, so far only has one deal with EgyptAir for 10 A350s and a follow-up accord with Air Baltic Corp AS for smaller A220 planes. Emirates President Tim Clark said on Tuesday he’s not ordering any Airbus A350 aircraft until the plane’s engine performance has been improved. Clark said he’s in the market for as many as 50 A350-1000s, which would add to the existing order book of 50 smaller A350-900 planes that he ordered some years ago. The models come with engines built by Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc. For Ethiopian, a deal with Airbus would mark the second purchase in as many days. The airline placed an order with Boeing on Tuesday for 20 737-8 short-haul aircraft as well as 11 787-9 Dreamliners, with options to expand the order to as many as 67 aircraft. Ethiopian Chief Executive Officer Mesfin Tasew Bekele said at a press conference in Dubai on Tuesday that his airline would continue its fleet renewal, with additional orders likely in the near future.<br/>

Singapore Airlines is increasing its capacity to and from New Zealand next year with more seats to Auckland and Christchurch. The airline and codeshare partner Air New Zealand currently jointly operate three services a day between Auckland and Singapore, with Air New Zealand using a Boeing 787-9. From March 31 next year, the second daily Air New Zealand service will use a Boeing 777-300ER, which will add another 17,000 seats over the NZ winter months. From October 2024, the two airlines plan to jointly operate four daily flights between Auckland and Singapore. Subject to regulatory approval, the additional direct service will use an Airbus A350-900 providing more than 1700 seats on the route each week. That will see the airline partners jointly exceed their combined pre-Covid capacity on the route. The fourth service will depart Singapore at 00:25 local time and arrive in Auckland at 15:20. The return service, SQ288, will depart Auckland at 17:15 and arrive back at Singapore Changi Airport at 22:40. In addition to more flights from Auckland, the partners will also mount a three-times weekly supplementary service to Christchurch, operated by Singapore Airlines, across the busy end-of-year travel period, subject to regulatory approval. Currently the airline flies one to two daily flights to Christchurch from Singapore.<br/>