American Airlines has submitted a consolidated reply to the DOT to back its proposed nonstop service between John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York and Tokyo Haneda International (HND). The DOT is looking into American Airlines' and United Airlines' proposals. The latter wants to launch a Houston-Tokyo Haneda route. Delta Air Lines relinquished one daily slot at Tokyo Haneda, creating competition between United Airlines and American Airlines. Both legacy carriers want to obtain this coveted slot and launch a new intercontinental flight. Earlier this month, the DOT launched a comparative selection procedure to select which airline to allocate this daily slot. American Airlines argued to the DOT that its proposal is overwhelmingly additive and creates new net flights to Tokyo. Instead, United will not create new net flights since it flies daily from Houston to Tokyo’s second airport, Narita. Moreover, if United gets the slot, it would scrap the flight to Narita, opting instead to serve the more centric Tokyo Haneda. American Airlines argued, “If the Department awards this Haneda slot pair to United, Houston would still have two daily nonstop services to Tokyo, just as Houston has today (...). In fact, Houston will be in the same position (twice daily service to Tokyo) if American is awarded the available Haneda slot pair.” The airport pair Tokyo Haneda-New York JFK currently has 28 weekly flights. These services are all operated by Japanese carriers, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, each with 14 weekly flights. United Airlines also flies to the Tokyo area from Newark International (EWR), flying daily to Haneda and Narita. United Airlines said in a filing that it is best positioned to offer a top-notch service to Tokyo Haneda from Houston Intercontinental Airport. This is due to United Airlines' robust network of flights to the Asia/Pacific region.<br/>
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SAS’s E833mi Danish and Swedish recapitalization was approved by European Union state-aid watchdogs, in a revised decision after an earlier approval was struck down by an EU court. The EC said Wednesday that the support package complies with its rules on state support under the bloc’s emergency framework to help firms that suffered during the pandemic. It added that the a mechanism proposed by SAS to increase the remuneration of Denmark and Sweden and incentivize their exit from the aid addresses concerns raised by the EU’s General Court. Judges had taken a hard line of other EU state aid packages in the airlines industry — including striking down the EU’s approval of a E6b aid deal for the German flag carrier Deutsche Lufthansa. SAS operates across Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In 2020, it was at risk of default and insolvency due to the coronavirus pandemic and the travel restrictions in place to limit the spread of the virus, prompting Danish and Swedish government to offer the airline support. SAS said in a statement that it’ll hold an extraordinary general meeting in January to seek approval for the so-called “step-up mechanism” the EU said is required for the countries’ share investments. <br/>
A Lufthansa A380 from Munich to Bangkok has been forced to make an unscheduled stop in India due to an angry confrontation between a husband and wife. Flight LH772 was en route to Thailand when the spouses allegedly started arguing, reported German media outlet Bild. The fight continued to escalate and the woman reportedly said she felt “threatened”. It was at this point the man allegedly started to throw food, smash a mobile phone, and tried to set a blanket on fire. He also started to undress and shouted: “I’ll kill you all.” The pilots decided to divert and after being refused permission to land in Pakistan, the plane made its way to Delhi. On arrival, six soldiers came on board and escorted a passenger off. Another unnamed person on board told Bild that it was a “scary situation”. They added that at one stage, all the monitors were switched off so the warring couple didn’t know they were landing in India instead of Thailand. The other passengers were told individually by the crew. The flight eventually continued on to Bangkok, landing two hours late. The fate of the passenger, who is German, has not been revealed as yet.<br/>