United Airlines, one of the United States' 'Big Three' airlines is patting itself on the back after a solid finish to the year. From December 15 until the end of 2023, the airline carried, on average, 483,000 passengers daily. This figure marks the carrier's busiest holiday travel period in its history. With that, the airline also celebrated its lowest-ever cancellation rate, where United operated 99.7% of all flights for the month. With the festive period one of the most popular times of the year to travel, many airlines across the United States were preparing for its most testing time (cast your mind back to the Southwest meltdown of 2022). For the second half of December, United boasted its best-ever on-time departure rate, achieving 71%, marking over two-thirds of all flights departing on time; the airline also noted that in December, fewer bags went missing than ever before, seeing its mishandled baggage rate shrink to 7.6 per 1,000 bags. With the COVID-19 travel freeze seemingly a thing of the past, Simple Flying recently compared United's operations between now and 2019, where the Chicago-based carrier has grown by a tenth in size. Expanding its international capacity rapidly, the airline now boasts the most robust Pacific presence of any US carrier, adding 40% more services compared to 2022. The airline's most notable route launch was to the South Island of New Zealand, becoming the first US carrier ever to serve the island. United will operate the seasonal service between San Francisco International Airport and Christchurch International Airport thrice weekly until February. Other notable new routes for the airline included Los Angeles International Airport to Auckland International Airport, LA to Hong Kong International Airport, and San Francisco to Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport s.<br/>
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An Air Canada flight en route from Calgary to Toronto made an unscheduled landing in Winnipeg Wednesday afternoon, after RCMP allege a teen passenger on the plane assaulted a family member. Air Canada Flight 137 touched down at Winnipeg's Richardson International Airport around 12:20 p.m., Manitoba RCMP said in a news release. Mounties allege that a 16-year-old boy from Grande Prairie, Alta., who was on the plane assaulted another passenger, a man who was identified as a family member. Passengers and airline employees restrained the youth following the attack, according to police. The 16-year-old was arrested and taken to hospital for a medical evaluation, RCMP said. The victim was treated for minor physical injuries and no other passengers on the flight required medical assistance, according to Mounties.<br/>
Turkish Airlines has secured an air operator’s certificate (AOC) for its low-cost carrier AnadoluJet for when it begins operations as standalone unit under the AJet brand. AnadoluJet was established by the airline in 2008 but last year Turkish Airlines outlined plans to separate out the company as a wholly-owned subsidiary from this summer. To support the move, Turkish Airlines has been working on securing a separate AOC for the airline, under which it is being rebranded AJet. In a short statement the company says the country’s aviation regulator granted AJet’s AOC on 2 January. ”AJet is expected to start its operations at the beginning of the summer season in 2024,” the airline says. Under its long-term growth plans Turkish Airlines aims to more than double AJet’s fleet from 94 at the end of last year to 200 aircraft by 2033. That will include a completely renewed fleet by 2029. These expansion plans envisage the fleet serving an increased network of 80 international destinations by 2033.<br/>
AirlineRatings ranked Air New Zealand as the safest airline in the world in 2023, with the airline taking over the top spot from Australia’s Qantas by a narrow margin, according to the website, which has published a list of over 45 airlines that were considered the safest in 2023. Geoffrey Thomas, the Editor-in-Chief at AirlineRatings, said that the site’s top twenty-five safest airlines are “all standouts in the industry and are at the forefront of safety, innovation, and launching of new aircraft.” As such, the “safety margins between these top twenty-five airlines are very small.” “Between Air New Zealand and Qantas, there are only 1.5 points, it’s incredibly close.” Thomas also remarked that the airline operates in some of the most challenging weather environments, testing pilots’ skills constantly with difficult approaches at Wellington International Airport and Queenstown Airport. According to the site, when evaluating an airline, it considers a range of factors that include “serious incidents, recent fatal accidents, audits from aviation’s governing and industry bodies, profitability, industry-leading safety initiatives, expert pilot training assessment and fleet age.” However, bird strikes, turbulence injuries, weather diversions, and lightning strikes are not accounted for since “the airline has no control over such events.”<br/>