Hundreds of flights have been grounded across the US from a pair of winter storms that left more than a foot of snow in New York’s Hudson Valley and sparked blizzard warnings across the Great Plains. The first storm is still bringing heavy snow Sunday across Boston and New England, the National Weather Service said. Regions to the north and west of New York City, including the upper Hudson River Valley, received from 6 to 12 inches of snow. “Poughkeepsie, they picked up a foot,” said Greg Carbin, branch chief of the US Weather Prediction Center. “Orange County, New York, they got a solid foot there. Port Jervis got 13 inches.” New York City was spared the worst of the weather, with Manhattan’s Central Park getting mostly rain. While the storm in the east pulls away through Sunday, a second is moving across the western states sparking winter storm warnings and weather advisories from Arizona to Illinois and a blizzard warning in New Mexico and Colorado. The two systems have contributed to 692 flight cancellations across the US as of early Sunday, with Boston, Newark, Seattle and Chicago hardest hit, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking company. Looking ahead, the western storm will likely bring heavy snow across the Midwest, including 9 inches just west of Chicago Monday night into Tuesday, and flooding to the eastern US as downpours land on the melting snowpack.<br/>
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A mid-air blowout has put jetmaker Boeing (BA.N) in the exact place investors and management hoped it would avoid - back in the regulatory crosshairs just as it was awaiting approval of new models of its best-selling MAX jet. Investigators say it is too early to determine what caused a so-called door plug to fall off from the side of an aircraft operated by one of Boeing's most loyal customers, Alaska Airlines, on Friday with 171 passengers on board. The FAA said on Sunday that 171 Boeing MAX 9 airplanes would remain grounded until the agency is convinced they can safely operate. The mishap comes as Boeing and supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which made the panel, are grappling with ongoing production setbacks that have hampered recovery from an earlier lengthy 737 MAX safety grounding and wider disruption from the pandemic. Boeing has been under pressure to expand the MAX portfolio and narrow a gap with rival Airbus, which has extended gains in market share since two Boeing MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed nearly 350 people and led to the MAX's worldwide grounding for 20 months. The MAX's troubled history resulted in sweeping reforms of U.S. airplane regulation in 2020, and the Alaska incident could prompt regulators to take a tougher line on other outstanding issues.<br/>
European safety regulators have followed the US FAA in taking action against the Boeing 737 Max 9, after the Alaska Airlines depressurisation incident, although the effect is likely to be limited. The FAA ordered a temporary grounding of the Max 9 after a mid-cabin door detached from the Alaska aircraft as it climbed out of Portland on 5 January. It states that the issue could affect other aircraft of the same design, and has ordered inspections before further flight of the aircraft. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has formally adopted the FAA directive, although it believes no operators in EASA member states are affected. EASA says that, to its knowledge, and based on Boeing and FAA information, no European airline operates the aircraft in the “relevant configuration”, with the mid-cabin exit replaced by a ”plug-in panel”. This de-activation is typically adopted by carriers with lower-density interiors, because the exit is unnecessary to meet evacuation requirements. EASA says Max 9s in Europe do not have this configuration, and the aircraft are ”therefore not grounded” and can ”continue to operate normally”. None of the 737 Max 9s operated by EASA member states’ carriers are affected by the directive Relatively few Max 9s operate in Europe. Carriers using the type include Turkish Airlines, which configures its jets with 169 seats, and Icelandair which has Max 9s with 178 seats. UK regulators have requested foreign operators of the Max 9 to undertake inspections of the aircraft before operating them within UK airspace. There are no Max 9s on the UK register, the Civil Aviation Authority adds.<br/>
India's aviation regulator on Saturday ordered an inspection of all Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft owned by domestic operators after a cabin panel blowout forced a new Alaska Airlines airplane to make an emergency landing in the United States, news agency ANI reported. The California-bound Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines had to make an emergency landing on Friday as it climbed out of Portland, Oregon. There were no immediate indications of the cause of the apparent structural failure nor any reports of injuries. While none of India's air operators have the Boeing 737-9 Max model in their fleets, the country's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed a "one-time inspection of the emergency exits immediately on all Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft currently operating as part of their fleet," ANI said in a post on social media platform X.<br/>
Korean airlines have been ordered to conduct safety checks on their Boeing 737 MAX planes after a cabin panel blowout forced a MAX 9 jet, operated by Alaska Airlines, to make an emergency landing in the United States, Friday (local time). According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Sunday, it issued a notice telling five companies operating Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets ― Korean Air, Eastar Jet, T’way Air, Jeju Air and Jin Air ― to thoroughly check for any safety issues with their aircraft. The ministry said none of the Korean companies operate the MAX 9 model, adding that the notice was sent as a preemptive measure to ensure safety. This comes after the shocking incident, in which the MAX 9 terrified its 177 passengers and crew after losing a fuselage panel midair, 20 minutes after leaving Portland International Airport. Luckily, no one aboard was seriously injured and the plane returned to the airport. But it raised concerns over the safety of the model. Soon afterward, US regulators ordered the temporary grounding of some Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes. The FAA said it was requiring immediate inspections of certain MAX 9 jets operated by US airlines or flown in the country by foreign carriers. The plane in question is relatively new, and had been delivered from Boeing on Oct. 31. In a statement, Boeing said it would fully cooperate with the planned inspections. “Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers,” the company said on its website. “In addition, a Boeing technical team is supporting the NTSB’s investigation into last night's event. We will remain in close contact with our regulator and customers.”<br/>
A runway at Tokyo's Haneda airport that had been closed since a fatal collision between a Japan Airlines plane and a Japan Coast Guard aircraft reopened on Monday. The closure of Runway C, one of four runways at the country's busiest airport, following the Jan. 2 collision led to the cancellation of over 1,200 flights, affecting more than 200,000 passengers during the New Year's holidays. The runway was reopened after the removal of the wreckage of the passenger jet and the completion of repairs. The collision on Tuesday evening led to the temporary closure of all four runways at Haneda airport, a key gateway for overseas travelers that is accessible to central Tokyo. The three other runways were reopened later that night. Five of the six people aboard the coast guard Bombardier DHC8-300 aircraft were killed in the collision, while all 379 people aboard the JAL Airbus A350 escaped without life-threatening injuries.<br/>
Another incident involving a Japan Coast Guard (JCG) aircraft occurred at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Jan 4, two days after a fatal collision between a JCG aircraft and a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane. The JCG aircraft was damaged after being struck by a JAL groundwork vehicle, but the plane was unmanned and no injuries were reported, sources said. The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry and others are investigating the details of the incident. According to the sources, the collision occurred at an aircraft parking apron located between an international terminal and Runway B at around 6pm (5pm Singapore time), when a JAL high-lift truck for loading cargo struck the parked JCG aircraft. The aircraft, an LAJ501 manufactured by Gulfstream Aerospace Corp, belongs to Haneda Air Station. The aircraft was not scheduled to fly at the time but was damaged, including a crack on the edge of the wing, and was rendered unable to fly. Details of the damage are being examined. When the aircraft will be able to resume operations is not yet known. The ministry will investigate the incident as an accident that occurred in a restricted area of the airport. The aircraft is equipped with high-precision radar and infrared search systems and is capable of long-range flights between Japan and the United States. The JCG has had two planes of this model deployed at the air station since 2005.<br/>
The airline industry’s dramatic climb from the depths of the pandemic may be ending soon. A review of multiple reports shows stabilization across several key metrics, as rapid growth ends and a new era of normalcy begins. “2024 is expected to mark the end of the dramatic year-on-year increases that have been characteristic of the recovery in 2021-2023,” a December report by the IATA said. Global flight capacity is expected to be restored, with some 40m flights (up from 38.9m in 2019) projected to carry a record 4.7b people (up from 4.5b people in 2019), according to IATA. As leisure travel demand softens and “revenge travel” ends, supply and demand in the commercial airline industry is hitting an equilibrium, which will help stabilize airfares in 2024, according to AMEX GBT Consulting. Global airfares are expected to rise between 3%-7% next year, as airlines grapple with high fuel costs, sustainability changes and fleet upgrades, according to the FCM Consulting’s “Global Trend Report” for Q3 2023. However, several other reports expect flight prices to soften. The travel arrangements company BCD Travel expects global fares to drop next year, but just slightly — less than 1% compared to 2023 — with a more pronounced drop in airfares to and from Asia (3% for business class, nearly 4% for economy), according to its “Travel Market Report 2024 Outlook.” “After recent rises in fares, we should expect a modest price correction in some markets in 2024, although underlying pricing should generally remain strong,” it said. However, AMEX’s “Air Monitor 2024” is expecting only international airfares to drop in 2024 — notably for flights between North America and Asia. The report states regional fares will remain stable or slightly increase.<br/>
The burnt-out wreckage of a Japan Airlines plane at Tokyo’s Haneda airport was a sobering reminder that many of aviation’s worst accidents happen on the ground rather than in the air. Safety investigators spent the week probing the sequence of events that led to a collision between the JAL Airbus A350 and a smaller coastguard turboprop aircraft as the former landed on the runway. All of the nearly 400 passengers and crew on board escaped the JAL plane, but five of the six-member coastguard team were killed. Japan Transport Safety Board’s investigation is running in parallel with a police probe into possible professional negligence. State broadcaster NHK reported on Friday that airport camera footage showed the coastguard plane may have erroneously been on the runway for as much as 40 seconds before the collision. Aviation safety experts cautioned against pre-empting the investigations’ findings, but they said the accident on Tuesday and a recent rise in near-misses highlighted the dangers passengers face while on the ground, and the need for improved alert systems to prevent deadly collisions. “Traffic is coming back, things are getting busier and runway surface areas at airports are complicated and complex, with many moving parts and interactions,” said Hassan Shahidi, CE of the Flight Safety Foundation, a US-based non-profit which co-ordinated a December report calling for improvements to on-ground safety. “This is an area of concern and there needs to be an international effort to prevent it.” Collisions on the runway can be catastrophic. The deadliest commercial aviation accident occurred in 1977 when two Boeing 747 Jumbo jets collided on the runway at Tenerife airport amid confusion over clearances for take-off, killing 583 people. The disaster led to major changes to safety protocol, including clearer and standardised communications between control tower and cockpit. With strict standards to keep aircraft apart on the ground and in the sky, the aviation industry can boast an increasingly stellar safety record. But one former British Airways pilot said there remained a greater risk of problems on the ground than in the air. “It is a high workload environment, [where] you need to ramp up your attention to detail,” he said. Planes operate collision avoidance systems while they are airborne, but there is no universal “last line of defence” at airports, according to the FSF report. Modern aircraft are equipped with enhanced ground proximity warning systems that provide flight crews with timely and accurate information about potential conflicts with obstacles or terrain as they near the ground. But ground-based technology is “often cost-prohibitive and not scalable to deploy at thousands of airports”, it added.<br/>
Boeing is asking federal regulators to exempt a new model of its 737 Max airliner from a safety standard designed to prevent part of the engine housing from overheating and breaking off during flight. Federal officials said last year that Boeing was working to fix the hazard on current Max planes. In the meantime, they told pilots to limit use of an anti-icing system in some conditions to avoid damage that “could result in loss of control of the airplane.” Without a fix ready, Boeing asked the Federal Aviation Administration last month for an exemption to safety standards related to engine inlets and the anti-ice system through May 2026. Boeing needs the exemption to begin delivering the new, smaller Max 7 to airlines. Boeing said Friday that it is “developing a long-term solution” that would face FAA review. But some critics are raising alarms about basing safety on pilots remembering when to limit use of the anti-ice system. “You get our attention when you say people might get killed,” Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for American Airlines pilots, told The Seattle Times, which reported on the waiver request Friday. “We’re not interested in seeing exemptions and accommodations that depend on human memory ... there’s just got to be a better way.” Pilots flying the Max 8 and Max 9 have been warned to limit use of an anti-icing system to five minutes when flying in dry conditions. Otherwise, the FAA says, inlets around the engines could get too hot, and parts of the housing could break away and strike the plane, possibly breaking windows and causing rapid decompression. That is what happened when an engine fan blade broke on an older 737 during a Southwest Airlines flight in 2018. A piece of loose engine housing struck and shattered a window, and a woman sitting next to the window was killed.<br/>
An investment programme worth GBP120m includes plans to speed up security checks at East Midlands Airport (EMA). The renovation work aims to improve the experience for the 4m passengers who use the airport every year. Next generation body and baggage scanning technology is planned. The security changes are part of new government rules, which will also see the removal of the 100ml liquid restrictions. EMA said it would improve "already excellent timings for clearing security", which typically leaves passengers waiting for less than 15 minutes. Work is getting under way to refresh the airport infrastructure, maintain safety and regulatory standards and help it operate more efficiently. Plans include an expansion of the security hall and improvements to toilets, seats and work to renew the roof. Work has started on the extension of the security hall, following planning approval from North West Leicestershire District Council.<br/>