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Airlines canceled more than 3,000 US flights Friday as they grappled with winter weather and the grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes. Storms in the Midwest helped drive more than 8,400 delays, with disruptions around Chicago and Detroit, major hubs for the largest US carriers, according to flight-tracker FlightAware. Disruptions continued, with 1,700 cancellations and more than 700 delays as of Saturday morning. About 40% of flights at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, a hub for United Airlines and American Airlines, were canceled after a snowstorm led to an over two-hour ground stop. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, a Delta hub, had more than half of flights Friday either delayed or canceled due to the storms. Southwest Airlines, which has a big operation out of Chicago Midway, canceled more than 400 flights, while over 1,500 were delayed. United canceled about 10% of its mainline flights and delayed about 30%. Last week, the FAA grounded Boeing 737 Max 9s so the jets could undergo inspections after a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines flight. That grounding has continued to disrupt travel for United and Alaska Airlines, the only US airlines operating the aircraft. Airlines are awaiting the FAA’s approval of inspection instructions from Boeing. The FAA said late Friday that it needed more data on inspections before it could approve those directions. United Airlines said it canceled flights scheduled to use a Max 9 through Tuesday. It has about 200 flights a day scheduled on the aircraft but it will use another plane for 30 of those flights. “By canceling this far in advance, we’re trying to create more certainty for our customers and more flexibility for our frontline teams to do their work,” United said late Friday. “Those things will be especially important as we also manage disruptive winter weather throughout much of the country.”<br/>

EgyptAir will conduct regular weekly flights from Egypt to Libya’s western city of Misurata starting from January 25, announced the Egyptian airline on Saturday. Flight No. MS827 is scheduled to take off from Cairo International Airport at 12:15 PM on Thursday, January 25, and arrive at Misurata at 15:15 PM Libya time. EgyptAir said will then conduct weekly flights every Thursday between Cairo and Misurata. EgyptAir said it is offering a discount on the price of tickets for the first four flights between Cairo and Misurata if costumers bought tickets between 13-20 of January with 50% off for flight No. MS827 on January 25 and 25% off for the subsequent three flights. Chairman of the Board of Directors of EgyptAir, Yehia Zakaria, said the move came in response to high air traffic demand between Egypt and Libya.<br/>

A domestic flight of Japan's All Nippon Airways returned to its departure airport on Saturday after a crack was found on the cockpit window of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft midair, a spokesperson for the airline said. Flight 1182 was en route to Toyama airport but headed back to the Sapporo-New Chitose airport after the crack was found on the outermost of four layers of windows surrounding the cockpit, the spokesperson said, adding there were no injuries reported among the 59 passengers and six crew. The aircraft was not one of Boeing's 737 MAX 9 airplanes. These have been in the spotlight after a cabin panel broke off a new Alaska Airlines jet in mid-air last week. "The crack was not something that affected the flight's control or pressurization," the ANA spokesperson said.<br/>

All Nippon Airways and Tokyo's Haneda Airport fell from the top spots in global rankings for airline and airport on-time performance (OTP) as players in India and the Middle East improved operations. Major Japanese carriers ANA and Japan Airlines dropped to seventh and eighth in the 2023 ranking by Cirium, an aviation data and analytics company, with OTP of 82.75% and 82.58%, respectively. They held the top two places the previous year, led by ANA. Haneda Airport declined to 10th from No. 1 in 2022, with OTP of 80.51%. Japan's busiest airport is under scrutiny following a deadly crash between a Japan Airlines jet and a coast guard aircraft on Jan. 2 that killed five people. Cirium ranks airlines by on-time arrivals, which requires a passenger flight to reach the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. Similarly, airports are ranked by on-time departures, which qualify when a flight leaves the gate within 15 minutes of scheduled departure time. Japanese airlines traditionally top Cirium's OTP rankings, recording the best performance six times among the 11 rankings published between 2011 and 2022. Avianca Airlines of Colombia led global carriers in 2023 with OTP of 85.73%. Among Asian players, Qatar Airways rated third and Saudia, state-owned carrier from Saudi Arabia, ranked ninth. Qualifying airlines in the global category need to be in the top 10% of all passenger airlines by capacity and the breadth of their network, as well as serve at least three world regions with daily flights. Japanese airlines blamed unprecedented weather conditions and congestion at Haneda for decreased OTP last year. "We recognize that this year [2023] Typhoon No. 6 (Khanun) and Typhoon No. 7 (Lan) had a longstanding impact on our operations, as well as prolonged lightning causing ground work stoppages at various airports frequently at a level unseen in the past years," an ANA spokesperson told Nikkei Asia in an email. The two typhoons hit the country in late July and August, respectively. Cirium's monthly reports show that on-time performance for both ANA and JAL dropped to about 71% in August, a peak month for typhoons. Apart from the weather, the JAL spokesperson also attributed the low rate to the "high passenger load due to summer vacation and the Obon holiday" in Japan. Obon is a peak travel season in Japan around mid-August.<br/>

Korean Air is expected to win EU antitrust approval to buy Asiana Airlines after the companies pledged to sell the latter's cargo unit and divest routes to four European cities, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The deal underscores a wave of consolidation in the airline sector, with Lufthansa seeking a 41% stake in Italy's ITA Airways and British Airways and Iberia owner IAG aiming to buy the remaining 80% of Spanish carrier Air Europa it does not already own. Korean Air, Korea's biggest carrier, in late 2020 said it planned to spend 1.8t won ($1.37b) to become the top shareholder of indebted Asiana. It submitted the remedy offer in November last year, with the proposed cargo business sale a significant departure from the usual airline remedies of airport slots and access to frequent flyer programs. Korean budget airline T'way Air is expected to acquire Asiana's cargo business after EU competition officials made it clear that they would prefer an Asian, preferably a Korean rival, to be the buyer, the people said. Passenger routes to be divested are those to Barcelona, Frankfurt, Paris and Rome, they added. The Commission declined to comment. It has beefed up its approach towards air mergers after previously approved deals led to price hikes despite remedies to address their concessions.<br/>