A United Airlines Holdings aircraft ran off the taxiway into a grassy area after landing at Houston on Friday, marking the third headline-grabbing incident this week involving the carrier’s Boeing planes. United Flight 2477, with 160 passengers and six crew, had just landed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport about 8 a.m. local time when it veered into the grass on a turn. No one was injured, and passengers left the 737 Max on a set of mobile stairs before being bused to the terminal, the airline said. Friday’s incident involves a 737 Max built four years ago that has been in service for less than a year. It follows the mid-air loss of a tire from a United Boeing 777-200 Thursday, just after the plane took off from San Francisco on a flight to Osaka, Japan, and an engine flare on a United flight from Houston to Fort Myers, Florida, earlier this week. The plane in the Houston-to-Florida flight had to make an emergency landing after one of its engines started flaming 10 minutes after takeoff. The 21-year-old aircraft was also a 737 — but an earlier version than the Max, according to FlightRadar24. The 777 headed to Osaka had 249 people on board. It diverted to Los Angeles International Airport and landed without incident. The tire that plummeted damaged at least one car in an airport parking lot. The FAA said it will investigate all three incidents, while the NTSB is sending a team to Houston. United said it will work with the FAA, NTSB and Boeing to understand what happened. While they came in rapid succession, this week’s scares don’t appear linked to known issues with Boeing and its 737 Max, and are unlikely to signal broader safety trends. In addition to the three incidents, at least two other issues involving United and Boeing occurred this week. On Monday, a United flight en route to San Francisco from Honolulu encountered an engine failure over the Pacific before landing safely at its destination, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. That plane was a Boeing 757-300. And the FAA also said it’s investigating a United flight from Pensacola, Florida, which landed safely Monday in Chicago after reporting a gear issue with the 737 aircraft.<br/>
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A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Mexico City was diverted to Los Angeles Friday after an issue with the plane’s hydraulic system, the airline said. It was the carrier’s fourth emergency in a week, including a tire falling off one flight and an engine catching fire on another. The Airbus 320, carrying 105 passengers and five crew members, landed safely and everyone disembarked at a gate, according to United and the FAA. Customers were flown to Mexico City International Airport on a different aircraft, according to the airlineThe Airbus 320 is equipped with three hydraulic systems for “redundancy purposes” and preliminary information showed the issue affected only one of those systems, according to United. The FAA said it will investigate the incident. Friday’s diverted flight was United’s fourth emergency in a week, including an engine that ingested bubblewrap and caught fire midair on Monday, another flight losing a tire after takeoff on Thursday, and another aircraft skidding off a runway into a grassy area on Friday.<br/>United Airlines said in a statement that “each of these events is distinct and unrelated to one another.” “We take every safety event seriously and will investigate each of the incidents that occurred this week to understand what happened and learn from them,” United said. “Much of this work is conducted together with the manufacturers, the FAA, and the NTSB as well as with the manufacturers of individual components … Safety is our top priority, and we’ll continue to do everything we can to keep our customers and employees safe.”<br/>
Lufthansa will face a two-day cabin crew strike in Germany next week, adding to a string of walkouts that hit the German airline in recent months. Labor union UFO said the strikes will affect all departing flights from Frankfurt airport on Tuesday and from Munich on Wednesday, according to an emailed statement on Saturday. Travelers still faced some delays Saturday following last week’s two-day strike by Lufthansa’s ground personnel in Germany that coincided with a separate labor action by train drivers in the country. Europe’s largest economy has been wrestling with multiple transport disruptions in recent weeks caused by strikes or farmers blocking roads to protest cuts to subsidies. Lufthansa said on Thursday earnings won’t advance in 2024, and expects that Q1 losses will widen as the company grapples with disruptions from labor strikes and an ebb in the cargo boom that took hold during the pandemic. Europe’s largest airline group estimates that the strikes in January and February cost it at least E100m, with hundreds of thousands of passenger journeys disrupted. While CFO Remco Steenbergen said the carrier will maintain its 8% operating margin target for 2024, the walkouts in Q1 could have an impact on full-year results.<br/>
Ethiopian Airlines on Friday operated an all-women-functioned flight from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to London, the United Kingdom, to mark International Women's Day. The Ethiopian flag carrier said that the all-women-functioned flight envisaged a dual aim of acknowledging women aviation experts while inspiring future generations of women in the aviation sector. In connection with International Women's Day, which fell on Friday, the Ethiopian flag carrier held a special ceremony honoring women's contribution to the aviation industry, featuring the all-women-crew flight. The event, which was held under the theme "Empowering Women: Connecting Africa," brought together senior Ethiopian government officials, diplomats based in Addis Ababa, as well as women staff of Ethiopian Airlines. Mesfin Tasew, CEO of the Ethiopian Airlines Group, acknowledged the "invaluable role" of women in driving the success of Ethiopian Airlines.<br/>