The race for the “world’s best airport” crown has been a two-horse affair in recent years, with Doha’s Hamad International and Singapore Changi leading the pack. This year the title has switched, with 12-time winner Singapore being edged out of the top spot by its Middle Eastern rival in the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2024. In a strong showing for Asia, Seoul Incheon bagged third place — also being named 2024’s most family-friendly airport — while Tokyo’s twin facilities of Haneda and Narita took fourth and fifth spots. Hong Kong airport saw a significant boost, up 22 positions to 11th place after the city shook off its Covid-19 hangover and passenger numbers rose. Once again US airports were nowhere to be seen near the top of the table, with the highest ranked, Seattle-Tacoma, slipping six places to 24. Europe continued to have a strong showing, with Paris Charles de Gaulle, Munich, Zurich and Istanbul all maintaining positions in the top 10. New York’s JFK fell five places to 93rd; LaGuardia rose from 57 to 33 ; Melbourne remained the top ranked Australian airport, steady in 19th place; London Heathrow jumped one spot to 21st, while Gatwick was up seven to 48 Japan’s Okinawa was the biggest climber, from 199th to 91st position.<br/>
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San Francisco sued its neighboring city Oakland in California federal court on Thursday, claiming Oakland's move to rename its airport "San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport" would violate San Francisco's trademark rights. Oakland's use of "San Francisco" and "International Airport" together "will almost certainly cause confusion among consumers and the public generally," San Francisco said in the complaint. The city has been home to the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) since 1927. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. The Port of Oakland said in a statement that the new name does not infringe San Francisco's trademarks and that it would "vigorously defend our right to claim our spot on the San Francisco Bay." "We had hoped Oakland would come to its senses, but their refusal to collaborate on an acceptable alternative name leaves us no choice but to file a lawsuit to protect SFO's trademark," San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement. The Port of Oakland announced plans in March to change the name of the Metropolitan Oakland International Airport to the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. Oakland's airport is located 12 miles east of San Francisco and just over 30 miles from SFO. "Travelers will very likely be confused and book tickets to the unintended airport, thinking that the 'San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport' is SFO and arrive in the wrong place" if Oakland goes through with the plan, the lawsuit said.<br/>
he federal government and a consumer rights advocate squared off in court Wednesday over whether regulators misled passengers by encouraging travel credit rather than refunds at the onset of the pandemic. In the early months of COVID-19's spread, airlines cancelled hundreds of thousands of flights and offered company vouchers to customers instead of refunds. The Canadian Transportation Agency issued a statement on vouchers in March 2020 that said flight credit constituted a “reasonable approach" to passengers left out of pocket by the cancelled trips. The post suggested a refundwas mandatory only if the contract between the customer and airline provided for it. The Air Passenger Rights advocacy group argues that the regulator showed potential bias by misinforming travellers about their legal right to a refund for services not rendered. "By giving the public a false sense of legitimacy to the airlines’ unlawful actions, the CTA’s statement on vouchers defeated existing federal laws for refunds and unlawfully interfered with passengers’ credit card chargebacks and travel insurance claims," the group stated in court filings. The government argued the case should be dismissed, saying the CTA's statement simply reiterated that vouchers were one means of compensation. It said the advocacy group incorrectly framed the guidance as tainted.<br/>
An aviation firm has been fined GBP160,000 after a beloved father was crushed to death at Heathrow Airport while unloading baggage containers from a plane. The man, who has not been named, was working at Terminal 3 for Dnata Ltd which provides ground handling and cargo services to major airlines, when the tragedy happened on the night of February 23, 2022. He has been described by his family as “loving, supportive dad” who adored his job. His grieving wife said she now faces life without her “best friend and companion”, while his children say counselling has been unable to “heal the pain that [they] feel”. The man had taken a set of trailers to a stand on the Tarmac at Heathrow, ready to collect baggage containers which were being unloaded from the hold of an Emirates Airbus A380, which had arrived from Dubai. He moved one of the trailers under a scissor lift known as a high-loader, which was being used to bring the containers to ground level. The high-loader operator simultaneously lowered one of its platforms, which was holding containers ready to be collected, crushing the employee who died of his injuries. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the high-loader operators’ rear visibility, of the area where the containers were lowered, was “almost completely obscured”. The high-loader had no sensors, to detect if people were underneath raised platforms before they were lowered. There was also no communication system in place, so operators could be told when it was safe for them to lower platforms.<br/>
Dublin Airport did not breach the 32m passenger cap last year despite official figures showing that more than 33m people passed through there last year, according to numbers published by its operator, State-owned DAA. Planners have limited passengers travelling to and from the airport to 32m as a condition of allowing it to expand and open the north runway, angering airlines including Ryanair and Aer Lingus. Figures from the State’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) published on Thursday show that almost 33,260,000 passengers used the airport in 2023. However, those numbers included passengers transferring from one flight to another at the airport, and transit passengers, who do not disembark while their aircraft is stopped at Dublin. The cap applies to neither group, as the limit only covers those who are entering and leaving its terminals. Similarly, the total figure includes sea rescue and other emergency passengers who are landed at the airport, and to whom the limit does not apply either.<br/>
Travel chaos roiled the world’s busiest international airport in Dubai for a third day, after a record-breaking storm which hit the United Arab Emirates caused the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights. The UAE experienced its heaviest rains in the 75 years on record on Tuesday, flooding critical infrastructure and causing unprecedented flight cancellations and delays at one of the world’s most important travel hubs. Airlines have been forced to cancel 1,145 flights since Tuesday, about a third of the scheduled departures and arrivals at Dubai airport, according to data from Flightradar24. Dubai airport on Thursday said it was slowly resuming operations, including at terminals serving both Emirates and international carriers. But it warned that “flights continue to be delayed and disrupted” and told passengers only to travel to the airport if they had received confirmation their flight was operating, amid a “high volume of guests”. Travellers continued to upload pictures of chaotic scenes at the airport. “It remains an incredibly challenging time. In living memory, I don’t think anyone has ever seen conditions like it,” Dubai Airport’s boss Paul Griffiths told the BBC. Among the affected travellers were attendees at a major cryptocurrency conference in Dubai, Token2049. Some conference goers complained of having spent hours waiting in Dubai airport on Tuesday and Wednesday due to severe shortages of onward transportation. And others who had arrived at the weekend, had battled delayed or lengthy rerouted flights due to airspace closures across the region during Iran’s attack on Israel. Dubai has grown over the past 30 years from a minor regional airport into the world’s busiest international hub, as the Gulf has become a major force in global aviation. <br/>
Dubai International Airport will return to its full operational capacity within 24 hours, Dubai Airports COO Majed Al Joker told state news agency WAM on Thursday. The hub has struggled to clear a backlog of flights in the aftermath of heavy rain that swamped the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. "Once operations are back to normal, we will assess the damages and would be able to give figure for the size of losses," Al Joker told Al Arabiya TV in a televised interview.<br/>
Indonesia shut a provincial airport and evacuated hundreds of people from the vicinity of the Ruang volcano after it belched explosive plumes of lava, rocks and ash for days, officials said on Thursday, declaring the highest alert on the situation. Wednesday's dramatic eruption of the volcano on a remote island in the province of North Sulawesi threw a fiery-red column of lava, incandescent rock and ash as much as 3 km into the sky. Purple flashes of lightning rent the sky above the erupting volcano, videos on social media showed. "We're running, guys," said one witness who filmed the eruption while scrambling to evacuate. "We are escaping because the ash is coming close." More than 800 people were evacuated from the area, with authorities widening the evacuation zone further after the volcanology agency raised the alert status. "The potential for further eruption is still high, so we need to remain alert," agency official Heruningtyas Desi Purnamasari told reporters on Thursday, blaming a rapid escalation in volcanic activity. The agency had also received reports that falling rocks and ash damaged homes and forced a nearby hospital to evacuate, the official said. Transport authorities shut the airport in the provincial capital of Manado to protect against the showers of ash from the eruption.<br/>
Budget airline Scoot on Thursday (Apr 18) cancelled a total of six flights between Singapore and East Malaysia as well as Indonesia following multiple eruptions of Mount Ruang. The volcano in Indonesia started erupting on Tuesday evening, pushing an ash column more than 1.5km into the sky, prompting local authorities to evacuate thousands and shut the nearest international airport in Manado city on Sulawesi island. Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines (SIA), said the cancellations were a precautionary measure. It cancelled two flights scheduled to depart on Friday - TR216 and TR 217. The flights were between Singapore and the Indonesian city of Manado. It also earlier cancelled four flights between Singapore and East Malaysia on Thursday. TR490 and TR491 were supposed to fly between Singapore and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah while TR414 and TR415 were scheduled to fly between Singapore and Sarawak’s Miri. “Scoot is assisting to reaccommodate affected customers onto subsequent flights, where available,” said the airline. “Alternatively, affected customers may also request for a full refund if they choose not to continue with their travel.” Other airlines in the region were also affected. For instance, Malaysia Airlines said on Facebook that nearly 20 flights between Kuala Lumpur, Sabah and Sarawak on Thursday were cancelled.<br/>
Jewel Changi Airport continued on its recovery path in the financial year ending March 31, 2024, with footfall at the $1.7b retail complex growing by 26% compared with the year before. Buoyed by the rising number of travellers passing through Changi Airport post-Covid-19, overall retail sales at Jewel also grew by 20% in the most recent financial year. The 14,000 sq m Canopy Park at the mall’s top floor drew in 12% more visitors compared with the previous financial year as well, with the attraction making 35% more in ticket sales. Marking its fifth year of operation on April 17, Jewel said in a statement it is now on “a strong footing”, though it did not provide specific visitor and sales figures, citing commercial sensitivities. A spokesperson said only that its current footfall is close to pre-Covid-19 levels. Before the pandemic, it had as many as 300,000 visitors daily. The spokesperson noted that retail sales at the mall between April 2023 and March 2024 are a record, and it is 17% higher when compared with the period between April 2019 and March 2020. Jewel’s continued recovery came in tandem with a steady rebound at Changi Airport, which registered 58.9m passenger movements in 2023 – 86% of annual traffic levels seen before Covid-19.<br/>
Aviation bodies project Thailand's passenger numbers to recover by next year, though economic uncertainties and the slow rebound of some supply chains still hamper the industry. Yongyut Lujintanon, area manager for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said there are several factors to consider, even as the Tourism Authority of Thailand targets almost 40m arrivals this year. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) confirmed it received more slot requests. Mr Yongyut said those factors include war and geopolitical tensions, as well as the rise of expenses, especially fuel costs that surged by 3-5 times from the pre-pandemic level. Other supply chain issues, such as fleet resumption and outdated infrastructure, along with a lack of spare parts and staff in the aviation sector also play a crucial role.<br/>
New Zealand aircraft maker NZAero will scale up its maintenance and repair operations in Thailand as it looks to turn the country into a Southeast Asian service hub. "Thailand stands alone as being a major buyer of NZAero products," CE Stephen Burrows told Nikkei Asia. "Having a service center here in Thailand is a good base for supporting aircraft in Southeast Asia." NZAero will provide technical training to support all five of its models to Thai Aviation Industries (TAI), the primary maintenance and repair provider for the Royal Thai Air Force, according to an agreement signed on Wednesday. The deal would amount to US$21.9m for NZAero through sales of components and future aircraft. Thailand has purchased 10% of NZAero's output since the Hamilton-based company sold its first batch of 24 aircraft to the Royal Thai Air Force in 1974. It also supplies the air forces of Australia and New Zealand. NZAero executives were part of a business delegation accompanying New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to Thailand, the first trip to the country by a Kiwi leader in 11 years. Relations between the countries cooled after the Thai military ousted an elected government in 2014. Western democracies including Australia, the U.S. and European nations looking to boost economic and strategic relations with Southeast Asia have warmed to Thailand since coup leaders departed after the May 2023 general election. Luxon and Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, both of whom took office late last year, agreed to elevate relations to a strategic partnership by 2026. Bilateral defense talks, on ice for a decade, resumed in August to increase interoperability and cooperation against transnational organized crime, particularly human and drug trafficking. <br/>