An American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York had to make an emergency landing in Phoenix, Arizona, after some passengers reported seeing head lice on a traveller’s hair. The June 15 incident was recounted by a passenger, Ethan Judelson, in a TikTok video which has gone viral with over 1.2m views. “Unfortunately this is real, there was a woman with such bad lice we had to do an emergency landing,” he said. The plane landed about an hour into the flight, but Mr Judelson, 28, said no one was “freaking out”. “As soon as we land, this woman across the aisle from me rushes to the front of the plane. So the girl next to me... we were both like, ‘Where she thinks she’s going? But she gets off and vanishes before anyone else even stood up,” he said in the video. He said the crew told the passengers they will get more information once they deplane, but the only thing they learnt was that the next flight to New York will be 12 hours later. Passengers were also given hotel vouchers and US$12 (S$16). However, Judelson, 28, noticed two girls who seemed to know more, so he approached them and was told cryptically: ‘“let’s just say it was in the best interest of everyone here that they did this. It’s for the safety of the plane’”. Judelson, who works as an executive assistant on a TV show, came to know of the real reason why the plane made an emergency landing only the next day when he went to Phoenix airport to buy snacks. “Apparently, the two girls saw lice crawling out of the woman’s hair... and alerted the flight attendant and they had to ground the plane,” he said in the video, referring to the woman who had rushed off the plane earlier.<br/>
oneworld
Cathay Pacific has announced it will spend $13bn over seven years on new aircraft, airport lounges and cabin revamps as it tries to restore its pandemic-hit reputation and regain its global premium airline crown. Patrick Healy, chair of Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, said it was “turning the page” with “bold” plans to invest more than HK$100b (US$12.8b) on its fleet, cabins and airport lounges in Hong Kong, Beijing and New York, as well as other upgrades. Cathay announced on Wednesday it would buy 30 Airbus widebody aircraft and now has more than 100 new aircraft in its delivery pipeline. It expects to launch improvements to first-class seats in 2025 and a fresh flatbed business-class product in 2026. “We want to get back to being the very best in the world,” Healy said. “And this requires investment. We need to invest in the customer products, in the fleet . . . to be able to maintain the premium pricing position that we’ve enjoyed.” He added that the carrier was “confident” continuing results would be “sufficient to fund the investment programme”. Cathay has been ranked by consultancy Skytrax as world’s best airline four times, most recently in 2014. It was ranked as the world’s fifth-best airline this year. The carrier reported a first-half profit of HK$3.6b (US$460m) on Wednesday, down from HK$4.3b a year earlier. It attributed the drop principally to lower ticket prices despite “robust” demand for travel. Cathay, which declared an interim dividend of 20 HK cents per ordinary share, said it was on track to a full post-pandemic recovery in passenger capacity by Q1 next year. <br/>
Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has vowed to listen more to passengers’ views in the wake of controversial service-related incidents that cast the airline in a negative light. CEO Ronald Lam Siu-por said on Wednesday that Cathay would continue to improve its service unrelentingly. “We will continue to listen to our customers’ voices and we will address their various pain points. We are committed to making improvements,” he said. “We will continue to make an effort and constantly improve our services.” Lam insisted Cathay’s service had been steadily progressing, noting the carrier had climbed back among the world’s top five airlines in the latest Skytrax awards, which identified the top 100 based on data from an online traveller satisfaction survey. The carrier was also in May named the third best premium airline in another company’s rankings, Airline Ratings. This was up six places from last year. Lam’s pledge followed the carrier recently hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.<br/>
Qantas Airways docked A$9.3m ($6.1m) from former CEO Alan Joyce’s final payout and announced a governance overhaul after a review partly blamed board and management errors for the carrier’s reputational crisis. The long-anticipated verdict on Joyce’s remuneration follows an internal review of the string of damaging events after the pandemic that led to Joyce’s premature departure in September 2023. The money clawed back represents close to half of Joyce’s total planned pay last year and includes all the Qantas shares set aside for him as a long-term incentive. The airline’s problems included a surge in cancellations and lost bags, accusations from the regulator that Qantas sold tickets on flights it had already scrubbed from schedules, and a court ruling that Qantas illegally fired about 1,700 ground staff. Joyce had “overall accountability and responsibility for the outcomes of the business,” Qantas said in a statement. Joyce’s pay cut reflected the conclusions of an internal report released by Qantas on Thursday that identified a series of board and management failings in the final months of Joyce’s 15-year tenure. Business adviser Tom Saar, hired by Qantas to carry out the investigation, found there was excessive deference toward Joyce, who’d overcome previous crises, and decisions weren’t sufficiently challenged. There was too much focus on financial and commercial goals and not enough attention on customers and staff, Saar said. The public release of the report suggests Qantas is taking a more transparent and less confrontational approach under Joyce’s successor, Vanessa Hudson. The findings themselves largely cement the long-held perception that Qantas and its then-dominant CEO Joyce failed passengers and staff in the wake of Covid-19 as the airline raced to return to profit.<br/>