WestJet says 16 of its planes have been grounded after a massive hailstorm hit Calgary earlier this week. The Calgary-based airline says those aircraft — 10% of its fleet — need substantial repairs and inspections before they can fly again. The carrier also says 84 of its flights were cancelled Wednesday, with 106 cancelled Tuesday and 58 on Monday. The Calgary International Airport was pummeled by hail on Monday evening, forcing parts of its domestic terminal to close for repairs for an undetermined time. A video taken by one traveller shows water pouring from the ceiling by a boarding gate, with chunks of what appear to be tile crashing to the ground. A spokeswoman for Air Canada says its Calgary operations have returned to normal and it was able to schedule its largest planes to transport stranded passengers.<br/>
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A lawsuit has been launched against WestJet over a “cap” the airline has put in place on how much it will pay passengers if they need meals and hotel stays, which a passenger rights group says is illegal. "We just want to put money back in people's pockets that belongs to the passengers to begin with," said Gabor Lukacs, president of Air Passenger Rights, the group that filed the lawsuit in British Columbia over WestJet's reimbursement policies. According to the WestJet website, it states there is a cap of $150 or $200 for non-Canadian destinations per night for hotel stays and a $45 cap per day for meal expenses. The group says those caps are against the law. "There is nothing within the law that would provide WestJet with an excuse to not fully cover passengers' meals and accommodations when a flight is disrupted for reasons completely within the carrier's control," Lukacs explained. Generally, if a flight is cancelled, an airline will provide vouchers for food and hotel rooms, or you may have to pay for them yourself and be reimbursed at a later date by the airline. John Gradek, an aviation expert with McGill University, said finding a hotel at the last minute for $150 is extremely difficult to do. “in July, if you were in Vancouver you could not get hotel room for under $500 and if you were in Toronto during the [Honda] Indy racing event you couldn’t find a hotel for under $400, so it depends on the city you're in," he said.<br/>
Flair Airlines was ordered to compensate two passengers after a B.C. tribunal found there was no evidence a bird strike actually caused a flight cancellation. In August of last year, Olivia Donner and James Broadhurst were told by the airline that their flight from Calgary to Vancouver was cancelled, according to a decision from the Civil Resolution Tribunal(opens in a new tab) posted online Wednesday. Under Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulations, travellers can be compensated for delayed and cancelled flights, provided the disruption is a result of something over which the airline has control. In this case, the regulations entitled each applicant to claim $500. But the airline argued that it should not have to pay. "Flair says it cancelled the flight because the airplane for the flight experienced bird strikes while landing in Vancouver," tribunal member Jeffrey Drozdiak's decision said. "Flair claims its flight crew took the required steps to notify the tower that a strike may have occurred. Flair says an aircraft maintenance expert identified that multiple bird strikes caused damage and documented it through an internal SMS system. So, Flair argues the cancellation was outside its control."<br/>
LATAM Airlines is weighing the possibility of adding smaller aircraft to its fleet such as Embraer's E2 and Airbus' A220, the firm's Brazil head said on Wednesday. "We have mapped out what growth could look like with a smaller (capacity) fleet," executive Jerome Cadier told journalists. "And this smaller fleet could come from Embraer, it could come from Airbus, and we're constantly looking for alternatives to increase growth." Embraer's next-generation E2 jets and the Airbus A220 directly compete in the regional segment for up-to-150-seat aircraft. Cadier said that the airline had been looking for other options in order to add to its fleet since last year, with Airbus and Boeing facing difficulties in delivering new aircraft and with some planes grounded due to mandatory motor inspections. Last month, the head of Brazil state development bank BNDES said that both LATAM and carrier Gol were in advanced talks to add Embraer aircraft to their fleets. In a separate call with journalists on Wednesday, LATAM's CFO Ramiro Alfonsin said that "nothing concrete" had been decided.<br/>
Changes to Aer Lingus’s schedules earlier this year have allowed the airline to boost flights on winter services from Dublin despite limits on the number of passengers the airport is allowed handle. Aer Lingus hopes to cash in on demand for winter sun by adding Malta, Marrakesh and Seville to its October-to-March network and adding flights to some other existing destinations, the airline said. Planners have limited Dublin Airport to 32m passengers a year and the industry regulator, the Irish Aviation Authority, has capped airlines operating there to a total of 14.4m seats from October to March. The carrier confirmed on Wednesday that changes to schedules earlier this year allowed it add extra capacity on some destinations for the winter “in the context of the constraint of the passenger cap at Dublin Airport”. Aer Lingus will fly to Seville in Spain which has year-round sun and attractions that include one of the world’s biggest cathedrals and the Royal Alcazar, a palace whose architecture blends Arabic and European influences. It also home to the Archive of the Indies, housing documents that detail Spain’s conquest of the new world. Aer Lingus is also adding Malta to its winter schedule. <br/>
Airline easyJet is launching a new cabin crew recruitment drive aimed at the over 50s and people wanting to change their mind about retirement. The campaign, called Returnships, follows research suggesting that three in four people over the age of 50 believed this was the perfect time for a new career. Training taster sessions will be offered at easyJet’s London Gatwick cabin crew training centre. Previous recruitment campaigns have led to a big increase in new staff over the age of 50 and 60. New research by the airline among 2,000 over-50s showed that half have considered a new career. Most respondents believed their age would stop them being accepted for a cabin crew job and half mistakenly believed the role would mean being away from home for long periods of time.<br/>
El Al Israel Airlines and other local carriers are adding flights from nearby destinations such as Greece and Cyprus to help Israelis stranded overseas to travel back home after most foreign carriers suspended their routes to Tel Aviv over the imminent threat of an all-out war with Iran. “El Al is making every effort to respond to the needs of the public to keep the airspace between Israel and the world open and help Israelis stranded abroad following the cancellation of flights by foreign companies,” Israel’s flag carrier said in an e-mailed response. Some 150,000 Israelis are believed to be stranded abroad due to major foreign airlines’ suspensions of flights to and from Israel, according to reports in the Hebrew press. El Al said that its efforts in recent days to bring Israelis home, which included additional flights and the operation of larger aircraft on existing flights, increased the number of seats to and from Israel by about 8,000 seats since last Thursday. The slew of canceled flights comes as Iran has vowed to retaliate and attack Israel following last week’s back-to-back assassinations of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut by an Israeli strike and Hamas terror group leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran has blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death, for which Israel has not taken responsibility.<br/>
India’s biggest budget airline IndiGo has been trialing a booking feature that will allow women to avoid booking a seat next to men on flights. The feature, the first of its kind for an airline, works by showing female travelers a pink seat at the seat selection page if it will be occupied by a female passenger, a company representative said. Male travelers, however, will not see this information, the company said. Travelers on IndiGo must identify their genders when they purchase tickets, which allows the airline to control access to these details, according to Indigo. The carrier began rolling out the service in May on a pilot basis, and is available on all flights, the company said. However, IndiGo’s website and mobile app did not show the feature when CNBC did a check. The new feature has received “positive individual reactions” on social media, IndiGo’s CEO told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” last week. “Technology is now enabling some things which were not able in the past. We brought [the initiative] up as a test ... It has responded very well with our customers, but also internationally,” CEO Pieter Elbers said. An IndiGo representative told CNBC Travel that the new feature is designed to make flying “more comfortable for our female passengers.” Many users on social media platforms X and Reddit commended IndiGo’s new initiative, with some commenting that it is “such good news” after having bad experiences when traveling alone, and they are “glad it is available,” citing personal experiences of being touched on flights.<br/>
Seven airlines have been fined for failing to designate or operate priority seating and provide necessary information to passengers with mobility difficulties, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, Wednesday. The authority imposed a fine of 2.5m won ($1,816) on each of the airlines. They are Jeju Air, T’way Air, Air Seoul, Air Premia, Air Busan, Eastar Jet and Aero K. According to the ministry, the airlines violated an air traffic convenience standard for those with mobility issues. Air transport operators should comply with the standard to ensure the safety of passengers with disabilities, as stipulated by the Aviation Business Act. Above all, air transport operators here are required to provide services that will facilitate easy access for passengers with disabilities when they board and disembark from planes. Airlines also need to provide their staff with proper training. The ministry conducted an inspection of 10 airlines and two airport operators here from May 8 for about a month to look into whether they have complied with the standards. It found Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Jin Air and the Korea Airports Corp. met the standards, but the aforementioned low-cost carriers (LCC) did not.<br/>