The FAA said on Wednesday that it had asked the Justice Department to consider bringing criminal charges in 43 serious and dangerous incidents from the past year involving unruly passengers aboard planes. Since late 2021, the F.A.A. has referred 310 cases to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, following a commitment between the two agencies to collaborate more closely on the criminal prosecution of unruly airline passengers when warranted. As of Aug. 18, airlines reported 1,375 incidents of unruly passengers to the F.A.A. In the past year, the agency has forwarded 43 cases to the F.B.I. for potential criminal charges. These incidents include attacks on crew members, sexual assaults on passengers and attempts to breach the cockpit. “There’s absolutely no excuse for unruly behavior,” Michael Whitaker, the F.A.A.’s administrator, said in a statement. “It threatens the safety of everyone on board, and we have zero tolerance for it.” Unruly passenger behavior surged during the pandemic, prompting the F.A.A. in 2021 to implement a zero-tolerance policy for such conduct and begin issuing fines instead of warning letters to offenders. The agency reported approximately 6,000 such incidents in 2021, a sharp rise compared with about 1,000 reports in 2020. The number of incidents reported in 2023 fell to 2,100 but still represented an uptick from the years preceding the pandemic. The F.A.A. lacks criminal enforcement authority and can only impose fines for unruly and violent behavior, with penalties up to $37,000 per violation. More serious cases that the agency believes warrant criminal prosecution must be referred to the F.B.I. Typically, the aviation agency only refers the most egregious cases.<br/>
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The check-in area of London City Airport, about a 30-minute Tube ride from Canary Wharf, looks much like any midsized hub in North America. There are queues of passengers waiting to check bags, busy shops and restaurants, and a duty-free shop. But unlike virtually all North American airports, London City, which now flies more than 3.4m passengers per year to destinations from the French Alps to Ibiza, isn’t owned by a local government, a not-for-profit entity or even a British company. Rather, it’s majority owned by some of Canada’s largest pension plans, which snapped up their stake for about two billion pounds in 2016 as part of a consortium that includes the infrastructure arm of the Kuwait Investment Authority. Since the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo) and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) got on board, London City has spent tens of millions of pounds to build new aircraft berths and a parallel taxiway, and completed a major upgrade of its departure lounge, boosting its capacity by 30%. In 2021, it replaced its aging 30-year-old analogue air traffic control tower with a fully remote digital tower, a first for a significant international airport. And the adoption of new scanning technology has reduced line-up times for passengers by 50% on average, with the airport boasting in an April 2024 news release that it can get business and leisure passengers “from the entrance to the gate in 10 minutes.”<br/>
Brazil will begin imposing restrictions on the entry of some foreigners from Asia who use the country as a launching point to migrate to the United States and Canada, the justice ministry’s press office said Wednesday. The move, which starts on Monday, will affect migrants from Asian countries who require visas to remain in Brazil. It does not apply to people from Asian countries currently exempt from visas to Brazil. US citizens and many European nationals also do not require visas for Brazil. A Federal Police investigation has shown these migrants often buy flights with layovers in Sao Paulo’s international airport, en route to other destinations, but stay in Brazil as a place from where they then begin their journey north, according to official documents provided to The Associated Press. More than 70% of requests for refuge at the airport come from people with either Indian, Nepalese or Vietnamese nationalities, one of the documents says. The African nations of Somalia, Cameroon, Ghana and Ethiopia are among the remaining 30% of refuge seekers.<br/>
Delta Air Lines said Wednesday it will extend its suspension of flights to Israel by another month, through Oct. 31, as Israel and the militant group Hamas show no signs of ending the war in Gaza. “Delta is continuously monitoring the evolving security environment and assessing our operations based on security guidance and intelligence reports,” the airline said in a travel advisory. The announcement by Delta came after American Airlines extended its halt of flights between the United States and Tel Aviv through March 29 of next year. American updated an advisory on its website over the weekend. Both airlines said that customers with tickets on flights that will now be canceled can rebook, generally at no extra charge, or cancel their trip and get a refund. Delta will allow customers to use its site to rebook on partner airlines El Al and Air France. American said it will work with its partners to help customers fly between Israel and European cities that offer flights on to the United States. Delta, American and United Airlines all stopped flying to Israel shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the war. United recently said it has suspended its service indefinitely.<br/>
A new airport construction project on Busan’s Gadeok Island is facing increasing uncertainties, as the government's attempt to secure builders for the initial phase of site preparation has failed for the third time. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Monday that the third attempt to secure a construction contract for the Gadeok Island project, situated in the southwestern waters of Busan, was unsuccessful due to a lack of candidates. Only a consortium led by Hyundai Engineering and Construction (E&C) submitted a bid. Regulations mandate that competitive bidding is a requirement for state contracts. As a result, the ministry initiated a fourth bid through the Public Procurement Service starting Tuesday. The deadline for applications is Sept. 5. "We aim to foster fair competition among companies to single out the most competent firms," the ministry said. "Once we select the final bidder, we will focus on completing the airport before the end of 2029. We plan to shorten the construction timeline by utilizing the most advanced automated construction equipment and cutting-edge building technologies."<br/>