Aflaming Starbucks concession inside Newark Airport’s Terminal A caused travel chaos early on Sunday morning after smoke filled the building and the sprinkler system flooded a baggage handling room. The incident occurred at around 4 am when a fire erupted inside the large Starbuck concession in the secure ‘airside’ area of Terminal A. Passengers had to be evacuated from the building, while thousands of people were kept from getting to their gates as firefighters put out the blaze. The cause of the fire is yet to be established, and officials for Newark Liberty Airport have been less than direct with the issue that caused so much disruption. In a post on social media site X, the airport initially said that “ongoing maintenance” was the cause of the problems, advising passengers to give themselves extra time if they were planning to travel from Terminal A. In a later post, the airport said that there had been a “building utility issue” and warned passengers to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport. Airlines that use Terminal A include American Airlines, Delta, and Jetblue, as well as Air Canada and United Airlines for some flights. Despite all the disruption at the start of the day, Newark Airport says flights are now running smoothly from Terminal A, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said lines to get through the security checkpoint were quickly cleared.<br/>
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Airlines must compensate travellers for international flight disruptions based on the Canadian Transportation Agency’s rules, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in a landmark decision for air passengers. The decision released Friday upholds Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) after a group of airlines appealed to have them declared invalid for international flights. At the heart of the case was whether Canada’s passenger rights charter, enacted in 2019, could stand alongside rules set out in the Montreal Convention, the international standard signed by Canada in 2001. While the APPR sets out a standardized compensation scheme for delays and cancellations and lost baggage when the factors are within the airline’s control or for safety reasons, the Montreal Convention takes a more individualized approach. According to that standard, a passenger can attempt to argue in court that they were wronged and if successful receive compensation accordingly. That was challenged by a group of airlines that included Air Canada, Porter Airlines and international carriers such as Lufthansa and Air France. These airlines argued that the APPR extend beyond the Canadian Transportation Agency’s powers and were inconsistent with the rules set out in the Montreal Convention. The CTA and attorney general argued there is no clash between passenger protections and the Montreal Convention.<br/>
Argentina’s airports have been repeatedly plunged into chaos as a clash escalates between libertarian President Javier Milei and workers at the country’s flag carrier, Aerolíneas Argentinas. In the first major confrontation between Milei’s free market reform drive and Argentina’s powerful unions, strikes are threatening travel around the 1mn-square-mile country, as the start of the nation’s peak holiday season looms in December. Labour unions representing employees at state-owned Aerolíneas Argentinas, which controls two-thirds of the domestic market, are demanding wage increases to compensate for the country’s triple-digit inflation. In recent months they have staged a series of strikes; they say the government has refused dialogue. “We have two extreme, completely ideologically opposed sides fighting, and trapped in between we have a company and thousands of passengers,” said one Argentine airline executive. “Anything could happen.” Stranded luggage and queues of frustrated passengers filled Buenos Aires’ city airport during the largest strike in mid-September, which cancelled all Aerolíneas flights for 24 hours. It affected 37,000 passengers and cost $2.5mn, according to the company. “It’s ridiculous . . . I’ve been waiting a year to see [Patagonian glacier] Perito Moreno and now I don’t think I’ll be able to,” a Spanish tourist complained to broadcaster TN. “I’m left with a bad image of how the country handles these things.” Milei, a fierce opponent of the labour unions, has hit back with a hardline response. His administration has fired several pilots who took part in strikes and has tried to declare air travel an essential service as a means of banning strikes altogether, though the courts prevented this from taking effect. The government has also begun talks with private companies about ceding some Aerolíneas routes. Milei on Tuesday issued a decree declaring the company “subject to privatisation” in order to speed up an effort to sell the group, which will require congressional approval.<br/>
Cabin bag and seat selection fees can quadruple the cost of flights, research has revealed. A study by UK consumer researchers Which? found that added fees make it hard for passengers to compare the true cost of flying with different airlines. Which? is calling for the UK government to ensure that airline fees are included in laws cracking down on ‘drip pricing’ – charges that are added or ‘dripped’ onto the advertised price. The Digital Markets, Competing and Consumers Act 2024 is due to come into effect in April 2025, which should end the drip pricing tactics. However, Which? says it is unclear whether add-on charges beyond unavoidable booking or transaction fees will be included. The researchers found that selecting add-ons with Wizz Air on some routes can increase the initial advertised charge by over four times, while prices on other routes with Ryanair and easyJet can more than double the advertised rate. Which? carried out a snapshot analysis of 15 “ultra-low-cost” flights with budget carriers such as easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air, and found that Wizz Air charged the most for extras on average. They discovered that when booking a return flight from London Luton to Lyon in France, Wizz Air advertised the flight for just £29 per person, yet when choosing the airline’s ‘Wizz Smart’ fare, which includes a 10kg bag, a standard seat and priority boarding, the price rocketed to £124 per person.<br/>
A technical problem at Germany’s air traffic control agency caused disruptions on Friday, with some flights canceled at Frankfurt Airport, the country’s biggest. The air traffic control company DFS said the problem that arose Friday morning affected flight plans and weather data. It was resolved by 10:30 a.m. but caused delays of varying severity across the country. Frankfurt Airport warned on its website that flight delays and cancellations could be expected throughout the day. Operator Fraport said about 70 flights were canceled but didn’t expect many more because the data problem had been resolved, German news agency dpa reported. The country’s biggest airline, Lufthansa, said there were a few cancellations and delays but long-haul services weren’t affected.<br/>
Airlines for America has made representations to US government officials over the passenger cap at Dublin Airport, the Business Post reports. The newspaper understands that the group – which represents carriers including American Airlines, JetBlue, Delta, Southwest and United – has met US officials a number of times on the issue. It has also joined a High Court action taken by Ryanair, Aer Lingus and the DAA against the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) winter slot restrictions. It has claimed the IAA’s decision to restrict passenger numbers for operations at Dublin Airport violates the Open Skies agreement between the US and the EU. Airport operator DAA, which is seeking a higher cap than the current annual limit of 32m, has forecast that the issue will end up in a European court. The IAA is due to publish its final decision on slot allocation for summer 2025 at Dublin Airport shortly.<br/>
The number of international flights passing through Taliban-controlled Afghan airspace reached a record high this week in the aftermath of Iran’s missile attack against Israel. On Thursday, a record 191 flights passed over Afghanistan, with airlines paying the country’s civil aviation ministry $700 per flight for the privilege. The payments represent a significant and growing revenue stream for the cash-strapped Taliban regime. Afghan airspace became off-limits to international flights amid safety fears around the time of the collapse of the Nato-allied government in August 2021, when Western militaries withdrew from Kabul and the hardline Islamist group seized control of the country. But those planes have steadily been returning, particularly in the past year since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza. In the second week of August, Afghanistan saw more than seven times the number of flights through its airspace compared to August 2023, data from FlightRadar24 showed. And this shift accelerated dramatically earlier this week when Iran launched almost 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, forcing many more airlines to give up the usual route from Europe to Asia through Iranian airspace.<br/>
Flight restrictions have been lifted in Iran after conditions were deemed safe, state media reported on Monday, shortening the period of flight cancellations announced earlier by the Civil Aviation Organisation. A spokesperson for the organisation had earlier said that flights from all Iran's airports would be cancelled until 6 a.m. (0230 GMT) on Monday from 9 p.m. on Sunday. "After ensuring favourable and safe flight conditions by the Civil Aviation Organisation, all announced restrictions are removed and airlines are allowed to carry out flight operations," state media said six hours before the end of the initial flight cancellations deadline. The flights were initially cancelled due to operational restrictions, state media cited the spokesperson as saying without providing further details. Iran implemented restrictions on flights on Tuesday when it launched missiles at Israel, in an attack to which Israel vowed to respond.<br/>
At least one person has been killed and 10 others injured in an explosion near the international airport in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, local broadcaster Geo News reported, less than two weeks before a regional summit slated to be held in the capital Islamabad. Citing a provincial official, Geo News added that at least one foreigner was among the injured. The nature of the blast, which took place on Sunday night, was not immediately clear. Television footage and videos on social media showed large plumes of smoke at the site on Model Colony Road, though airport buildings and installations were safe. According to the Pakistan daily Dawn News, airlines’ schedules at the Jinnah International Airport have not been affected by the incident. The Sindh province’s home minister, Ziaul Hasan Lanjar, told Geo News that the explosion was caused by a suspected improvised explosive device (IED). In a statement emailed to journalists, the armed group Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the explosion, saying the attack was carried out using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device targeting Chinese nationals, including engineers. BLA is a banned secessionist armed group that is part of a broader rebellion in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and least populated province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.<br/>
Italian prosecutors on Saturday accused seven people and two sub-contractors of crimes including fraud and breaching airplane safety rules following an investigation into suspected flawed parts produced by an Italian company for Boeing. The prosecutors launched their investigation in late 2021 after Boeing said some parts for its 787 Dreamliner plane supplied by a company working for Italian aerospace group Leonardo had been improperly manufactured. Investigators found that two Italian sub-contractors used cheaper and non-compliant forms of titanium and aluminium to make certain parts, saving significant sums of money on their raw material costs, the prosecutors said in a statement, without naming the sub-contractors or the seven people. "This resulted in the realisation of airplane parts with significantly lower static and stress resistance characteristics, with repercussions on aviation safety," the prosecutors in the southern city of Brindisi said. Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that former Leonardo supplier Manufacturing Process Specification (MPS) and its now-bankrupt predecessor company Processi Speciali were the two firms at the centre of the probe. MPS owner Antonio Ingrosso and his father Vincenzo, who headed Processi Speciali, were two of the seven people involved in the probe. The two men are "convinced that they have acted respecting fully the law," their lawyer told Reuters.<br/>
Boeing's and its largest union said on Friday that contract talks will resume on Oct. 7, as both sides seek an agreement to end a strike by around 33,000 of the planemaker's U.S. West Coast factory workers. Negotiators for the U.S. planemaker and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers have struggled to find common ground, recently failing to clinch an agreement on key issues in the presence of federal mediators. "A resolution with the IAM stands as a priority for me, and our team is ready to resume mediated talks this Monday," Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told employees Friday. Reaching a deal with the IAM to end the stoppage is a priority for Boeing, as it wrestles with mounting debt, worsening cash burn and the threat of losing its investment grade rating. The IAM's district 751, which is negotiating the deal, said it would resume talks with Boeing Monday with assistance from federal mediators. "This meeting is another critical opportunity to push for the priorities of our membership," the union said. The talks have attracted attention from U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, with acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su and her staff continuing to engage with both parties, a spokesperson said. The strike has halted production of Boeing's 777, 767 and its best-selling 737 MAX jet. The MAX is a key revenue-driver for the company at a time when it is struggling with weak margins in its defense business.<br/>