Haiti’s main international airport reopened on Wednesday to commercial flights, one month after gangs opened fire on planes. It was the second closing this year because of gang violence. Soldiers and police, bolstered by Kenyan police leading a U.N.-backed mission to quell the violence, have boosted security in the area, and a test flight was successful, Haiti’s government said in a statement. “The resumption of commercial flights marks a turning point for the Haitian economy,” the prime minister’s office said. However, there were no flights and no passengers Wednesday afternoon, with heavily armed police setting up checkpoints by the airport and stopping public transport. An airport parking lot normally packed with hundreds of cars had about several dozen vehicles, the majority belonging to employees. On Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration extended a ban on U.S. flights to Haiti’s capital until March 12 out of safety.<br/>
general
London’s Heathrow airport has forecast its busiest ever festive period, with a jump in passengers travelling on Christmas Day set to cap a record-breaking year of travel for the UK’s largest airport. On Wednesday, the airport said it was expecting a record number of travellers to pass through it in December, and a 21% rise in passenger volumes on Christmas Day. That would follow a record-breaking November, when 6.5m people used the airport hub. The update comes after Heathrow, which is expecting 25 of its routes to reach 1mn passengers this year, said last month it was on track to break its pre-pandemic travel record, thanks to soaring demand over the summer. A busy festive season would cap a strong year for the aviation industry, with airlines across Europe reporting strong summers, even as ticket prices fell slightly following two years of rising fares. Industry bosses believe the post-pandemic travel boom has faded, but demand for flights remains high as customers prioritise spending on travel despite tough economic conditions. United Airlines on Tuesday said it was expecting its busiest holiday period, forecasting 9.9mn passengers between December 19 and January 6, an increase of 12% year on year. The US airline last month said customers were taking more trips to Europe over the festive period, with bookings to European destinations up nearly 30% compared with 2019 and up 10% year on year. The airline said European Christmas markets were luring an increasing number of American travellers, adding it planned to offer nearly 60 nonstop flights each day from its US hubs to Europe in November and December, more than any other US airline. Separately, on Wednesday, Europe’s largest tour operator Tui said winter bookings were up 4% from last year, driven by demand for short and medium-haul destinations such as the Canaries, Egypt and Cape Verde. Thailand, Mexico and the Dominican Republic are key long-haul destinations for the winter, it added.<br/>
Syria's new administration has taken over the country's main international airport after security forces of the deposed Bashar al-Assad government and staff withdrew, grounding flights and stranding passengers. The airport has not been functional since. Now, security members of the rebel alliance in control of Syria have taken over Damascus International Airport, hoping to restore security, a sense of confidence, and the legitimacy needed to restart flights out of the capital, and from one of the country’s three international airports. "Damascus international airport is the heart of the city because it is the gateway for international delegations and missions,” Omar al-Shami, a security official with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the shock offensive that led to the fall of Assad, told press. “It is the centre and most important (institution) in Damascus. It is the international crossing into Damascus, the passage for Syria to breathe.” Elsewhere, life slowly began returning to normalcy in Damascus on Wednesday, with some shops reopening and people strolling through markets.<br/>
Abu Dhabi has joined Heathrow's 2024 “millionaire club” after passenger traffic between the London airport and Zayed International exceeded a million for the year to the end of November. Seven other cities joined the club in November, including Singapore, Edinburgh, Lisbon, Chicago, Zurich, Mumbai and Paris. Although Heathrow did not release passenger numbers for the specific airports in the club, it has 23 members, led by New York's JFK and closely followed by Dubai International. By the end of the year, Heathrow is expecting the millionaire club's membership to grow to 25. Heathrow announced record passenger numbers for November with 6.5m passing through the airport in that month, a 6.1% rise from November last year. It also predicted its busiest festive season, forecasting a 21% increase in passenger traffic on Christmas Day alone, compared to last year. From January to the end of November, 7.7m from destinations in the Middle East passed through Heathrow, which is Europe's busiest airport, an increase of 6.4% on the same period in 2023. “This year has been all about providing high levels of service for record amounts of passengers at Heathrow, and November was no different,” the airport's CE Thomas Woldbye said. “As we embrace the festive season, our focus remains on ensuring smooth, joyful journeys – whether it is helping passengers get away for Christmas to reunite with their loved ones, or making sure cargo reaches its destination on time. We aim to make this holiday season magical for those travelling through Heathrow.”<br/>
Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) will get new terminals and increased capacity to accommodate the ever-increasing number of passengers, says the Transport Ministry. It said several terminal expansion projects based on the KLIA Masterplan are being considered through Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB). Among the proposals for long-term expansion are phased upgrade projects for both Terminal 1 (T1) and Terminal 2 (T2). This would see T1’s capacity nearly double from 30m passengers per annum (mppa) to 59 mppa while T2’s capacity would increase from 45 mppa to 67 mppa. “MAHB is also considering the development of a fourth runway and a new Terminal 3 (T3) in the future," it said in a parliamentary written reply dated Wednesday (Dec 11). “Combined, this long-term expansion plan is expected to increase KLIA’s capacity to 140 mppa as well as the number of aircraft movements per hour from 108 to 154,” it added. The ministry said MAHB was also looking to add two new dedicated terminals, a pay-for-use private and premium terminal (PPT) and a haj and umrah terminal.<br/>