general

Thousands of flights around the country were delayed or canceled on Saturday because of severe weather, disrupting travel for many returning home after the holidays. More than 9,000 flights within, into or out of the United States were delayed, and more than 300 others were canceled as of Saturday evening, according to data from FlightAware. The delays were roughly as widespread as the ones on previous days. As of Saturday evening, more than half of the flights originating from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston were delayed, according to FlightAware. About half of the flights were also delayed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. At New York’s Kennedy International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said flights that were pushed back had an average delay of more than two hours. Inclement weather, or the threat of it, was affecting several different regions in the United States. In the West, large bands of moisture in the sky led to heavy rain and snow warnings in some areas. In the South, severe storms were expected over the weekend, and several tornadoes were reported in the Houston area on Saturday, killing at least one person and injuring four others. A storm system moving toward the Northeast also threatened to bring rain and snow. Travel out of Texas was particularly challenging. At the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, one of the country’s busiest and the largest hub for American Airlines, the scheduling problems continued from earlier this week, when bad weather and a technical glitch briefly grounded the airline’s flights. Dense fog and storms in the days since have caused more delays. Dallas Love Field Airport was also affected, with more than 50% of flights from Southwest Airlines, the airport’s largest carrier, experiencing delays, according to FlightAware. In Houston, the George Bush airport issued a ground stop for United Airlines flights in the afternoon.<br/>

An investigation is underway after a private jet carrying a college basketball team was ordered to stop as it neared a runway where another aircraft was taking off at Los Angeles International Airport. Around 4:30 p.m. Friday, air traffic controllers directed a chartered flight that had just arrived from Spokane, Wash., to hold short of crossing a runway where a second plane was departing, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. When the Embraer E135 jet operated by Colorado-based Key Lime Air "proceeded to cross the hold bars, air traffic controllers told the pilots to stop," the FAA said in a statement. "Stop, stop, stop," a controller can be heard saying on a livestream video feed that captured the incident. Plane spotter Kevin Ray, who created the YouTube channel where the video was posted, can be heard exclaiming with surprise. "Wow! In the years I've been doing this, I've never heard a ATC controller tell a plane to 'Stop, stop, stop,'" he says in the video. "The jet never crossed the runway edge line," the FAA said. The federal agency said it will investigate the incident. Key Lime Flight 563 was carrying Gonzaga University's men's basketball team, which squared off against UCLA the following day. Gonzaga "expects to receive more information related to this event, and is grateful that the incident ended safely for all," the university said in a statement. The departing Delta flight was bound for Atlanta, and did not appear to be affected.<br/>

US investigators have determined that a ramp agent experienced cognitive impairment before a fatal engine-ingestion accident at Montgomery, adding that she suffered from multiple sclerosis and had used a cannabis product before her shift. The inquiry says “multiple cues” had indicated the left engine of an Envoy Air Embraer 175 was still running as it parked at the regional airport’s gate 4, having arrived from Dallas on 31 December 2022. These included the jet’s red beacons, the noise of the engine – discernible even through ear protection – and the fact that the agent had encountered jet blast while placing a safety cone near the aft fuselage. But the agent’s actions, says the National Transportation Safety Board, including her decision to walk in front of the engine, were “not consistent” with those expected, especially given her training and a briefing held just before the aircraft arrived. “The accident ramp agent’s records showed no previous instances in which she was within the engine ingestion zone while an engine was operating,” it states. Investigators analysed medical data as part of the effort to understand the agent’s actions. This analysis found that she suffered relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis which, it says, can “adversely affect cognition”. “Although no cognitive impairment was documented at the ramp agent’s most recent neurology visits, she had a substantial risk of such impairment because of her condition,” says the inquiry, although it adds that it could not determine whether she experienced a multiple sclerosis “flare” at the time of the accident.<br/>

Travelers flying to or from the U.K. faced further disruptions Saturday as thick fog and low visibility restricted air traffic on one of the year’s busiest weekends. Gatwick Airport in London warned that some flights may be delayed throughout Saturday and apologized for the inconvenience. Flights were delayed by up to three hours late Friday because of poor weather conditions, and at least 40 flights from the airport, mostly short-haul to Europe, were delayed Saturday morning. Heathrow Airport, one of Europe’s busiest, advised passengers to check with their airlines regarding potential delays. Disruptions were also reported at other U.K. airports including Stansted Airport in London and Manchester Airport. The U.K.'s weather forecasters, the Met Office, said thick fog patches could reduce visibility to just 100 meters (328 feet) in some areas across the country. It said travelers should allow “a little bit longer” for journeys and warned drivers to be extra careful. Conditions are expected to improve Sunday, the Met Office said. The country’s main air traffic control organization said the restrictions would remain in place in areas with low visibility. “Restrictions of this sort are only ever applied to maintain safety,” it said. “Our teams are working closely with the airports and airlines to minimize disruption.” The restrictions came at a busy time of year when many people travel following the Christmas holiday and ahead of the New Year.<br/>

Hackers targeted around ten official websites in Italy on Saturday, including the websites of the Foreign Ministry and Milan's two airports, putting them out of action temporarily, the country's cyber security agency said. The pro-Russian hacker group Noname057(16) claimed the cyber attack on Telegram, saying Italy's "Russophobes get a well deserved cyber response". A spokesperson for Italy's cyber security agency said it was plausible that the so-called "Distributed Denial of Service" (DDoS) attack could be linked to the pro-Russian group. In such attacks, hackers attempt to flood a network with unusually high volumes of data traffic in order to paralyse it. The spokesperson said the agency provided quick assistance to the institutions and firms targeted and that the attack's impact was "mitigated" in less than two hours. The cyber attack has not caused any disruptions to flights at Milan's Linate and Malpensa airports, a spokesperson for SEA, the company which manages them, said.<br/>

Singapore is investing further in its infrastructure, processes and workforce to solidify its position as a trusted regional cargo centre. With more shippers expected to choose the city as their preferred transshipment and intermodal hub in 2025 and beyond, these investments aim to meet growing demand and strengthen Singapore’s global logistics leadership. Officials from the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and Economic Development Board (EDB) told The Straits Times that efforts are being made to speed up the time taken for air-sea intermodal transshipments via Singapore in 2025, and incentivise leading logistics providers to expand their regional business activities and services provided here. For example, a prototype app is being developed to equip shippers and logistics providers with functions to simplify and increase the efficiency of intermodal logistics in Singapore, an MOT spokesman said on Dec 20, in response to queries from ST. The functions include real-time flight or vessel data and status, bookings of flights or sailings, early alerts of delays, and cargo status visibility. The move is being carried out under an Alliance for Action initiative to improve coordination between sea and air cargo, MOT’s spokesman said.<br/>In March, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat noted that the time taken for an air-sea intermodal transshipment via Singapore may exceed five days due to schedule uncertainties and manual processes carried out by smaller logistics providers. He said his ministry’s aim is to halve that dwell time, and a “stretched target” to enable goods to depart Singapore on a connecting flight or vessel within 24 hours of arrival has been set.<br/>

A machinists strike. Another safety problem involving its troubled top-selling airliner. A plunging stock price. 2024 was already a dispiriting year for Boeing, the American aviation giant. But when one of the company’s jets crash-landed in South Korea on Sunday, killing all but two of the 181 people on board, it brought to a close an especially unfortunate year for Boeing. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and aviation experts were quick to distinguish Sunday’s incident from the company’s earlier safety problems. Alan Price, a former chief pilot at Delta Air Lines who is now a consultant, said it would be inappropriate to link the incident Sunday to two fatal crashes involving Boeing’s troubled 737 Max jetliner in 2018 and 2019. In January this year, a door plug blew off a 737 Max while it was in flight, raising more questions about the plane. The Boeing 737-800 that crash-landed in Korea, Price noted, is “a very proven airplane. “It’s different from the Max ...It’s a very safe airplane.’’ For decades, Boeing has maintained a role as one of the giants of American manufacturing. But the the past year’s repeated troubles have been damaging. The company’s stock price is down more than 30% in 2024. The company’s reputation for safety was especially tarnished by the 737 Max crashes, which occurred off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019 and left a combined 346 people dead. In the five years since then, Boeing has lost more than $23b. And it has fallen behind its European rival, Airbus, in selling and delivering new planes.<br/>

China's thrust to raise the international profile of its domestically developed narrowbody airliner will shift into a higher gear next year, with the C919, already plying some of the busiest air routes at home, set to be more easily spotted in some parts of Asia, analysts predict. The C919 will return to Hong Kong, one of the region's international gateway hubs, on the first day of the new year, China Eastern Airlines has confirmed. It will launch a daily return flight between Shanghai and Hong Kong as the home-grown model's first cross-border route. The carrier is now taking delivery of its 10th C919 and is ramping up preparations to deploy the new plane on the Hong Kong route, according to a source at Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac), the C919's manufacturer. "The new jet being prepped will sport a new livery and its first flight to Hong Kong on Jan 1 will be kicked off at an event at Shanghai's Hongqiao airport," said the source, who declined to be named. Observers say Hong Kong is a natural choice as the C919 seeks to raise its visibility beyond mainland skies and the jet could set a further course for regions that do not require aircraft certification by Western regulators as a prerequisite. "Airlines need approval to fly a specific aircraft type to an overseas airport," said Mayur Patel, the Asia head at consultancy OAG, which is based in Britain and Singapore. "For C919 operators, they will require approval from a particular country. Given the C919's range, regional airports in Southeast Asia would be the ideal choice. The C919 can operate flights to various Asian airports, provided it meets regulatory and operational requirements of each country and C919 operators file for this aircraft type for use to those airports," he said, adding that Western certification might not be required.<br/>

2024 saw turbulence in the spotlight after a number of flights experienced severe turbulence, with one event causing death. On May 21, 2024, Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from London to Singapore encountered severe turbulence over the Indian Ocean and the plane dropped 50 metres in less than one second. A 73-year-old British man died and dozens of people were injured. The aircraft made an emergency landing in Bangkok. It was the first time a person had been killed solely by turbulence on a major commercial flight since 1997. But was 2024 the worst year on record for severe turbulence? It may seem that way but Willie Walsh, director general of The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said there were 39m flights projected for 2024 compared to the 20m annual flights about 25 years ago. He said that contributed to the perception of more frequent turbulence. Although IATA said turbulence remained a leading cause of passenger and crew injuries. A number of planes experienced turbulence severe enough to cause injury in 2024. Just days after the Singapore Airlines event, on May 26 turbulence over Turkey injured 12 people on Qatar Airways flight QR107 from Doha to New York.<br/>