general

Toronto's Pearson airport says operations are back to normal roughly a week after a crash landing that sent 21 people to hospital and led to days of travel disruptions at Canada's busiest airport. A spokesperson for the airport says the runway where the Delta Air Lines crash took place last Monday has reopened. The spokesperson says a final cleanup is underway at a second runway that was also closed after the crash, and it is expected to reopen soon. The airport says that 1% of departing flights and 2% of arriving ones have been cancelled by airlines as of 9 a.m., which is within the normal range. All 76 passengers and four crew members survived when the plane burst into flames after flipping over and skidding on the tarmac, and those who were hospitalized have since been released. The airline has offered US$30,000 in compensation to passengers who were on the plane, saying the money has "no strings attached." At least two people have filed lawsuits. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada continues to investigate the crash.<br/>

Muan International Airport, which had been completely closed due to the Jeju Air passenger plane crash on Dec. 29 last year, has resumed flights for emergency medical care and educational training after 56 days, airport officials said Monday. Aviation authorities permitted flights approved by the airport's control tower for rescue, search or medical evacuation beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday, the officials said. A Jeju Air jet from Bangkok erupted into flames on Dec. 29 after crashing into the localizer's concrete mound as it overshot the runway when it made an emergency belly landing at the airport, about 290 kilometers south of Seoul. Of the total 181 people on board, only two survived. The authorities also allowed educational institutions to conduct visual flights during the week without using a localizer, which provides precision guidance to aircraft approaching a runway. At present, five universities and three private organizations conduct flight training there using 21 aircraft. Accordingly, each of the eight institutions began conducting takeoff and landing training at the airport Monday morning.<br/>

Australia warned airlines flying between Australian airports and New Zealand to beware of Chinese warships potentially conducting a live-fire exercise in the Tasman Sea, officials said Friday. Regulator Airservices Australia warned commercial pilots of a potential hazard in airspace between the countries as three Chinese warships conduct exercises off the Australian east coast. China had given notice that the warships could potentially fire live weapons during an exercise, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. Australian defense officials were uncertain whether any live fire of weapons had occurred. The risk had since passed, Albanese said. “There was no imminent risk of danger to any Australian assets or New Zealand assets,” Albanese told reporters, citing information from his Defense Ministry. Air New Zealand, the country’s national carrier, said in a statement it had “modified flight paths as needed to avoid the area, with no impact on our operations." Virgin Australia said it was following Airservices Australia instructions, but did not say whether its New Zealand services had been diverted. Pilots of Virgin, Qantas and Emirates flights from Sydney to New Zealand diverted their courses after hearing one of the warships broadcast a warning of an imminent live-fire exercise, Nine Network television reported.<br/>

Beijing on Feb 23 said Canberra had “deliberately hyped” recent Chinese naval exercises near the Australian coast and confirmed its forces had used live fire in an incident that rattled Australian policymakers. The authorities in Australia and close ally New Zealand have been monitoring three Chinese navy vessels spotted in recent days in international waters of the nearby Tasman Sea. Canberra said on Feb 22 it had not yet received a satisfactory explanation from Beijing for the Feb 21 drill, which saw the Chinese ships broadcast a live-fire warning that caused commercial planes to change course. China’s defence ministry hit back on Feb 23, saying the “relevant remarks of the Australian side are completely inconsistent with facts”, while also confirming the use of live ammunition. “During the period, China organised live-fire training of naval guns toward the sea on the basis of repeatedly issuing prior safety notices,” Wu Qian, a spokesman for the defence ministry, said in a statement. Wu added that China’s actions were “in full compliance with international law and international practices, with no impact on aviation flight safety”.“Australia, while well aware of this, made unreasonable accusations against China and deliberately hyped it up,” said Wu, adding that Beijing was “astonished and strongly dissatisfied”.<br/>

Boeing's longtime veteran and chief aerospace safety officer, Mike Delaney, will retire later this year, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Friday. The aerospace company in the next few weeks will appoint a successor to Delaney who has been working with Boeing for nearly four decades, company chief Kelly Ortberg told employees in an internal message. Delaney, appointed in 2021, bolstered Boeing's safety practices, the message said. "His contributions over the decades have advanced our global aviation safety strategy, helped our industry safely resume global air travel during the pandemic and defined how we will develop a future generation of commercial airplanes," Ortberg said in the message.<br/>

The boss of Europe's largest tour operator, TUI, said on Friday it would use partner airlines like Ryanair to carry passengers when it is facing strong demand, enabling it to remain conservative on its own airline schedule. Despite the continuing post-pandemic demand for travel, a number of airlines have had to limit capacity growth targets because of delivery delays from plane makers, which are still grappling with supply-chain challenges. "If you look at the package model, we are conservative in capacity, we envisaged the market would be more competitive this year," TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel told reporters in London. Competition from easyJet and British Airways in the packaged-holidays businesses has grown across the European market. "We want to sell with a good margin, at times where there is oversupply we will benefit from dynamic access to these suppliers," Ebel said. In terms of demand, he said Turkey, once a popular cheap destination for British and European tourists, was becoming less so due to higher costs.<br/>

VistaJet’s cash has dropped to its lowest level since the start of the pandemic after the heavily indebted luxury airline’s super-rich customers scaled back their travel plans. Flying hours bought in advance through the private jet provider’s subscription service were 10.5% lower in the nine months to the end of September than the same period a year earlier, according to financial statements reviewed by the Financial Times. That left its cash reserves at $62m, the lowest level since 2020 when Covid-19 grounded aircraft around the world. The drop in advance sales of flying hours by the Dubai group, a debt-fuelled rival to market leader NetJets whose membership scheme allows customers to book a plane with as little as 24 hours notice, comes after a full-year decline in 2023. Details of the accounts follow reports that VistaJet, whose $4.5b of debt was used to purchase top-of-the-line aircraft and smaller rivals, has attempted to raise as much as $1bn in new financing in recent months. When sales of programme hours were growing they helped fund Vista’s operations because it receives subscription payments upfront then recognises the revenue only when the hours are used. The reversal of that trend is a headwind for Vista’s Swiss founder and owner Thomas Flohr, who has long defied concerns raised by some rivals, critics and the group’s previous accountants that its asset-heavy business model may be unsustainable. A combination of borrowing, $140m of net losses and substantial short-term liabilities prompted auditor EY to warn in its opinion on the company’s 2022 accounts that “a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern”. <br/>

After a series of high-profile disasters, some social media users suggested that air travel accidents were becoming more frequent. Videos of hair-raising near misses began to trend online and the US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy sought to calm fears in an interview with the BBC's US partner, CBS News. He told viewers that the recent spate of air disasters in America were "very unique". Duffy's intervention came after several serious incidents, including a mid-air collision in January between a commercial airliner and a military helicopter in Washington DC, in which 67 people died. Footage of a plane flipping over after landing in poor weather in Toronto, Canada, has also been widely shared online, further fuelling alarm. And while polling on the subject is limited, one recent Associated Press survey suggested these startling images of accidents have had some impact on some US consumers' confidence in flying. But BBC Verify has analysed data in the US and worldwide and found that over the past two decades there has been a general downward trend in air accidents. For the US, figures on air accidents have been compiled by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) up to the end of January this year. This NTSB data shows a general fall in air accidents in the US from 2005 to 2024 despite a significant increase in the overall number of flights over this period. It also shows that the figure for January 2025 (52), was lower than it was in January last year (58) and January 2023 (70). Data from International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a UN body which monitors global air incidents, shows that the number of worldwide accidents per million plane departures has also seen a clear downward trend between 2005 and 2023.<br/>

Imagine you’re booking a flight. For most people, it’s an easy decision: the cheapest fare or the easiest route will be the one to win out. But for many, it’s a different scenario. They’re willing to spend more, fly at awkward times or even make multiple connections to reach their destination — all to earn airline loyalty points. This is the dance of the frequent flyer program — often a costly dance, but one that reaps benefits in the form of lounge access, free seat selection, priority security and other things that make flying in the crowded 21st century a little more bearable — as long as you spend or fly enough to earn enough points to reach the “elite” tiers of airlines’ loyalty programs. But with airlines increasingly changing their programs to make it harder to accrue status, has the points bubble burst? “Earning real value from airline loyalty programs is tougher than ever,” says Kyle Olsen, travel products editor at CNN Underscored. “Airlines have raised [flight] redemption costs and made rewards less valuable. Higher spending requirements make status harder to achieve. Dynamic pricing means award flights cost more points than before.” This year, three carriers in the Oneworld airline alliance — British Airways, Iberia and Qantas — will change their loyalty schemes. From April, it’ll be harder to achieve status on the first two, while from August, spending loyalty points on Qantas will require a higher spend. Rob Burgess, editor of “avgeek” website Head for Points, calls it a “downward trend.” “BA and Iberia are turning their programs into recognition schemes for their biggest spenders rather than loyalty schemes,” he says. Those Oneworld changes come on the heels of Delta Air Lines, whose much criticized toughening up of their own program made it tougher to acquire status last year. CEO Ed Bastian cited crowded lounges as one reason for the changes. Suddenly the “elites” weren’t feeling so … elite.<br/>