unaligned

A Southwest Airlines flight had to be evacuated on Thursday after an engine fire forced it to return to a Houston airport. The flight was leaving Hobby Airport on its way to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, when it was forced to return around 11:15 a.m. due to the fire, according to the Houston Fire Department. When the plane landed, firefighters extinguished the blaze as well as a small grass fire near the runway, the fire department said in a statement. No injuries were reported. The flight crew helped the 134 passengers evacuate the plane, Southwest Airlines said in a statement. Passengers exited the aircraft on a taxiway at the airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said in an email. The cause of the fire was being investigated, the FAA said. The airline was working to get all passengers to their final destination in Mexico. “We appreciate the professionalism of our flight crew in responding to this situation. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees,” Southwest Airlines said. <br/>

The FAA and NTSB are investigating after a Frontier Airlines flight made a hard landing at Luis Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday. Flight 3506, an Airbus A321, was arriving from Orlando International Airport when its first landing attempt failed. Audio from the website Broadcast includes air traffic controllers alerting pilots of “debris on the runway” after an “aircraft landed a bit harsh.” “The last aircraft that tried to land in San Juan hit the surface too hard and apparently (it) lost some things in the runway,” the controller explained to another pilot. “He has declared an emergency.” Flight 3506 circled the airport and made two more attempts at landing, successfully touching down at 10:20 p.m. local time. A number of other incoming planes had to land at other airports while Luis Marin International was closed. Video from a passenger on the plane showed people onboard cheering as it finally landed. “It was truly terrible. To fear for your life and not know what was going to happen, to not know if you were going to land safely or how everything was going to end,” Jeffrey Cerda said in a video he posted to Instagram. “The accidents happen, and we don’t know when or how they’ll happen. They’re accidents and they happen the moment we least expect it.” Passengers were deplaned on the taxiway and bussed to a terminal. “The aircraft landed safely and there were no injuries to the passengers or crew,” Frontier Airlines said in a statement. “The incident is under investigation.”<br/>

Spirit Airlines on Thursday appointed Dave Davis as its new CE officer, weeks after the U.S. discount carrier emerged from bankruptcy and reconstituted its board. Davis, joining from rival Sun Country Airlines where he was the finance chief since 2018, will be tasked with a business overhaul as Spirit works to move away from its no-frills image and rebrand itself as a premium airline, after years of mounting losses. The appointment, effective April 21, comes just more than a week after Ted Christie stepped down from the helm of Spirit with immediate effect as part of a shakeup. Davis had previously worked as the CFO of Northwest Airlines before its merger with Delta Air Lines. “Dave’s background at both Northwest Airlines and, more recently, at Sun Country Airlines, positions him well to lead Spirit’s continued transformation,” Spirit Chairman Robert Milton said. Sun Country, in a separate regulatory filing on Thursday, announced Davis’ departure was effective immediately. Spirit had set up an interim office of the CEO, consisting of CFO Fred Cromer, COO John Bendoraitis and General Counsel Thomas Canfield, to lead the airline until it appoints a new chief. The Florida-based carrier had filed for bankruptcy protection last November, following years of losses and heavy debt, and failed merger attempts. Spirit had been in merger talks with Frontier Group since at least 2022, but ended them in favor of a more attractive offer from rival JetBlue Airways.<br/>

WestJet has walked back its bid to put temporary foreign workers in the cockpit. In an email, spokeswoman Julia Kaiser confirmed that the airline halted its hunt for overseas recruits for regional subsidiary WestJet Encore due to "economic uncertainty." The federal government last month approved WestJet's application for pilot permits under the temporary foreign worker program, according to the company and the country's main pilot union. The Air Line Pilots Association opposed the move, which saw granted a request for about 60 permits for pilots from India and South Africa, according to court filings. The union asked a judge last month to quash the government's approval, filing an application in Federal Court to declare the decision invalid. The jobs minister failed to consult with the pilots association or the "appropriate regulatory bodies" before giving WestJet the green light on March 10, the union argued in its submission. Tim Perry, who heads the union's Canadian wing, argued that temporary flight crew from abroad would undermine union goals around wages and work conditions. "Your status in Canada is directly tied to your being a 'good employee' through the eyes of the employer," he said in an interview, pointing to federal program rules. They're not going to act in standing for elements of our collective agreements that we've already earned or, in the case of collective bargaining, changes to those collective agreements. This has nothing to do with the part that these pilots were born elsewhere," Perry added.<br/>

Gatwick Airport has downplayed the effect industrial action by baggage handlers will have on flights over the Easter weekend. Members of the Unite union working for ground handling firm Red Handling have rejected a last-minute deal to call off the strikes. It means some baggage handlers, check-in staff and flight dispatchers at the airport will strike from Friday until Tuesday morning. But Nick Williams, head of passenger operations at Gatwick, said only a small number of airlines would be affected. "It's a very small number of airlines who don't operate a huge number of flights, so we're not talking about big-scale impact," he said. "We're working really closely with those airlines to try and mitigate that impact and hope that as many of those flights operate as close to schedule as possible. We'd advise passengers to check their airline of the weekend."<br/>

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has warned the budget airline could delay deliveries of Boeing aircraft if they become more expensive amid the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs. “If tariffs are imposed on those aircraft, there’s every likelihood we may delay the delivery,” O’Leary told the Financial Times. Ryanair is due to receive another 25 aircraft from Boeing from August, but he said they are not needed until “kind of March, April 2026.” “We might delay them and hope that common sense will prevail,” he added. The US president imposed the steepest American tariffs on imports in over a century, with a baseline tariff on imports to the US of 10%. Levies of 25% have also been imposed on steel and aluminium, key materials in the production of aeroplanes. Planes that have finished production and parts imported into the US will be hit by the 10% levy; meanwhile, building planes are set to become more expensive, as manufacturers rely on international supply chains throughout Asia, Europe and the US, the publication reported. O’Leary said there would be a “significant debate” over whether manufacturers or airlines should be the ones responsible for the costs of tariffs: “The airlines will say the manufacturer must pay. I’m sure the manufacturer will insist the airline pays.” <br/>

A U.S. man hijacked a small plane in Belize on Thursday, stabbing two passengers and a pilot, before one of the stabbed passengers fatally shot him, officials in Belize and the United States said. The plane then landed safely. The Tropic Air plane was carrying 14 passengers and two crew members, and was flying from Corozal, a small town near Belize’s border with Mexico, heading to the popular tourist destination of San Pedro when it was hijacked. The plane circled in random directions for nearly two hours as the drama unfolded in the skies. The plane was tailed by a police helicopter before touching down at an airport in the coastal town of Ladyville. Belize authorities declared a full emergency immediately after the incident started, around 8:30 a.m. local time, according to a statement by the Belize Airport Concession Company. “In the face of incomprehensible pressure, our pilot acted with extraordinary courage and calm, guiding the aircraft to a safe landing. His actions were nothing short of heroic,” said Maximillian Greif, the CEO of the airline company. The two wounded passengers and pilot were being treated at a hospital for their injuries, officials said. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a news briefing in Washington that officials were still gathering information about what occurred. Chester Williams, Belize police commissioner, identified the hijacker as Akinyela Taylor and said he was a U.S. military veteran. U.S. officials could not confirm the Belize police commissioner’s statement that Taylor was a military veteran.<br/>

Emirates is targeting major markets in Australia, India, China and the US to expand its new parcel delivery service, as it unlocks new revenue streams and maximises the use of its wide-body fleet. The Dubai-based airline will start package delivery for Australia by the end of April and India in the “next few months” to tap into the Asian economy's $8.6b outbound courier express parcels market, Dennis Lister, senior vice president of product and innovation at Emirates Skycargo, told The National. The “massive” Chinese market will be next, followed “eventually” by the US and then the rest of Emirates' global network of 148 destinations in the long-term by leveraging the belly-hold of its mammoth fleet of passenger aircraft and dedicated freighters. “The goal needs to be wherever Emirates flies, we can have connectivity for passengers and for parcels in the long-term,” Lister said on the sidelines of the Iata World Cargo Symposium in Dubai. “We want to be everywhere on the planet and to be the largest integrated door-to-door parcel delivery entity on a passenger fleet, cross-border, in the next three to five years.”<br/>

Syria's flag carrier Syrian Air will resume direct flights to Dubai and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates starting on Sunday, the airline said in a Facebook post. All flights between Syria and the UAE had been suspended in January after Islamist-led rebels toppled former leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. The announcement comes days after the UAE's civil aviation authority announced the resumption of air flights between the Gulf country and Syria. No UAE-based airlines have announced plans to fly to Syria so far. The resumption of flights between the two countries followed Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s first visit to the UAE as leader, where he met UAE's president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The visit came as Syria's new Islamist rulers seek to reassure foreign partners they will create an inclusive political system.<br/>

The Pakistani government will seek expressions of interest next week for the sale of Pakistan International Airlines the privatisation ministry said on Thursday, days after it reported its first annual profit in over two decades. Pakistan has been seeking to sell a 51-100% stake in the debt-ridden carrier, to raise funds and reform cash-draining, state-owned enterprises as envisaged under a $7b International Monetary Fund programme. Its failed attempt to privatise Pakistan International Airlines last year received a single offer, well below the asking price of more than $300m. The privatisation commission board has approved seeking new bids, the ministry said in a statement. "The board approved the pre-qualification criteria for selection of prospective bidders," it said. It added new expressions of interest in buying between 51 and 100% of the airline would be sought next week. Pakistan has shifted almost all of the national carrier's legacy debt to government books after issues raised by bidders led to the failure of the last privatisation attempt. Muhammad Ali, government adviser on privatisation, said last week all the issues raised at the time of last year's failed attempt had been dealt with.<br/>

Vietnamese budget airline VietJet owes a leasing firm just over $180m in a dispute over four planes, London's High Court ruled on Thursday. FW Aviation, part of London-based investment firm FitzWalter Capital, sued VietJet in 2022 over four Airbus A321 passenger jets, which were previously grounded in Vietnam. The company had argued that VietJet was liable under the planes' leases, which were terminated for non-payment of rent after air travel was curtailed during the COVID-19 pandemic. VietJet's lawyers said that FW Aviation had recovered possession of the four planes and argued that making the airline return the planes and pay would amount to a "double penalty". But the High Court ruled that VietJet owed FW Aviation $181.8m, the latest ruling in a dispute which has been playing out in courts in London, Hanoi and Singapore. VietJet was last year granted permission to appeal against an earlier High Court ruling that it was liable to FW Aviation, which will be heard next month. A VietJet spokesperson said in a statement: "The airline has consistently fulfilled its financial obligations to dozens of banks and aircraft lessors supporting its fleet of hundreds of aircraft. The dispute concerning four aircraft is isolated and exceptional."<br/>