Turkish investigators are examining video footage and witness statements after three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers opened fire and blew themselves up in Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, killing 41 people and wounding 239. The attack on Europe's third-busiest airport was the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings this year as Turkey struggles to contain spillover from Syria's civil war. President Tayyip Erdogan said the attack should serve as a turning point in the global fight against terrorism, which he said had "no regard for faith or values". Five Saudis and two Iraqis were among the dead, a Turkish official said. Citizens from China, Jordan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Iran and Ukraine were also among the 13 foreigners killed. One attacker opened fire in the departures hall with an automatic weapon, sending passengers diving for cover and trying to flee, before all three blew themselves up in or around the arrivals hall a floor below, witnesses and officials said. Video footage showed one of the attackers inside the terminal building being shot, apparently by a police officer, before falling to the ground as people scattered. The attacker then blew himself up around 20 seconds later. "It's a jigsaw puzzle… The authorities are going through CCTV footage, witness statements," a Turkish official said. The Dogan news agency said autopsies on the three bombers, whose torsos were ripped apart, had been completed and that they may have been foreign nationals. No group had claimed responsibility more than 12 hours after the attack, which began around 21:50 on Tuesday. Turkish Airlines had cancelled 340 flights although its departures resumed after 08:00.<br/>
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Walking through Istanbul airport to their planes hours after suicide bombers killed 41 people with gunfire and explosives, travelers could almost trace the steps of the attackers from the bullet holes and twisted metal still in full view. Workers replaced ceiling panels, cleanup crews swept up debris, and water trucks washed pavements outside, but blood stains and shattered windows were still visible as the departure halls filled again and armed police roamed in kevlar vests. Turkish Airlines resumed services in and out of Europe's third-busiest airport within 12 hours of Tuesday night's attacks, although many flights were rescheduled and it offered refunds to passengers booked via Istanbul for the next five days if they no longer wanted to travel. It was a contrast to the aftermath of suicide bombings at Brussels Airport which killed 16 people in March. There it took 12 days to reopen the airport, much more heavily damaged, to a thin stream of passenger flights. "That Istanbul airport is operating today is a testament to the resilience and determination of the Turkish people and the aviation industry," said Tony Tyler, head of the IATA. Tuesday's attack was the deadliest of five bombings in Turkey's biggest city this year, two of them blamed on Islamic State and striking tourist districts. The other three were claimed by Kurdish militants who have stepped up a three-decade insurgency in recent months. Murat, a tour operator who hung a Turkish flag outside his shop inside the arrivals hall, said Turks' ability to put terrible events behind them was a virtue and borne of necessity after decades of fighting extremism. "Turks are a bit fatalistic, we believe our fate is written on our foreheads," he said. "We know that we can die here or when we cross the street. The best thing we can do is clean up the mess, put things back in order, and get on with our lives." But where some saw defiance in the swift reopening of Ataturk airport, others regretted that such attacks had become all too familiar not only in Turkey but the world at large. "The strangest thing is how quickly we put it behind us. We sweep up the mess and return to normal," said Adnan, a store worker in the airport who said he knew some of the security guards killed on Tuesday. Security at Ataturk is generally tighter than in many western European airports. Passengers have to pass through X-ray machines before entering the building or approaching check-in desks, while armed police carry out cursory checks on vehicles at a checkpoint on the main approach road. But beyond the police teams patrolling inside the building on Wednesday, there was little sign of additional security around the terminal entrances near where at least one of the attackers is thought to have struck.<br/>
After coping with terrorism, bankruptcies and consolidation, the largest US airlines are facing a new problem: They may start running out of pilots in as soon as three years. That looming pilot deficit will soar to 15,000 by 2026, according to a study by the University of North Dakota’s Aviation Department, as more captains reach the mandatory retirement age of 65 and fewer young people choose commercial aviation as a profession. And that’s in an industry where captains on the biggest international jets average more than $200,000 a year -- with some pushing $300,000. A pilot shortage is already the bane of the often low-paying regional carriers that ferry passengers from smaller airports to hubs operated by American, Delta and other major airlines. That’s worrisome for the major carriers because they typically use the smaller operators as a pipeline for hiring. “That is one of the things in my job I get to worry about every day and when I go to bed at night,” said Greg Muccio, a senior manager at Southwest Airlines. “The biggest problem is a general lack of interest in folks pursuing this as a career anymore. That’s what puts us in the most jeopardy.” Airlines are responding by changing hiring requirements, boosting signing bonuses at regional carriers they own and partnering with flight schools and university aviation programs. Muccio spends some of his time trying to interest college, high school and even elementary students in an aviation career, while he’s working to extend the biggest three-year expansion of pilot hiring in Southwest’s history. The top three reasons would-be pilots are changing their career plans are the cost of flight training and certification, low pay at regional carriers and a 2013 regulatory change that mandated a sixfold increase in flight hours required to become a first officer, according to a study released last year by the University of North Dakota and the University of Nebraska-Omaha. <br/>
Sendai Airport in Miyagi Prefecture is set to be privatised on Friday. It will be the first among state-managed airports in the country that switches to private-sector operations. Sendai International Airport Co. will operate the airport located between the cities of Natori and Iwanuma under the contract of up to 65 years. The company was set up jointly by railway operator Tokyu Corp., construction company Maeda Corp., trading house Toyota Tsusho Corp. and three other firms. The airport operator aims to attract foreign visitors partly by expanding international flights through such measures as reducing landing fees and setting up new boarding facilities. Inbound demand is increasing in many parts of Japan, but is not so robust in the Tohoku northeastern region including Miyagi. The amount of international passenger traffic at Sendai Airport in fiscal 2015, which ended in March, fell 5% from the previous year to some 160,000, due to the suspension of some routes, according to a preliminary report. Still, the number of foreigners who stayed overnight or longer in the six prefectures in Tohoku last year surged 44% from 2014 to 510,000, rising back above levels before the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit the region, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. In 2010, the number of such foreigners totaled 500,000.<br/>
Brazil's interim government said on Wednesday it will veto an amendment to an aviation bill scrapping limits on foreign ownership of domestic airlines to save the rest of its air-transport legislation from Senate opposition. Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, its lower house of Congress, amended the bill earlier this month to allow foreign companies to own up to 100 percent of Brazilian flag carriers. The original bill only raised the limit to 49 percent from the current 20%. Some senators, though, are concerned unrestricted foreign investment will harm smaller regional airlines. On Wednesday, the upper house approved the bill, but only after Brazil's interim-President Michel Temer promised to veto all foreign ownership provisions in the bill before signing the rest, leaving Brazil's limit unchanged at 20%. "The bill will be approved as it is and then the government will veto this proposal (on foreign ownership)," Presidential Chief of Staff Eliseu Padilha said. "Afterwards, we will send this issue back for a deeper debate in the Senate." Interim President Michel Temer, who has replaced suspended President Dilma Rousseff while she stands trial in the Senate for allegedly breaking fiscal rules, supports lifting limits on foreign ownership in a bid to help Brazilian carriers struggling with the deepest recession in decades in Latin America's largest economy.<br/>
Authorities say a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport was briefly evacuated after a police dog flagged an unattended bag. A spokesman for airport police says Wednesday morning that roads in and out of JFK's Terminal 5 were closed for about an hour. Spokesman Joe Pentangelo says bomb squad officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department have since given the all-clear. He says a Department of Homeland Security K-9 unit sat down next to the bag at about 8:30 a.m. The dogs are trained to sit down next to items of concern. JetBlue, Hawaiian Airlines and Aer Lingus are based in Terminal 5.<br/>