A 16-year-old boy has been found guilty of sending bomb hoax threats to two US airlines through Twitter. Plymouth's youth court heard the teenager, who cannot be named, sent messages to Delta and American Airlines. He previously admitted cyber attacks on Florida's SeaWorld theme park and Devon and Cornwall Police. Judge Diana Baker told the teenager his planning was "both detailed and sophisticated". The court previously heard American Airlines received a threat on Twitter on 13 February 2015 which read: "One of those lovely Boeing airplanes has a tick, tick, ticking in it. Hurry gentlemen, the clock is ticking." A similar tweet was also sent to Delta the same day. The teenager originally pleaded guilty to three offences under Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act relating to denial of service attacks. He was found guilty of two offences under the Criminal Law Act relating to the communication of bomb threats.<br/>
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US airline stocks moved closer to their biggest annual decline in five years after Credit Suisse Group AG said a critical financial gauge won’t turn positive until the end of next year and trimmed earnings estimates for the largest carriers through 2018. Rising fuel prices, an unwillingness to reduce capacity growth and increased labour costs are adding to a gloomy outlook for carriers that are already contending with sustained declines in passenger revenue for each seat flown a mile, Julie Yates, an analyst at Credit Suisse, said in a note to clients Wednesday. She cut her recommendation on American Airlines to sell from buy, while dropping United Continental to hold from buy. The Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index has tumbled about 26% in 2016, putting it on track for the largest annual decline since 2011. The drop has been fueled by stepped-up concerns that carriers haven’t acted to curb growth of available seats that’s expanding faster than gross domestic product, a proxy for travel demand. Revenue for each seat flown a mile at the largest carriers has declined on an annual basis for more than a year. “Since January, we are less optimistic overall on the industry’s ability to recapture pricing in a rising fuel environment, particularly outside the US,” Yates said. “Capacity growth continues to outpace GDP in all regions and the industry’s willingness to trim growth with oil still in a historically inexpensive range of $50 a barrel is low.”<br/>
House and Senate lawmakers announced an agreement Wednesday on an aviation bill to boost airport security, reduce screening lines and require airlines to refund fees to passengers whose bags are lost or delayed. The bill would also extend the FAA's programs and policies through Sept. 30, 2017. The FAA's current operating authority is set to expire July 15. The bipartisan agreement was announced by senior members of the House and Senate transportation committees. Approval by both chambers is expected to swiftly follow. Congress has only nine days to act in order to prevent a partial shutdown of the agency. The bill would require airlines to refund checked bag fees to passengers whose luggage is lost or is delayed 12 hours or more for domestic flights or 15 hours or more for overseas flights. It also requires airlines to generally ensure that children 13 years of age or under are seated adjacent to an adult or older child traveling with them. A bill that passed the Senate in April by a vote of 95 to 3 would also have extended other consumer protections to passengers, including a requirement that airlines refund fees for other services when not delivered, such as advance seat assignments or early boarding. But those provisions, which were opposed by airlines, were dumped during negotiations with the House. To address long airport screening lines, the bill requires the TSA to hire a marketing firm to generate greater public participation in the agency's PreCheck expedited screening program for passengers who have been vetted and determined to be low security risks. The bill also requires TSA to ensure PreCheck screening lanes are open during high-volume travel times. And the measure authorizes a pilot program to develop and test more efficient passenger and luggage screening systems.<br/>
A US House of Representatives panel Thursday will debate legislation intended to block Boeing's planned sale of dozens of commercial aircraft to Iran, which could also affect Airbus if they became law. A Financial Services subcommittee will debate three measures, including one that would prohibit the US Treasury from licensing the sale announced last month. Another would bar the Treasury secretary for approving transactions by US financial institutions connected to the export of aircraft. A third measure would bar the Export-Import Bank from financing involving any entity that does business with Iran or provides financing to another entity to facilitate transactions with Iran. "I am extremely concerned that by relaxing the rules, the Obama administration has allowed US companies to be complicit in weaponising the Iranian regime," said Representative Bill Huizenga, chairman of the Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee. If the bills became law, they would affect other firms' sales to Iran because virtually all modern aircraft have more than 10 percent US content, the threshold for requiring export licenses. Democrats, including President Barack Obama, are expected to oppose the legislation.<br/>
Air passengers could soon be spared the chore of having to remove their laptops and liquids from their carry-on luggage when going through security. New equipment, using what is known as CT technology, is being tested in Britain and the US and could slash the times travellers spend getting through to the departure lounge. Working in much the same way as CAT scanners do in hospitals, the new devices take detailed images of what is inside a passenger's luggage. A number of airports are already using the technology to screen hold luggage and now the industry is trying to develop portable scanners for use on hand baggage at security checkpoints. A complete ban on carrying liquids onto an aircraft was introduced in August 2006 after a terrorist plot to down a transatlantic aircraft, by mixing the liquid components of a bomb on board, was thwarted. Although it was later eased to allow passengers to bring liquids in containers up to 100ml, the restrictions cause inconvenience to passengers who have to put fluids into small plastic bags (which some airports charge GBP1 for) and take them out of their hand luggage for inspection. "The UK has some of the strictest security measures in the world, and we are leading the way in using new technologies to improve security screening at airports, as well as improving the passenger experience," said Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, a transport minister. "We already have state of the art automated screening lanes in place at many of our airports, and new CT technology is also being trialled here. We will continue to work closely with our US counterparts to harness the latest advances in technology."<br/>
The High Court in Wellington has backed a decision that a 90-metre safety area for an extended Wellington Airport runway is sufficient, turning down a bid by pilots who wanted a review because they didn't regard it as long enough. Justice Karen Clark Wednesday rejected an application for judicial review of the Civil Aviation director's decision by the New Zealand Airline Pilots' Association saying the director didn't make an error in law in reaching the conclusion, nor was the consultation process with the NZAPA inadequate. The association, which represents about 2,200 pilots and air traffic controllers, sought to have the decision reviewed, claiming the 90-metre runway end safety area was too short and needed to be 240 metres. The judge rejected the NZAPA's claim that a cost-benefit analysis relied on by the director subordinated safety to cost, calling such criticism "unfounded". The threshold needed to establish an error of law based on "flawed evidence simply has not been met evidentially by the applicant," the judgment said. Justice Clark took a "cautious view" that the union had a legitimate expectation to be consulted on the proposed southern extension "because of the nature of the (Civil Aviation) Authority's assurances", but that didn't oblige the director to negotiate with the NZAPA. Wellington Airport wants to build a 350-metre runway extension in an effort to attract long-haul flights from Asia and the US, for an estimated $300m. <br/>
Airbus goes into next week's Farnborough Airshow lagging behind arch-rival Boeing after ending H1 with 227 aircraft orders, or 183 after adjusting for cancellations, company data showed Wednesday. The planemaker said it had sold 27 aircraft in June, all narrow-body jets earmarked for unidentified customers, while taking six new cancellations or conversions between models. Boeing sold 309 aircraft, or 276 after cancellations and conversions, between the start of the year and June 28, the latest period for which data is available. Demand is down from the first half of last year, which included the Paris Airshow, held every other year in June. This year's comparable event, the July 11-17 Farnborough Airshow, falls in the second half of the year and is expected to produce a smaller harvest of orders compared with recent years as a lengthy ordering cycle slows in the face of weak oil prices. Airbus continued to face delays in delivering some of its latest jets after problems with suppliers, handing over just one A320neo in June to bring the total so far this year to eight. It delivered three long-haul A350 aircraft in June, lifting the first-half total to 12, compared with a target of at least 50 for the year as a whole. It also delivered three A380 superjumbos, bringing the total for the year so far to 14, comfortably in line with projected full-year deliveries of about 25 aircraft. Total first-half deliveries reached 298 aircraft. Both planemakers are expected to announce orders at the Farnborough Airshow. But after several years of bumper orders, analysts say the atmosphere is relatively muted this year as worries grow over the state of the global economy.<br/>
Canada's Bombardier is under less pressure to ink new orders for its CSeries jet at a major European air show next week after receiving orders from Delta and Air Canada, a senior executive said Wednesday. Those two deals for a combined 120 narrowbody planes enabled Bombardier to surpass its own target of 300 CSeries orders by the smaller CS100's entry into service this month. By contrast, the company announced no orders for the jet at the Paris air show in June of last year. Bombardier executives will be attending Britain's Farnborough air show next week, where planemakers regularly publicise new orders. "There was a lot of pressure from the industry looking at this program, because early in the program there was a milestone of 300 firm orders," Bombardier Commercial Aircraft President Fred Cromer said. "We have surpassed that number, so from that standpoint the pressure's off." After securing deals with the two legacy carriers, Cromer said Bombardier would now like an order for the fuel-efficient CSeries from a low-cost airline "to really demonstrate the versatility of the aircraft."<br/>
The air cargo business in North America and Asia has taken a hit this year, as retailers and manufacturers shift shipments toward lower-cost modes of transportation. For the first five months of this year, airlines based in the Asia Pacific region carried 3.4% less cargo compared to the same period in 2015, according to the latest data from the International Air Transport Association. Cargo on North American airlines fell 2.3% over the same period. Air freight volumes got a bump early last year as seaports along the US West Coast experienced heavy congestion during union contract negotiations. Asian exporters turned to air routes for reliable shipments to US manufacturing plants. But that growth was short-lived. By late spring 2015, after a new contract was signed and a backlog of cargo ships was cleared at the West Coast seaports, delays eased up and cargo shifted back to its usual patterns. The market now has a glut of capacity, with large air-freight carriers competing with rapidly expanding, low-cost operators out of the Middle East, including Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates Airline. In the first five months of 2016, freight grew 5.9% among Middle East airlines, according to IATA.<br/>