The airlines’ most valuable customers receive the sorts of benefits that most travellers can only salivate over. But most travellers aren’t constantly flying, and they will find that the airlines have made it a lot more complicated to qualify even for a piece of that good life. “You practically need a Ph.D.” to understand and compare all the complex rules among the different airlines, said Jamie Larounis of the travel blog The Forward Cabin. Three of the major airlines in the US each have 4 frequent-flier status levels and different formulas to compute the tiers. It all adds up to a daunting set of rules for frequent-flier programs. And travellers should keep in mind, one travel bloggers said, that the airline programs have become less rewarding. Tickets cost more to redeem, and because flights are fuller, they are harder to redeem. <br/>
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Air travellers’ odds of sitting next to an empty seat are improving. US airlines are adding larger jets to their fleets and more rows to existing aircraft. The result is more open seats on many flights even as demand for air travel grows. That is good news for fliers who have grown accustomed to vying for desirable seats and bag space. It’s also a concern for airline investors who believe the industry might not trim capacity enough to protect a record run of profitability. “Right now there’s a lot of capacity out there, and I think they’re kind of struggling to fill it,” one consultant said. US domestic flights were 83.5% full in November, down from a record high of 86.3% in July. That’s equivalent to around 4 more empty spots on a typical Boeing 737-800 that can carry 166 passengers. <br/>
The percentage of TSA airport screeners missing work has hit 10% as the partial govt shutdown stretches into its fifth week. The TSA said Monday that Sunday's absence rate compared to 3.1% on the comparable Sunday a year ago. The workers who screen passengers and their bags face missing another pay check if the shutdown doesn't end early this week. According to TSA, many of them say the financial hardship is preventing them from reporting to work. TSA says the national average waiting time in airport checkpoint lines is within the normal limit of 30 minutes, but there are longer lines at some airports. The agency has dispatched extra screeners to airports in Atlanta, LaGuardia Airport in New York, and Newark, New Jersey. A TSA spokesman said other airports might also be getting additional help. <br/>
A hard Brexit could bring queues at airports and put a brake on new routes, but airline passengers should at least be able to chow down on an in-flight meal. With concerns growing that a no-deal split will snarl traffic at U.K. ports, stalling the flow of goods, the world’s biggest caterer to the aviation industry has begun to stockpile entrees, snacks and even plastic cutlery. Gate Gourmet, which serves 20 airlines at 10 UK airports, is accumulating enough pizza, ice cream and roast duck (for business class) to see passengers through about 10 days of disruption. “Companies could be in difficulty if they haven’t prepared themselves and ensured a continuity of supply,” the firm said. “We’ve been gradually increasing inventory levels of products from the EU to ensure that any initial disruption at the UK border can be covered.” <br/>
Three Airbus A380 flights were involved in drone encounters within London terminal airspace over the space of 2 months last year, according to UK investigators. The UK Airprox Board's latest run-down of incidents involving UAVs shows that a drone flew within 20m of a Heathrow-bound A380 operating at 3,400ft over central London July 22. It states that the aircraft was carrying out an ILS approach to runway 27R when a "large commercial drone" passed down the right side of the aircraft. Twelve days later another A380 crew, descending for Heathrow, saw a drone pass the aircraft on its right side at 4,200ft after it had captured the localiser for a 27L approach. The Airprox Board gives the separation as 60m horizontally. Both incidents have been classified in the highest collision risk category. <br/>
Israel opened a new international airport outside its Red Sea resort of Eilat Monday, hoping to boost winter tourism from Europeans and provide an alternative for times of conflict to its main gateway in Tel Aviv. Abutting the Jordanian border some 19 km north of Eilat, Ilan and Asaf Ramon Airport will replace the city's cramped municipal airport as well as Ovda, an Israeli desert airbase that also accommodates civilian traffic. The single-runway Ramon is designed for wide-body planes and an annual capacity of 2.5m passengers. Ramon is also designed to take any planes re-routed from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv - a lesson of the 2014 Gaza war, when foreign carriers briefly halted flights there because of Palestinian rocket fire. <br/>