American Airlines has confirmed it will suspend flights from LA-Sydney from 5 May, in light of ongoing delivery delays on its fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners. In a regulatory filing in the US, the carrier said that Boeing has delayed deliveries of its new 787 Dreamliner jets, with the airline now planning to accept only 10 of the 13 Dreamliners it had scheduled for delivery this year. The remaining three aircraft will be delivered next year. The delayed deliveries have forced American to slim down its flight schedule for the northern hemisphere summer season, with flights temporarily suspended between LA and Sydney, as well as Seattle and London, and Dallas and Santiago. American has not yet set a new date to restart the Sydney route. The airline will also delay the launch of its new services between Dallas and Tel Aviv and cut down frequency on its Miami and São Paulo route. It comes after American earlier this month erased its LA-Sydney route from its flight schedule for the month of May.<br/>
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British Airways has said continuous high winds over the last few days have made it difficult to unload baggage from its planes. The airline said stormy weather made opening the luggage hold of aircraft hard, and passengers had faced delays getting their bags after landing. It has also struggled to land and restock its planes on time, affecting inbound and outbound plane movements. BA apologised for "letting people down". It added that items of machinery needed to offload bags could not be be operated in high winds. Machinery such as scissor lifts, that are needed to load catering trucks on to aircraft, also cannot be used because of the danger they pose. The high winds of Storm Eunice on Friday and Storm Franklin on Monday have delayed many flights because of the difficulties landing aircraft. BA said every time a flight could not land, it had to circle above the airport and then try again. But every time this happened it caused further delays to flights due to leave in the following hours. It also said some staff had not been able to get to work because of the storms.<br/>
Japan Airlines has launched a service to help Japanese companies sell their products online to Chinese consumers, using the WeChat messaging app owned by China's IT giant Tencent. JAL set up a dedicated channel in WeChat, soliciting Japanese firms to participate in the program. The airline assists participating businesses with putting up their products for sale on the website, transporting products to China, and sales promotion. While demand for air travel has plunged amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for Japanese specialties among Chinese people remains strong. JAL hopes the new service helps lure Chinese consumers to visit Japan once COVID-19 winds down. JAL's cross-border e-commerce support service began on Jan. 27, when the official mini-channel JAL Youxuan (select) opened on WeChat. For the service, the airline tied up with Youzan, a large Chinese e-commerce company offering unique sales promotion tools such as live commerce. The JAL service deals with Japanese cosmetics, sake and other products which have been highly popular among Chinese tourists to Japan. Among them are vegetable sauce provided by the Furano agricultural cooperative in Hokkaido and "awamori" distilled spirits from an Okinawa Prefecture brewing cooperative. The service is part of the airline's JAL Furusato (hometown) Project, in which the company joins other firms, municipalities and organizations in efforts to revitalize regions. Companies and cooperatives in four prefectures, including Hokkaido and Okinawa, have become the first group of participants in the JAL-backed online sale of Japanese specialties to Chinese consumers. JAL intends to sign up businesses in other prefectures as well.<br/>