The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced on Sunday that his government has approved the final designs for a new passenger airport located 23 miles southwest of downtown Dubai that will one day become the new home of Emirates Airline with the ability to handle as many as 260 million passengers annually. The new passenger terminals at Dubai World Central Airport (DWC) will have a staggering 400 aircraft gates and will come at a cost of 128 billion Dirhams (US $34.87 billion). Government of Dubai Also known as Al Maktoum International Airport, the massive 35,000-a ..read more

An unruly passenger who forced the pilots of a transatlantic United Airlines flight to Newark to divert to Bangor Airport in Maine, after getting into an argument with his girlfriend before threatening to “mess up the plane” and pushing the flight purser into a corner has been ordered to pay the airline more than $20,000 in restitution. Briton Alexander MacDonald from Chelmsford, England, pleaded guilty to one count of interference with flight following the incident aboard flight UA883 from London Heathrow to Newark on March 1. MacDonald has been held in federal custody since his arrest and ha ..read more

Cabin crew, pilots and ground staff at Dutch flag carrier KLM will soon be allowed to wear sneakers to work as part of an initiative to improve employee wellbeing at the Amsterdam-based airline. From May 6, staffers will either be allowed to wear their own sneakers, so long as they comply with certain appearance standards, or they can buy a special pair of KLM branded shoes that have been designed in collaboration with shoemaker Filling Pieces. KLM ran a pilot program last year and, following positive feedback, decided to relax its uniform and grooming rules, noting that a growing number of ot ..read more

A Delta Air Line Boeing 767 with 176 passengers onboard was forced to make an emergency diversion back to New York JFK on Friday morning after an emergency exit slide detached from the aircraft shortly after takeoff. Delta flight DL520 departed New York JFK at around 8 am on Friday morning for a scheduled cross-country flight to Los Angeles, but while the 33-year-old aircraft was still on its initial climb, the pilots received a warning about the emergency exit slide at the right-hand wing. Along with the cockpit warning, there was also what a Delta spokesperson described as a ‘non-routine’ so ..read more

A Spanish airline worker nearly died after drinking a cup of coffee from a vending machine at Son Sant Joan airport near Palma, Majorca, earlier this month after she went into anaphylactic shock. The 21-year-old woman had bought the cup of coffee during a break and initially noticed an odd taste before suddenly noticing that the cup of coffee was infested with insects. The victim almost immediately started to suffer a life-threatening allergic reaction to consuming the insects as her face and throat started to swell up. Unable to breathe, medics delivered life-saving shots of adrenaline to cou ..read more

Russia has accused the United States of putting pressure on Turkish Airlines to refuse its citizens carriage on flights between Istanbul and Mexico after a war of words broke out between Russian officials and the Turkish flag carrier. The issue came to a head earlier this week when Russia’s embassy in Anchorage claimed Turkish Airlines was refusing to let Russian citizens fly to a number of Latin American countries despite passengers holding all the necessary visas and paperwork. The embassy said the situation had slowly been getting worse since February and that Turkish Airlines has refused t ..read more

Southwest Airlines is to end the year with 2,000 fewer employees than at the end of 2023 as the airline battles worse than anticipated delays for new 737MAX jets from embattled aircraft manufacturer Boeing, CEO Bob Jordan announced on Thursday. The Dallas-based carrier also said it would slow hiring and offer a variety of voluntary time off programs as it works to contain mounting costs, which pushed Southwest to a net loss of $231 million in the first three months of 2024. Hoping to take advantage of rampant demand for air travel, Southwest had originally planned to take delivery of 85 new 73 ..read more

Flight attendants at Southwest Airlines are set to become the highest paid in the US aviation industry following the ratification of what the cabin crew union has described as a ‘historic’ contract. In a landslide result, 81% of flight attendants at the Dallas-based airlines voted in favor of the landmark deal which, it is claimed, will leave Southwest crew members earning 14% more on average than their peers at Delta Air Lines. The hard-fought four-year contract includes an immediate 22.3% pay rise, along with $364 million in retroactive wages that will be paid out depending on how long a fli ..read more

United Airlines is preparing to relaunch its non-stop service between Newark and Tel Aviv for the second time on May 3 as the threat of war wanes following the massive Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel earlier this month. In March, United became the first and so far only US airline to resume flights to Israel following the October 7 terror attack. The airline is said to have been operating flights at capacity in both directions and had been looking to add a second daily flight to take advantage of strong demand, especially following the Passover holiday. Unlike other international air ..read more

The Biden administration is introducing new consumer protection rules that will force airlines to provide automatic cash refunds to passengers affected by delayed or canceled flights, as well as for lost or delayed baggage. Until now, airlines were allowed to make up their own rules for when passengers were entitled to a refund due to a ‘significant change’ to their itinerary, resulting in wildly differing rights for passengers depending on which airline they chose to fly with. Under the final rule issued by the Department of Transportation (DOT) on Wednesday, there is now a universal definiti ..read more