As Australia continues to battle its massive bushfire emergency, airlines have been ponying up to help victims and offer support for emergency workers battling the unprecedented crisis.

And it hasn’t just been the homegrown carriers opening their wallets.

The Qantas Group, which includes low-cost carrier Jetstar, donated $A1 million in cash to the Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund and has been making onboard announcements urging customers to donate.

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It is setting up collection points in terminals and set up a system for frequent flyers to redeem points for donations.

The airline is also one of the companies offering paid leave to volunteer firefighters and has been working with US aid agency Direct Relief to get 100,000 donated masks to bushfire-affected communities.

Qantas expects its total support to top $A3m.

“The bushfires cutting through communities and the environment across Australia has been shocking and tragic,’’ the airline said.

“The bravery of our volunteer firefighters, emergency services and the military has been inspiring and the kindness of individuals and community groups incredibly heart-warming.”

The Virgin Australia Group has been supporting the Salvation Army Disaster Appeal and matching staff donations dollar-for-dollar up to $A250,000.

The company has been offering passengers affected by the fires the ability to change bookings without penalty and also offers staff who are volunteer “fireys” paid leave.

Also on offer is support for community organizations requiring travel or logistical support.

“Through our relationships with the Salvation Army Emergency Services and organization Team Rubicon, we stand ready to support flights for emergency workers and volunteers from those organizations who are being flown to affected areas as needed,” Virgin said.

“The group has also been providing discounted airfares to emergency service organization throughout the duration of the bushfire period,.’

Across the Tasman, Air New Zealand has donated $A100,000 and is flying Kiwi firefighters and emergency personnel to Australia.

Acting chief executive Geoff McDowall said the airline had assured the New Zealand government it would continue to help.

“It is simply devastating to see this scale of loss and our hearts go out to our Australian colleagues, customers and neighbors. Kia kaha (stay strong),’’ McDowall said.

Singapore Airlines has also donated $A100,000 to the red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Appeal.

It is also helping customers affected by the fires on a case-by-case basis and offering support with booking changes.

“Australians have supported us for the past 53 years and we hope that this donation will go some way to supporting the people and communities affected by these bushfires,” Singapore Airlines regional vice president Philip Goh said.

“It is difficult to fathom the scale of the fires across Australia as it has now affected an area more than 140 times the size of Singapore.”

United Airlines is donating $US250,000 to the GoFundMe campaign set up by Hollywood personality Ellen DeGeneres. It is also matching donations for wildlife relief as well as up to $50,000 of donations from its MileagePlus members.

On the manufacturer front, Boeing has donated $A1 million for recovery and relief efforts.

The US aerospace giant, which has a significant presence in Australia, said the contributions would be directed across the country through the Australian Red Cross.

“Boeing’s global team, including our 3,800 employees across Australia, are deeply saddened by the tragic impact of the Australian bushfires,” interim chief executive  Greg Smith said.

“Through our partnership with the Australian Red Cross, we are working quickly to bring recovery and relief efforts to those residents most impacted by these devastating fires.”

The company is also matching qualifying employee contributions made to eligible nonprofits for Australian bushfire relief efforts.

Star Trek’s universal translator concept has gained another aviation convert with American Airlines becoming the first carrier to field Google Assistant’s interpreter mode to help communicate with foreign passengers.

The airline has already started testing the technology at Admirals Club lounges at Los Angeles International Airport.

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The service uses a Google Nest Hub and can translate 29 languages in real-time, including Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Google designed it with airlines and airports in mind but is also targeting banking, sporting events, hotels and humanitarian organizations.

The translator is already being used by JFK International Airport in New York at information desks within the terminal.

American says the technology will be used to help passengers only when a multilingual staffer is not available.

“The science-fiction universal translator is now science fact,” said American chief information officer Maya Leibman.

“Incorporating technology like the Google Assistant’s interpreter mode will help us break down barriers, provide a worry-free travel experience and make travel more accessible to all.”

American is not the only airline to harness real-time translation to help bridge the language gap.

Japan’s All Nippon Airways is distributing sci-fi-like interactive translators using a different technology from POCKETALK across 50 domestic airports.

The hand-held devices can handle 74 languages, translating 55 into speech and 19 into text.

The first devices were available in the lobby and at boarding gates at Osaka International Itami Airport from December 18 and the airline intends to distribute 200 of the devices around the country.

American noted the Google Assistant is part of a push to use technology to make travel easier for passengers.

It said other recent introductions included mobile passport scanning, boarding notifications, online virtual 3D aircraft tours and a redesigned self-service kiosk menu that simplifies the check-in process.

Newman Airport in the Pilbara region of Western Australia has been closed after a QantasLink flight slid off the runway in very bad weather.

At the time there was heavy rain and high winds.

The QantasLink Fokker 100, registered VH-NHY, is 60 meters off the runway on what is called the “runway safety area” which has become soft due to the heavy rain from Cyclone Blake.

READ: Top Twenty Safest Airlines 

According to a local source, Qantaslink will need to tow the plane backwards and that will require an engineer and strap kit.

However, the problem is that all roads are closed and helicopter operations are grounded.

It is understood that permission is being sought from the regulator CASA to fly a light aircraft in with the engineer and kit.

The aircraft was operating flight QF2650 and left Perth at 5.30am and arrived at Newman at 7.15am.

Flights to Newman have been forced to return to Perth.

Shire of East Pilbara president Lynne Craigie said the airport would be closed for the remainder of the day as workers moved the aircraft from the mud.

She said all passengers and crew had been safely offloaded with no injuries.

A Qantas spokesperson said: “The aircraft has come to a complete stop in what’s called the runway end safety area.

“Flights in and out of Newman have been cancelled for the rest of the day, while the aircraft is removed.

“We have commenced an internal investigation to determine how this occurred and have reported the incident to the ATSB.

“We apologise to impacted customers and are working to reaccommodate them as quickly as possible.”

Hostilities between the US and Iran could affect the investigation of a deadly Boeing 737 crash near Tehran if suggestions Iran may not share information with Boeing and US safety investigators are correct.

All 176 passengers and crew were killed when Ukraine International Airlines crashed minutes after take-off early Wednesday morning.

Passengers on the B737-800 included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four people from Afghanistan, three from Britain and three from Germany.

READ: More than 170 dead as Boeing 737 crashes in Tehran.

Iranian officials have subsequently backtracked on initial claims that the crash involved an engine failure and a statement from the Ukrainian Embassy ruling out a terrorist or rocket attack was also taken down.

Iranian investigators have recovered the plane’s black boxes and the head of the nation’s civil aviation organization, Ali Abedzadeh, told the Mehr news agency they will not be going to the Americans.

This in itself is not unusual: it is up to Iran to extract the information from the flight recorders if it has the expertise to do so or to choose a foreign safety investigator to perform the task.

This does not have to be the US National Transportation Safety Board and Ethiopian investigators opted to send the black boxes from last year’s Ethiopian Airlines B737 MAX 8 tragedy to France.

But it is a requirement for Boeing to be a party to an investigation into the crash of one of its planes and to exclude it would be highly unusual. This is because aircraft manufacturers have the best expertise and information relating to their aircraft

Expressing its condolences to the families of crash victims, The US State Department said it would continue to follow the incident closely and offer Ukraine all possible assistance.

“The United States calls for complete cooperation with any investigation into the cause of the crash,” it said

Boeing said it was ready to assist “in any way needed”.

CNN reported that American investigators would need a special license from the US government to join the probe, assuming it was invited, because of an embargo on Iran.

The NTSB said it was monitoring developments surrounding the crash following its standard procedures for international aviation accident investigations, including long-standing restrictions under the country embargoes.

“As part of its usual procedures, the NTSB is working with the State Department and other agencies to determine the best course of action,” it said.

The timing of the accident amid heightened tensions between Iran the US is in unfortunate and raised questions about an attack on the plane.

There is as yet no evidence to suggest the plane was shot down or crippled by a bomb and five security sources quoted by Reuters said the initial assessment by Western intelligence agencies was that it was not brought down by a missile.

A Canadian source said there was evidence the engine had overheated.

What is known is that whatever happened occurred suddenly and the crew did not send out a distress call.

The plane took off at 6:13 am and climbed to about 8,000 ft before contact was lost at 6:18 am.

A video posted by news agency ISNA and said to be of the crash showed an aircraft in flames plummeting to earth and exploding.

An uncontained engine failure, where a component in the engine disintegrates and shrapnel escapes the containment ring to slam into the fuselage and wings, is one possibility but for now the cause is unknown.

The plane was a relatively new Boeing 737-800 which had been delivered in 2016 and underwent maintenance earlier this month.

The 737-800 is the predecessor to the 737 MAX grounded since March, 2019, and does not have the MCAS software linked to the two MAX crashes.

It was the first crash for Ukrainian International since its founding in 1992.

The pilots were both experienced and the captain had logged 11,600 hours on the 737 with 5,500 in command. The first officer had 7600 hours under his belt and there was also a pilot instructor on board with 12,000 hours of 737 experience.

The airline argued the experience of the crew made the probability of an error “minimal”.

The United States has banned flights over Iraq, Iran and the Gulf of Oman due to increasing military action after the assassination of Iranian strongman General Qassam Suleimani.

Emergency orders issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration as Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) late Tuesday apply to all US carriers and commercial operators.

US carriers had already tended to avoid the trouble spot but the restrictions will likely be adopted by airlines and regulators from other countries.

READ: Boeing 737 crashes in Tehran.

The orders prohibit airlines from operating over the regions  “due to heightened military activities and increased military activities in the Middle East which present an inadvertent risk to US civil operations due to the potential for miscalculation or misidentification”.

“The FAA will continue closely monitoring events in the Middle East,” the FAA said.

“We continue coordinating with our national security partners and sharing information with US carriers and foreign civil carriers.”

The move comes after Iran launched a missile attack on at least two Iraqi military bases hosting US-led coalition personnel.

The FAA had previously prohibited US carriers from flying below 26,000ft over Iraq but had tougher restrictions for the other areas after a US drone was shot down.

Airlines have increased scrutiny of military conflict zones since the downing in 2014 of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.

Website Flightradar24 noted several foreign airlines, including British Airways and Singapore Airlines offshoot  Scoot, had rerouted flights to avoid the conflict zone.

Delta Air Lines is deepening its partnership with ride-share company Lyft as part of a plan to convert its Fly Delta app into a “digital concierge” that monitors weather and traffic and proactively offers passengers ways to keep moving.

The US carrier has been working with Lyft since 2017, offering SkyMiles members the ability to earn miles on the Uber competitor.

The airline will make it easier for its frequent flyers to link their Lyft and SkyMiles accounts and earn points.

READ: Uber says hi to Hyundai air taxi.

It is also exploring options such as estimated arrival times powered by Lyft, a dedicated premium Delta-Lyft experience at busy airports and the option for customers to pay for rides using miles.

The partnership stems from research showing that ridesharing helps reduce stress on travel days and makes traveling more enjoyable.

Delta has been upgrading its app and recently added TSA wait times in select markets, the ability to pre-select meals and automatic check-in for international flights.

Later this month will introduce virtual queuing to notify customers when their seat — not just their flight — is boarding.

Delta chief executive Ed Bastian told CES 2020  that the aim was to create an app that was a travel companion for all points of a customer journey with an eye on expanding the use of miles as a form of payment.

“Instead of checking one app for traffic, another for airport parking and a third for TSA wait times, Delta is building the capability to simplify travel by helping you manage everything from ridesharing and in-flight entertainment to bag delivery and hotels,” Bastian said.

“We’re excited to start exploring these possibilities with an innovative leader like Lyft, with whom we share a passion for making the customer travel experience even more rewarding.”

Delta is also planning faster proactive notifications powered by AI-driven machine learning, the ability to access in-flight entertainment from the moment a traveler checks in and integrating Parallel Reality airport signage.

The Parallel Reality technology from Misapplied Sciences will start beta testing for customers leaving Detroit Metropolitan Airport later this year.

The opt-in system allows passengers to see personalized content as they walk past digital screens in the language of their choice.

This could include directions to a departure gate or the closest Delta Sky Club as well as information such as upgrade/standby status.