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Dramatic pictures of Hurricane Florence from the ISS

Hurricane Florence and flights cancelled
Photo: NASA

Dramatic and detailed pictures of Hurricane Florence have been taken from the International Space Station.

The pictures were taken by Astronaut Alexander Gerst who has used lenses from an extremely wide field to telephoto to capture Florence.

Florence

Florence

Florence Florence

Florence

Airlines are expanding waivers, capping fares and removing baggage fees as the Category 4 hurricane moved towards the US coast and are working on the massive disruption the storm is likely to cause to flights.

US officials issued a hurricane warning for more than 300 miles of coastline as more than 1.5 million people were told to evacuate. Highways were converted to one-way evacuation routes as motorists streamed inland.

North and South Carolina are expected to face tropical storm level winds as early as Thursday morning and hurricane-force winds later that day.

The US National Hurricane Centre warned late Tuesday US time that Florence was expected to bring a life-threatening storm surge and rainfall to portions of the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic states.

It said the giant storm was moving west-northwest at 17mph (28kmh)  with maximum sustained wind gusts near 140mph (220kmh).

Politicians, including US President Donald Trump, joined the chorus of warnings as fears remained the Hurricane could develop move into the most dangerous category, Category 5.

“This storm is a monster. It’s big and it’s vicious. It is an extremely, dangerous, life-threatening, historic hurricane,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said.

Airlines have been responding to the emergency and began announcing fee waivers.

READ: Boeing rolls out the first 777-X

United Airlines is waiving change, baggage and in-cabin pet fees for all flights to a host of mid-Atlantic cities in the Carolinas and Virginia as well as Savannah, Georgia, as more than 1.5 million people evacuate ahead of Hurricane Florence.

The US carrier said it was offering a travel waiver for customers ticketed on flights to, from or through affected cities from September 10 through to September 16.

Customers could reschedule their itineraries for travel through September 20 with a one-time date or time change without change fees or fare differences.

The airline also reduced fares to below what it would normally charge for impacted markets.

Delta Air Lines also announced it was capping fares and had implemented a baggage and pet-in-cabin fee waiver to and from select cities from September 10 to 17.

It has also expanded its weather waiver to take in Savannah and Charlottesville, Virginia.

 

Other US carriers are also offering fee waivers to destinations they serve in the affected areas.

 

US carriers expand waivers as Hurricane Florence approaches

Hurricane Florence airlines waivers
Hurricane Florence from space. Photo: NASA

All eyes are now on monster storm Hurricane Florence after two other hurricanes affecting US airline operations were downgraded to tropical storms.

Airlines began expanding waivers, capping fares and removing baggage fees as the Category 4 hurricane moved towards the US coast and are working on the massive disruption the storm is likely to cause to flights.

US officials issued a hurricane warning for more than 300 miles of coastline as more than 1.5 million people were told to evacuate. Highways were converted to one-way evacuation routes as motorists streamed inland.

North and South Carolina are expected to face tropical storm level winds as early as Thursday morning and hurricane-force winds later that day.

The US National Hurricane Center warned late Tuesday US time that Florence was expected to bring a life-threatening storm surge and rainfall to portions of the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic states.

It said the giant storm was moving west-northwest at 17mph (28kmh)  with maximum sustained wind gusts near 140mph (220kmh).

Hurricane waivers airlines
Hurricane Florence on Tuesday night US east coast time. Source: National Hurricane Centre.

Politicians, including US President Donald Trump, joined the chorus of warnings as fears remained the Hurricane could develop move into the most dangerous category, Category 5.

“This storm is a monster. It’s big and it’s vicious. It is an extremely, dangerous, life-threatening, historic hurricane,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said.

Airlines have been responding to the emergency and began announcing fee waivers.

READ: Boeing rolls out the first 777-X

United Airlines is waiving change, baggage and in-cabin pet fees for all flights to a host of mid-Atlantic cities in the Carolinas and Virginia as well as Savannah, Georgia, as more than 1.5 million people evacuate ahead of Hurricane Florence.

The US carrier said it was offering a travel waiver for customers ticketed on flights to, from or through affected cities from September 10 through to September 16.

Customers could reschedule their itineraries for travel through September 20 with a one-time date or time change without change fees or fare differences.

The airline also reduced fares to below what it would normally charge for impacted markets.

Delta Air Lines also announced it was capping fares and had implemented a baggage and pet in-cabin fee waiver to and from select cities from September 10 to 17.

It has also expanded its weather waiver to take in Savannah and Charlottesville, Virginia.

“Decisions regarding flight cancellations or other disruptions at airports along the coastal Southeast are expected approximately 24 hours prior to the storm making landfall,” Delta said.

“In addition to flight disruptions caused by the storm’s impact, cancellations may also be driven by conditions on the ground at airports in Florence’s path, such as severe flooding, power outages or other infrastructure constraints.

“Delta also continues to monitor for any updates from state and local officials as evacuation warnings are issued.”

Other US carriers are also offering fee waivers to destinations they serve in the affected areas.

The pressure has lessened in the Hawaiian Islands after Hurricane Olivia was downgraded to a tropical storm.

Tropical storm warnings were still in effect late Tuesday Hawaiian time but the system, which was predicted to have passed  Hawaii by Wednesday afternoon, was tipped to weaken.

A similar situation occurred with former Hurricane Isaac as it approaches the Lesser Antilles islands. The National Hurricane Center forecast Isaac would across the central Lesser Antilles and into the eastern Caribbean on Thursday, gradually weakening over the next few days

Tropical storm warnings were still in effect for Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe and storm watches for Antigua, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis,  Saba and St. Eustatius.

A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours. A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, in this case within 36 to 48 hours.

Biofuel trial sees Australia edge towards sustainable aviation

IATA biofuels Europe
Photo: Brisbane Airport

Australia has taken another step down the long road to sustainable aviation after a trial at Brisbane Airport confirmed that biofuel could be successfully delivered to aircraft through the airport’s regular fuel system.

A first for Australia, the trial involved a small amount of biofuel — some 20,000 litres — imported from the US.

It showed potential biofuel producers that their product could be successfully introduced into the Brisbane fuel system, mixed with traditional fuels and piped through to customers.

Virgin Australia announced the two-year project with the airport,  US renewable fuel supplier Gevo and the Queensland Government in October, 2017, and worked on the trial with supply partners  Caltex and DB Schenker.

Read: Virgin boss calls for a joint approach to Aussie biojet industry.

The first test saw a biofuel blend pumped to 195 domestic and international flights that traveled more than 430,000 kilometres.

It will be followed by additional trials over the next 12 to 18 months aimed at building up confidence and experience in the fuel supply chain.

Biofuel can be derived from a number of feedstocks available in Australia, including sugar cane bagasse, and is already in use in a handful of airports that includes Oslo and Los Angeles.

Virgin Australia general manager group sustainability Rob Wood said the trial was not about carbon savings but about supply chain readiness and education.

“Whether or not you put one litre of biofuel through or a million litres, you have to go through exactly the same rigor in terms of testing and fuel certification processes,’’ he said.

“So obviously one of the things we wanted to check was how ready was the supply chain for commercial volumes of these fuels.”

Wood said the ongoing trials, which would involve similar volumes of biofuel, were aimed at making sustainable aviation fuels part of the regular fuel process.

“If you touch it once, it’s a niche exercise, “ he said. “If you’re dealing with it regularly, you get used to that.

“So industry gets used to it, key people in the supply chain get used to it, we get a normalized testing regime for these fuels and It becomes part of the process.”

This was also important from an investment case perspective for potential biofuel facilities, Wood said.

“If you’re going to invest $300 to $300 million into a biofuel facility you need to know you can get your product to market,’’ he said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk hailed the trail as another step towards a home-grown biofuels industry and Wood believes investors are out there.

The Virgin executive pointed to a global request for information Virgin and former alliance partner Air New Zealand put out two years ago for the potential production of 200 million litres of biofuel in Australia or New Zealand.

“We got very strong interest in that so I would say there definitely remains interest,’’ he said.

“Obviously, it’s an emerging industry so the first commercial-scale plants are actually based in the US and other jurisdictions that have strong policy support for those facilities.

“So policy still plays a key role in the emergence of this industry but we’re going to work actively off the back of this trail to see if we can attract investment.”

Biofuels remain a major long-term plank to the airline industry’s strategy to reduce its carbon footprint.

Airlines have proposed a four-pillar strategy to reach their goal of carbon-neutral growth from 2020 and an ambitious target of a 50 percent a reduction in net C02 emissions by 2050, relative to 2005 levels.

The International Air Transport Association said earlier this year that it wants one billion passengers to experience flights powered by a biofuel blend by 2025.

The industry is also working towards the introduction of an international carbon offset scheme as an interim solution.

 

 

US carriers brace for hurricane triple whammy

hurricane airlines triple whammy
Hurricane Florence from space. Photo: NASA

US carriers may be facing a weather triple whammy as three hurricanes threaten operations, including a powerful storm headed for the US mainland and described as “life-threatening”.

More than 1 million coastal residents are already fleeing Hurricane Florence after it prompted mandatory evacuation orders affecting the US states of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

It was twice updated on Monday to category 4 with winds gusting up to 140mph with potential landfall in the Carolinas Thursday or Friday.

Weather models predict the hurricane will unleash a torrent of rain as well as damaging winds.

There are worries it could approach Category 5, the highest, by the time it makes landfall.

But airlines are also keeping a wary eye on two other Hurricanes: Olivia, as it heads towards Hawaii and Isaac, which tracking towards the Lesser Antilles.

Hurricane triple whammy
The three hurricanes currently threatening the US mainland, Hawaii and the Lesser Antilles. Image: Google Crisis Response.

American Airlines said it was in regular communication with the American Red Cross and stood ready to activate its disaster response platform.

It was also allowing affected customers to rebook without change fees.

“Storms like these may require customers to change their travel plans and as a result, American has issued a travel alert for more than 30 airports, including our Charlotte, N.C., hub,’’ the airline said.

“American has not canceled any flights at this time, however, we will continue to keep news.aa.com updated with the latest operational information.

“The American Integrated Operations Center (IOC) in Fort Worth, Texas, continues to closely monitor the track of these storms, and is closely coordinating with the National Weather Service, Federal Aviation Administration, and local airports.”

READ:  Qantas, American remain confident on alliance bid.

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines also have issued change fee waivers for travel within some US states and to Hawaii because of the storms.

Southwest Airlines also allowed rebooking on cities affected by Hurricane Florence and for Hurricane Isaac on flights to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The US threat comes after Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan, was flooded by Typhoon Jebi last week and is progressively reopening operations.

An airport alert for travel to September 13 says it is operating from Terminal 2, with Terminal 1 yet to re-open.

It said that flights operated by Peach Aviation, Spring Airlines, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines would operate during this period.

Overseas carriers servicing Osaka have been affected and have travel alerts on their websites.

Australia’s Jetstar, which canceled international and domestic Jetstar Japan flights to Kansai until at least September 13,  said:  “Whilst some services have resumed from Terminal 2, Terminal 1 remains closed and we are closely monitoring the situation and are working closely with the airport to determine when the terminal will be open.

“Our aim is to resume our scheduled flights as soon as it is safe for us to do so.”

A$60,000 fine for disrupting Qantas London nonstop flight

Qantas
Qantas 787. Credit Richard Kreider

Analysis

The 32-year old male passenger who forced the turnback of the Qantas QF9 Perth to London non-stop flight on Saturday night, after he allegedly became violent and disruptive, will likely face a bill of over A$60,000 for the massive disruption that he caused.

In March, a passenger who forced a Perth to Brisbane flight to return after he mixed Xanax with alcohol was ordered to pay A$25,700 in fines and reparations to Qantas.

On that flight, in July 2017, Luke Taylor, 39, was allegedly physically and verbally aggressive toward Qantas crew when he was told he could not drink alcohol unless it was supplied by staff.

READ: AirAsia passes a major international safety audit

However, the QF9 disrupt is far costlier as all the passengers had to be put up in hotels and the Boeing 787 grounded for 12 hours, until the crew, had the required rest period.

On the non-stop service to London, there is only a 90-minute buffer of duty time before the flight and cabin crew exceed their maximum work hours.

qantas
The 32-year old male passenger is escorted off QF9

The two-hour return to Perth meant that the flight could not resume until 12.30pm Sunday.

The decision to return to Perth is that of the captain who would have accessed a range of factors.

Uppermost was the welfare and safety of the passengers and whilst the offending passenger had been restrained he was still deemed a danger to the flight.

It could be argued by some that the flight could have continued and the passenger dropped off on-route at say Colombo or Mumbai.

However, the medical condition of the passenger was also in question.

Also, these airports are not on the Qantas network and thus there is no local support in place.

If the aircraft then had a technical issue or there was a longer than anticipated delay on the ground the disruption to the passengers would have been far greater.

In some cases where an aircraft has been forced to land at a remote location, the disruption can last days.

Other options such as Jakarta or Singapore, where Qantas has ground ops, were too far off route and would have pushed the flight time beyond the 90-minute buffer.

There is also the duty of care issue of leaving the offending passenger in a foreign country whose laws may be far harsher for air rage.

The cost of this delay is magnified by the tight schedule of the Boeing 787 service, which connects Los Angeles, Melbourne, Perth, and London.

With this particular delay, Qantas has had to reschedule a host of flights and operate extra Airbus A330s between Perth and Melbourne to help plug the gaps and make up time.

 

Striking Air Tahiti Nui 787 debuts in Charleston

The striking Air Tahiti Nui 787. Photo: Boeing.

Air Tahiti Nui’s striking new Boeing 787 Dreamliner is flashing its tatts for the first time in the US aerospace giant’s facility in Charleston, South Carolina.

The  787-9  emerged from Boeing’s paint shop sporting a livery reflecting the marine blues of the lagoon at Fakarava, the picturesque atoll in French Polynesia’s Tuamotu Islands after which the plane is named.

A tattoo emblazoned on the hull includes ripples on the water, flocks of birds and symbolic creatures such as a manta ray (wisdom), a whale (strength and abundance) and an albatross (freedom).

Tahiti BOeing 787 striking
Photo: Boeing.

It sports the registration MUA, which mean “moving forward” in Tahitian, as well as Air Tahiti Nui’s trademark tiare flower.

The Tahitian airline is due to start Dreamliner services between New Zealand capital Auckland and Papeete from November 8 as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.

READ Air Tahiti Nui moves into helicopters.

It is phasing out its fleet of Airbus  A340-300s and replacing them with four Dreamliners, two of them purchased and two leased from Air Lease Corporation.

The arrival of all four Dreamliners by September 2019 will see their registration codes will join together to say ‘the warrior (TOA) going forward (MUA) in the great (NUI) canoe (VAA)’.

Inside, the aircraft’s three cabins will have 30 business class, 32 premium economy and 232 economy seats.

Read our ratings for Air Tahiti Nui.

The Poerava Business Rockwell Collins Diamond seats will be in a 2-2-2 configuration with a 60-inch seat pitch the ability to transform into a 78-inch lie-flat bed. The airline says each seat is equipped with a” luxurious cushion and cover comfort system for restful travel” as well as an individual touchscreen remote control, personal lighting and privacy divider.

Onboard amenities include a thick duvet, a big pillow and a luxury kit of accessories.

The new Moana premium economy will come with 32 Z535 Zodiac Aerospace seat that in a 2-3-2 configuration. The seats are a comfortable 20.5 inches wide with a seat pitch of 38 inches with a generous recline of 20cm that cradles the passenger. Onboard amenities in this cabin include a polar blanket, a big pillow and an accessories kit.

The 232 Z300 Zodiac seats in economy will be in a 3-3-3 configuration with 31-inch seat pitch and 6-inch recline with an articulated seat pan. Passengers in economy also get a blanket, big pillow and accessories kit.

 

Virgin Australia ends the use of plastic straws

Emirates ends plastic straws
Plastic straws are now out on Emirates. Photo: American Airlines

Virgin Australia has removed plastic straws and stirrers from its planes and lounges as it joins a corporate trend to reduce the use of environmentally damaging single-use utensils.

Paper straws and bamboo stirrers are now available inflight and on the ground in a move Virgin says will see more than 260,000 plastic straws and 7.5 million plastic stirrers a year removed from its operations.

Read: Virgin boss confident despite headline-grabbing loss

“This is part of our focus to improve the sustainability of the packaging we use as a business and to reduce the amount of single-use plastic across our inflight and lounge offerings,’’ Virgin general manager of group sustainability Rob Wood said in a statement.

“As an airline, we have a responsibility to contribute to sustainable initiatives that will benefit the environment and removing plastic straws and stirrers is an important step in the right direction.

“We know there are still improvements to be made, but we are committed to continuing to look for ways to improve the environmental footprint of our operations.”

Virgin is not the only airlines to phase out plastic straws and stirrers.

American Airlines announced in July that it would make a similar move and start moving to eco-friendly flatware in its lounges.

The changes at the US giant will hit flights in November and will eliminate more than 71,000 pounds (32,205 kilos)  of plastic per year.

Plastic straws are under fire globally because of the damage plastic is doing to the environment.

The US uses more than 500 million plastic straws a day and ocean life is particularly vulnerable to the impact of what has become a ubiquitous part of modern life.

The small size of straws size makes them difficult to recycle and they often find their way to the ocean where they contribute to an increasing problem with microplastics.

Strawlessocean.org estimates that a failure to act now will mean there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.

It points to research by Australia’s CSIRO that shows 71 percent of seabirds and 30 percent of turtles have been found with plastics in their stomach.

Plastic straws are also among the top 10 items found during beach clean-ups.

 

 

 

At least 19 killed in South Sudan air crash

Sudan crash Let -410
Photo: Twitter/Radio Miraya

At least 19  people have died after a plane landing in thick fog crashed into a river in South Sudan.

The plane, a South West Aviation Let L-410, was flying from the capital Juba to the city of Yirol with 20 passengers and three crew.

It crashed into the Yirol River, south of the aerodrome, and 19 bodies were recovered by local fishing boats, according to respected website The Aviation Herald.

The Aviation Herald said a written manifest listed 17 adults and three children as passengers.

The BBC reported the victims included the pilot and co-pilot, a member of the Red Cross and an Anglican bishop.

Read UTAir overruns runway.

“When it arrived the weather was so foggy and when it tried to land it crashed into Lake Yirol adjacent to Yirol town,”  the British news service quoted regional government minister  Abel Aguek as saying.

“The whole town is in shock, the shops are closed, some people have taken their relatives for burial. It is a commercial plane that crashed,” he added.

Photographs of the sunken wreckage were posted on social media by Radio Miraya, which said a Ugandan national had been identified as one of the dead.

The Let L-410 is a twin-engine short-range transport aircraft manufactured by Czech-based aircraft manufacturer Let Kunovice.

More than 1200 L410s have been built and over 350 are in service in more than 50 countries. The company was taken over by Russian company UGMK in 2013.

In March last year, an Antonov 26 operated by South Supreme Airlines and carrying 45 passengers and crew was written off when it crashed while landing in poor visibility at Wau Airport in South Sudan.

Reports said the left main landing gear hit a fire truck besides the runway and the aircraft burst into flames.

The plane was destroyed but there were no fatalities.

New LOT Warsaw flights give Miami a nonstop to Eastern Europe

LOT Warsaw Miami nonstop
Photo: LOT

A new service by LOT Polish Airlines provides yet more evidence that Boeing’s 787 aircraft series is a bonafide game-changer, shattering prior calculations of time and distance.

LOT is preparing for the June 1, 2019 launch of new nonstop service from Miami International Airport to Warsaw Chopin Airport. (WAW). The -dash 8 series 787s will make the trip, thus filling in the ‘missing link’ in MIA’s route structure. Currently, there is no nonstop Eastern European service out of MIA.

READ: Korea and Australia have the world’s busiest air routes.

To give that a bit of context, Miami International is the United States’ third-busiest airport for international passengers.

A significant slice of traffic is pegged to the fact that MIA is American Airlines’ Latin American hub. American is a key player in the oneworld alliance, facilitating what the carriers are fond of calling “seamless” connections and smoother passage via other oneworld airlines.

LOT, on the other hand, is a Star Alliance member. United is Star’s largest carrier. It has no MIA hub.

In terms of alliance connections, the set-up may not be ideal for the LOT launch, but both the airline and Miami International Airport officials believe it will work well.

The Warsaw link is “the first such convenient connection between Central and Eastern Europe and Florida,”  according to LOT chief executive Rafal Milczarski, who says half a million passengers per year travel between the two regions.

“Thanks to our broad network of connections and the most convenient transfers offered via (our)  hub in Warsaw, I am sure that many passengers from Miami will take advantage of our latest offer and fly on … board to Budapest, Prague, Kiev or Tel-Aviv,” he said.

LOT isn’t a fly-by-night airline, not the kind of carrier that’s sprung up during the low-fare tidal wave that’s re-writing the book on fares and routes and service

LOT’s been around since late 1928, its signature bird in flight right up there along with the iconic logos of Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France.

AirAsia passes major international safety audit

AirAsia

Kuala-Lumpur-based AirAsia has passed a major international safety audit, the International Air Transport Association Operation Safety Audit (IOSA), that covers more than 1060 separate parameters.

The airline is the founding and largest members of the AirAsia Group.

The operational safety audit is compulsory for IATA members and airlines that have completed the audit have a safety record almost four times better than those that have not.

READ: I have changed my mind, I would now fly AirAsia. 

Now 425 airlines have completed the audit, which is renewed every two years.

The completion of the audit elevates the Malaysian operation from five to seven-stars out of a possible seven-star safety rating with AirlineRatings.com.

AirAsia X and Indonesia AirAsia are already IOSA accredited and other airlines in the group are in the final process of completing the audit.

The awarding of the IOSA accreditation is expected to be a major boost for the airline.

The IOSA certification audit is an internationally recognized and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline.

The audit covers eight functional and operational areas: organization and management system, flight operations, operational control, and flight dispatch, aircraft engineering and maintenance, cabin operations, ground handling operations, cargo operations, and security management.

IOSA was introduced to stem the increasing number of crashes in the late 1990s and into the beginning of the last decade.

The AirAsia Group airlines now fly to 165 destinations in 25 countries.

It has just ordered or reconfirmed orders for 100 A330s for its AirAsia X operation.

Separately long-haul, low-cost, operator AirAsia X is evaluating Airbus’ long-range version of the  A321neo as it moves to target more destinations within a range of seven hours.

Powered by CFM International’s LAEP-1A engines, the A321neo LR,  is due to enter service in the fourth quarter of 2018 and is designed to carry up to 240 passengers 4000 nautical miles.

The airline confirmed last month it was evaluating “the potential introduction” of the 321neo LR for developing routes.

 

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