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CNN —Flights from Catania airport in Sicily were grounded on Sunday after volcanic ash from an eruption of Mount Etna covered the runways. Volcanic ash in Nicolosi, near Catania Orietta Scardino/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockPictures and video footage show black volcanic ash covering planes at the airport, and blanketing roads in the area. In 2010, a volcanic eruption in Iceland sent a huge plume of ash moving across the Atlantic, causing massive disruption to air traffic across Western Europe. In the aftermath of the crisis, international aviation regulators introduced new risk management guidance on flight safety and volcanic ash. Mount Etna is Europe’s most active volcano, and also the highest, at about 3,350 meters (almost 11,000 feet) tall.
The number of Americans who will fly this summer could eclipse the prepandemic high from 2019. The recovery from the pandemic has been punctuated by several major travel meltdowns, stranding millions of travelers and angering lawmakers and regulators. In recent months, the Transportation Department has proposed requiring greater transparency around airline fees and requiring companies to more fully compensate people whose flights are delayed or canceled. “This pattern they had last year of canceling flights at the last minute, in many cases due to crew shortages, that’s just unacceptable. They’re not going to be able to do that again, I don’t think, not without some serious repercussions.”
"It's just a really precarious time of year for airline employees," Anthony Cataldo, a flight attendant for American Airlines with 33 years' experience, told Insider. Such predictions have left some airline workers anxious about carrying the industry through what could be a record-breaking travel season, four mainline pilots and flight attendants told Insider. Compared to last summer, airline staffing levels have largely improved, with Delta and United hiring thousands of new employees this year. The Southwest and American Airlines pilot unions both voted to authorize a strike this month. Air traffic control remains understaffedAs of April, the crowded airspace around New York City had 129 certified air traffic controllers — just over half of the staffing target of 226 — with 67 air traffic controllers in training, according to aviation firm Rinaldi Consultants.
Wing CEO Adam Woodworth shows the Alphabet company's delivery drone to CNBC's Katie Tarasov on April 25, 2023, in Hollister, California. Walmart said it made more than 6,000 drone deliveries across seven states in 2022 with DroneUp, Zipline and a third partner, Flytrex. Amazon's VP of Prime Air David Carbon showcased the current MK27-2 drone in Westborough, Massachusetts, on Nov. 10, 2022. Prime Air drones, along with most other delivery drones, operate with a number of federal exemptions that greatly restrict where and how they can fly. Prime Air drones are not expected to exceed 58 decibels, according to an FAA assessment, about the noise level of an outdoor air conditioning unit.
A powerful solar flare exploded on Tuesday, caused by a sunspot three times the size of the Earth. There have been a series of recent space weather events as the sun enters a period of peak activity. A video of the sun taken on May 18 shows a powerful solar flare being released. As the sun becomes more active, it is exhibiting more frequent solar events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections. An X-class solar flare was spotted in March causing radio blackouts in parts of southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
EasyJet confident on summer as bookings soar
  + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +1 min
LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) - British airline easyJet <EZJ.L> said it was confident ahead of the summer season, when it makes all its profit, helped by strong booking levels, higher ticket prices and the growth of its holidays business. Europe's major airlines including its biggest, Ryanair (RYA.I) plus Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) and British Airways-owner IAG (ICAG.L) have all pointed to robust summer bookings, showing consumers prioritising travel spend despite incomes being squeezed by inflation. For the six months to the end of March, easyJet on Thursday reported a pretax loss of 411 million pounds ($519 million), compared to the forecast it provided in April for a loss of between 405 million and 425 million pounds. Ahead of the key summer season, easyJet noted its operational resilience, suggesting it was ready for the pick-up in travel, unlike last year, when flights across Europe were disrupted by staff shortages and cancellations. For the full-year, analysts currently expect easyJet to post a pretax profit of 345 million pounds according to Refinitiv data.
May 17 (Reuters) - U.S. aviation regulators are forecasting nearly 313,000 flights over the seven-day Memorial Day holiday period, up 4.5% from 2022 and just below 2019 pre-pandemic levels. On Wednesday, Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) estimated it will fly 2.8 million passengers for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday period, up 17% from 2022. On Tuesday, United Airlines (UAL.O) said it was planning for its busiest Memorial Day holiday in more than a decade, forecasting nearly 2.9 million passengers between May 25 and May 30. American Airlines (AAL.O) said it will fly 26,637 flights over the Memorial Day period and carry 2.9 million passengers. Last year, airlines had a rough Memorial Day weekend compounded by bad weather, cancelling more than 2,500 flights over a four-day period.
WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday warned that a U.S. default on government debt would leave millions of Americans without income payments, potentially triggering a recession that destroys many American jobs and businesses. Yellen told a gathering of community bankers that the unprecedented economic and financial crisis would be exacerbated by possible disruptions to the federal government’s operations, including air traffic control, law enforcement, border security and national defense, and telecommunications systems. She said the accompanying financial crisis could multiply the severity of the downturn, adding, "It is very conceivable that we'd see a number of financial markets break - with worldwide panic triggering margin calls, runs and fire sales." Reporting by Andrea ShalalOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, during a news conference at the Treasury Department in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. "A default would crack open the foundations upon which our financial system is built," Yellen warned in prepared remarks. Yellen also warned that a debt ceiling breach could affect essential government services. Lifting the debt ceiling is necessary for the government to cover spending commitments already approved by Congress and the president and prevent default. "A default could cause widespread suffering as Americans lose the income that they need to get by," Yellen said.
This expected strength in leisure spending means big business for an industry that was on its knees just three years ago. When the pandemic began, restaurants, bars and hotels were hard hit, shedding more than 8 million jobs in the first few months of 2020. A recent survey from Bank of America showed that 68% of Americans plan to take a vacation this year. Vacationing remained elevated in April with 2.7 million Americans not at work because they were on vacation, the highest level for that month since 2017. Leisure spending is usually first on the chopping block because of its discretionary nature.
Airlines scheduled a near-record 51,000 flights from June through August from the U.S. to Europe, according to airline data firm Cirium. The number of scheduled seats is the highest since 2018. Despite that increase in capacity across the Atlantic, fares are up sharply as airlines test travelers' appetites for trips abroad. JetBlue is flying to London's two largest airports from New York and Boston, and plans to launch service to Paris from New York in June. Delta plans to offer a record number of seats from the U.S. to Europe, up 20% from last summer.
The U.S. Department of Transportation did not specify how much cash it aims to require airlines to pay passengers for significant delays. But it asked carriers last year whether they would agree to pay at least $100 for delays of at least three hours caused by airlines. A July 2021 proposal to require airlines to refund consumers fees for baggage that is delayed, or onboard service like Wi-Fi that do not work, are still not finalized. The Transportation Department said it plans to write regulations that will require airlines to cover expenses such as meals and hotels if carriers are responsible for stranding passengers. In October, Reuters first reported major U.S. airlines opposed Transportation Department plans to update its dashboard to show whether carriers would voluntarily compensate passengers for lengthy delays within airlines' control.
Budget Cuts in the G.O.P. If every agency is cut If defense, veterans’ health and border security are spared Defense Defense –18% 0% No change Veterans' medical Veterans' medical –18% 0% No change Health and Human Services Health and Human Services –18% –51% Education Education –18% –51% Housing and Urban Development Housing and Urban Development –18% –51% Homeland Security Homeland Security –18% 0% No change Justice Justice –18% –51% State State –18% –51% Transportation Transportation –18% –51% Agriculture Agriculture –18% –51% International aid International aid –18% –51% NASA NASA –18% –51% Veterans (other) Veterans (other) –18% –51% Energy Energy –18% –51% Interior Interior –18% –51% Treasury Treasury –18% –51% Labor Labor –18% –51% Social Security Administration Social Security Administration –18% –51% Commerce Commerce –18% –51% Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency –18% –51% Corps of Engineers Corps of Engineers –18% –51% Other Other –18% –51% Source: Analysis of Congressional Budget Office data by Bobby Kogan, Center for American Progress Note: Figure shows base discretionary budget authority totals for 2024-2033. The New York TimesThe charts above show how exempting big categories of spending would make the budget caps more draconian. The budget caps aren’t the only changes in the current House bill that would reduce federal spending. tax enforcement Budget cuts would reduce tax collections, reducing the savings in the rest of the bill –$120 billion Sources: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget ; Congressional Budget Office Note: TANF refers to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
The Biden administration is proposing a new rule to address airline passengers' rights in the US. It would require airlines to provide cash compensation for flight delays and cancellations. JetBlue and Alaska Airlines are the only carriers that offer flight credit during lengthy delays, the DOT says. No major US airline currently guarantees cash compensation for controllable delays or cancellations, the dashboard shows. For comparison, the department's 2021 proposal that would require airlines to refund passengers for delayed luggage and broken WiFi still has not taken effect.
It is the latest in a series of moves by the Biden administration to crack down on airlines and bolster passenger consumer protections. "When an airline causes a flight cancellation or delay, passengers should not foot the bill,” U.S. Transportation Secretary (USDOT) Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. Most carriers voluntarily committed in August 2022 to providing hotels or meals but resisted providing cash compensation for delays. The Biden administration has sparred with U.S. airlines over who was to blame for hundreds of thousands of flight disruptions last year. In October, Reuters first reported major U.S. airlines opposed USDOT plans to update its dashboard to show whether carriers would voluntarily compensate passengers for lengthy delays within airlines' control.
[1/3] Logo of Air France KLM Group is pictured on the first Air France airliner's Airbus A350 during a ceremony at the aircraft builder's headquarters of Airbus in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, September 27, 2019. REUTERS/Regis DuvignauMay 5 (Reuters) - Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) on Friday reported better-than-expected first-quarter revenue and robust cash flow as it benefited from a global recovery in air travel and strong summer ticket sales. The carrier's revenue grew 42% year-on-year to 6.33 billion euros ($6.97 billion), just above the 6.30 billion euros expected on average by analysts polled by the company. Air France-KLM said it did not see an impact from the cost- of-living crisis, pointing to more than 1.5 billion euros in ticket sales over the first quarter and to a strong demand across its network. Air France-KLM said the impact from French air-control strikes had been limited and was in the millions of euros, which it quantified as smaller than the impact from previous strikes.
May 5 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) has hired an Oslo-based team that until late last year was building artificial-intelligence networking technology at British chip unicorn Graphcore. "We recently welcomed a number of highly-specialized engineers in Oslo to our infrastructure team at Meta. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has become increasingly reliant on AI technology to target advertising, select posts for its apps' feeds and purge banned content from its platforms. The 10 employees' job descriptions on LinkedIn indicated the team had worked on AI-specific networking technology at Graphcore, which develops computer chips and systems optimized for AI work. A new category of network chip has emerged to help keep data moving smoothly within those computing clusters.
A JetBlue passenger missed his flight from Las Vegas to LA, with his bag onboard the plane. Airport officials said the "disgruntled" passenger then called in a bomb threat, per KABC-TV. A passenger who was angry that he missed his JetBlue flight from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Los Angeles, California, called in a bomb threat on Thursday, authorities said. The passenger who missed his flight was taken into custody by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, with KVVU reporting that police took "enforcement action against the subject." Las Vegas Police, JetBlue, and the LAX Police Department did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.
But getting there is not always a smooth journey, as anyone unfortunate enough to be at Manila’s airport during two crippling power outages this year discovered. Those outages, on Labor Day and New Year’s Day, caused widespread chaos with hundreds of flight cancellations affecting tens of thousands of passengers. In a bid to solve that issue, the Philippines will close the whole country’s airspace for 6 hours on May 17 to replace malfunctioning electrical equipment. “It’s the entire Philippine airspace that will be shut down,” Bryan Co, senior assistant general manager at the Manila International Airport Authority, said in a press briefing on Tuesday. The airport handled 48 million passengers in 2019, despite being designed to handle 31.5 million, it said, and the revamp is expected to cost $1.8 billion (100 billion Philippine pesos).
Boeing announced a new addition to its fleet of ecoDemonstrator aircraft on Thursday — a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner. While not every experimental technology makes it onto a future Boeing jet, about a third actually have. 2014: Boeing 787Boeing 787 ecoDemonstrator. BoeingIn 2014, the planemaker debuted its second ecoDemonstrator — a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The 787 ecoDemonstrator tested 35 projects, including a collaboration with Delta Air Lines to generate real-time turbulence reports.
[1/2] FILE PHOTO:Opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich, who is accused of participating in an unsanctioned protest at the Kuropaty preserve, arrives for a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus April 10, 2017. The circumstances of Protasevich's arrest in May 2021 prompted international outrage and triggered European Union sanctions against Lukashenko. After his arrest, Protasevich was shown on state television tearfully confessing on state television to involvement in anti-government protests and plotting to topple Lukashenko. The exiled Belarus opposition said the admissions were false and had been coerced. Video from state media showed him declining to answer questions from journalists in court about whether he would appeal.
New York CNN —American Airlines pilots voted to go on strike Monday. Southwest pilots are holding a strike vote as well. Many unions have had members participate in informational pickets at major airports, at American pilots did Monday. The last time a major airline was grounded by a strike was 25 years ago when Northwest Airlines pilots went on strike for two weeks. But most negotiations are settled, even after a strike vote, without a work stoppage.
House Republicans passed a bill to raise the debt limit last week that includes steep spending cuts which the Democratic-controlled Senate and Biden say they will not approve. Biden has steadfastly said he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling increase, but will discuss budget cuts after a new limit is passed. In 2011, a similar debt ceiling fight took the country to the brink of default and prompted a downgrade of the country's top-notch credit rating. The Republican bill would implement $4.5 trillion in spending cuts - or about 22% - in exchange for a $1.5 trillion increase in the U.S. debt limit. It has no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House has said Biden would veto the legislation.
After hitting the $31.4 trillion borrowing cap on Jan. 19, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously told Congress Treasury would keep up payments on debt, federal benefits and make other outlays at using cash receipts and extraordinary cash management measures. The Republican bill would implement $4.5 trillion in spending cuts - or about 22% - in exchange for a $1.5 trillion increase in the U.S. debt limit. It has no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House has said President Joe Biden would veto the legislation. The White House has asked Congress to raise the debt limit without conditions; administration officials are already making plans to negotiate with Republicans over the president's 2024 budget plan. What we can’t see is that the debt limit be used by a part of Congress to hold an entire agenda of unrelated items hostage to this threat of default," she said.
The debt ceiling could become binding by June 1, she said. In 2011, a similar debt ceiling fight took the country to the brink of default and prompted a downgrade of the country's top-notch credit rating. The Republican bill would implement $4.5 trillion in spending cuts - or about 22% - in exchange for a $1.5 trillion increase in the U.S. debt limit. It has no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House has said President Joe Biden would veto the legislation. What we can’t see is that the debt limit be used by a part of Congress to hold an entire agenda of unrelated items hostage to this threat of default," she said.
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