Aviation News

SYDNEY, Australia — Smoke coming from an oven on an Air Canada jetliner forced the aircraft to make a quick return to Sydney for an emergency landing, Australian media reported Thursday.

The Sydney Morning Herald said that the aircraft, with 264 passengers aboard, landed safely at Kingsford Smith airport at 12:16 p.m. local time Thursday. The Herald cited Fire and Rescue New South Wales officials as calling the incident “minor” and saying emergency crews were not required.

The Telegraph newspaper reported that a fire broke out in the galley area of Flight AC34, which dumped its fuel before landing.

The Boeing 777-233LR was bound to Vancouver and Toronto, the Telegraph said.

Air Canada’s website said the flight’s status was “Delayed-Diverted.”

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Japan Airlines

The Japanese airline A.N.A. and AirAsia, a fast-growing carrier based in Malaysia, said Thursday that they would team up to form a low-cost carrier that would link Japan with destinations in northeast Asia starting in August of next year.

The venture is the latest example of how Asian airlines are racing to beef up their business in a bid to position themselves for an expected surge in demand for flight services in the region.

The new AirAsia Japan will be based at Narita International Airport, near Tokyo. Majority-owned by All Nippon Airways, as A.N.A. is formally known, it will serve destinations within Japan and in South Korea, Taiwan and China.

A.N.A. is separately investing in another low-cost carrier, Peach, which will operate out of Kansai International Airport near Osaka and take to the skies by March 2012.

Singapore Airlines, another long-established Asian heavyweight, announced plans in May for a no-frills carrier that will fly medium- and long-haul routes.

And AirAsia, which is focused on Southeast Asia, announced an order last month for 200 new aircraft, one of the biggest such orders ever.

Taken together, these developments highlight the rapid growth of air traffic services both to and from Asia, and within the sprawling region itself.

A growing number of low-cost carriers have increased demand by providing affordable travel in recent years, while rising levels of affluence are expected to increase demand by Asian travelers still further.

In Japan, which remains a relatively high-cost market, A.N.A. and AirAsia are hoping to emulate the success that budget carriers have had elsewhere in the region. The rationale of their venture, AirAsia said in a statement, was to “bring low cost airline travel to Japan to make it affordable to the average Japanese national to travel both domestically and regionally.”

source: http://www.nytimes.com

WILLIAM and Catherine received 200 pounds ($300) compensation after their in-flight entertainment broke.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge received compensation from British Airways (BA) after the airline’s in-flight entertainment broke down on the couple’s trip home from the US.

Prince William and Catherine, whose seats cost 5000 pounds ($7500) each, were given vouchers to use against the cost of future flights after they were unable to watch movies as they returned from their fist overseas tour together, the Daily Mirror reported yesterday.

A source told the paper, “The whole of first class including the duke and duchess seemed a bit peeved but they were placated by BA’s offer. Still, 10 hours without in-flight entertainment is a little tough going.”

A BA spokesman said, “Unfortunately a fault with some parts of the aircraft’s in-flight entertainment system couldn’t be fixed before the aircraft took off from Los Angeles.

“We apologise to everyone affected and have offered customers either a voucher or frequent flyer miles to say sorry.”

The couple left Los Angeles a week ago at the end of a 10-day tour of Canada and the US.

They missed out on movies including The Fighter starring Christian Bale, Angelina Jolie’s The Tourist and the animated movie Gnomeo and Juliet.

Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au

The US Transport Security Administration will eliminate so called 'naked' body scans after privacy complaints and use software to replace them with a generic image.

In the face of an outcry over so-called “naked” body scans at airports, US authorities yesterday announced plans for a new scanning system that eliminates “passenger-specific images.”

Transportation Security Administration Administrator John Pistole said the agency would begin installing new software on its scanners “designed to enhance privacy.”

The new software “will auto-detect items that could pose a potential threat using a generic outline of a person for all passengers,” the agency said.

“By eliminating the image of an actual passenger and replacing it with a generic outline of a person, passengers are able to view the same outline that the TSA officer sees,” a TSA statement said.

“Further, a separate TSA officer will no longer be required to view the image in a remotely located viewing room.”

The news comes after protests and lawsuits over the use of so-called “naked” scanners that take full-body X-ray images that show passengers’ genitals. In cases where people refuse such scans, TSA agents manually pat down passengers.

The TSA says the scanners protect fliers following the foiled 2009 Christmas Day plot to down a US jet by a Nigerian traveller who concealed explosives in his underwear.

Critics say the devices and the pat downs are invasive and demeaning.

Eliminating the use of person-specific images ‘‘represents pretty substantial change in agency policy,’’ Ginger McCall, open government counsel for the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, said.

The group, a research and advocacy group focusing on personal privacy and civil liberties, wants the TSA to make the technical specifications of the software public, McCall said.

The agency should stop using the scanners entirely, said Brandon Macsata, executive director of the Washington-based Association for Airline Passenger Rights.

‘‘We feel there are better ways to balance security and privacy,’’ Macsata said.

US President Barack Obama last year said the understood “frustrations” over the measures and had asked the TSA to “constantly refine and measure whether what we’re doing is the only way to assure the American people’s safety.”