Thread: Airline News

Cursed ourselves. Just received a weather alert says the air has turned “unhealthy.”

The mountain had sort of returned this evening but the rest is all shit.

Fires map shows Chiang Mai province has very little hot spots but Lamphun, Lampang and Phayao don't appear to give a flying fuck.

C Mai 9th in this league and with lots of fires around and in Burma and Laos going to get worse until it rains

World Air Quality Index (AQI) Ranking | IQAir

Zoomable map showing Fires from a Swiss AQ site

Live Animated Air Quality Map (AQI, PM2.5...) | IQAir

And of course the fucking wind is from the SE today.

‘Constipated’ flyer claims enraged United Airlines pilot had him arrested for hogging the bathroom

A “constipated” New Jersey man flying home from Mexico claims the cabin crew became upset that he was monopolizing the plane’s lavatory, prompting an enraged pilot to break down the bathroom door, yank the pantsless traveler off the toilet, and dress him down in a shocking antisemitic tirade while nearby passengers gawked.


Upon landing, Yisroel Liebb, an Orthodox Jew clad in religious garb, was pulled off the United Airlines 737-800 and arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who allegedly told him, “You have no rights here,” according to a federal lawsuit obtained by The Independent.


Liebb, 20, contends he was subjected to physical injuries, extreme emotional distress, and anxiety, and says in his complaint that he feels “sexually violated and embarrassed after having been publicly exposed in the nude.”

In an email on Thursday, a United spokesperson said, “We don’t have anything to share.” CBP acknowledged The Independent’s request for comment but did not follow up by the time of publication.

The flight in question took off from the Riviera Maya resort town of Tulum at 4:30 p.m. on January 28, and was headed for Houston, Texas, where Liebb was scheduled to catch a connecting flight to New York, according to his complaint. About a half-hour into the journey, it says Liebb got up from his seat and headed to the restroom in the rear of the aircraft.

Roughly 20 minutes later, when he hadn’t returned, a flight attendant woke up Liebb’s seatmate, identified in the complaint as Jacob Sebbag, and asked him to make sure Liebb was alright. When Sebbag, 21, knocked on the restroom door, Liebb replied that everything was fine, but that he was “experiencing constipation,” and said he would be out shortly.


“Sebbag relayed this to the stewardess and returned to his seat,” the complaint states.


Around 10 minutes after that, the pilot approached Sebbag and requested that he accompany him to the restroom “to once again try and get Liebb out,” the complaint goes on. Once there, the pilot “began yelling loudly at Liebb, demanding he leave the bathroom immediately,” then turned to Sebbag and “began loudly demanding he force Liebb out of the bathroom,” according to the complaint.


It says Liebb responded immediately, telling the pilot through the door that “he was okay, that he was finishing up, and that he would be out momentarily.”

At this point, according to the complaint, “The pilot became visibly enraged, broke the lock on the door and forced the door to the bathroom open, pulling Liebb out of the bathroom with his pants still around his ankles, exposing his genitalia to Sebbag, several flight attendants, and the nearby passengers on the plane.”

“Liebb quickly pulled his pants back to his waist after being allowed to set his feet,” the complaint states, which says he injured his head and legs when they smacked into the restroom’s door frame.


“With Sebbag leading Liebb, the pilot proceeded to repeatedly push the [two] back to their seats while making threats of getting [them] arrested and making scathing remarks about their Judaism, and how ‘Jews act,’” according to the complaint.

Upon arrival in Houston, five to seven CBP officers boarded the plane and instructed all passengers to remain seated, the complaint says. They then approached Liebb and Sebbag, handcuffed them, and took them to a detention facility inside the terminal, the complaint alleges.


“While being escorted from the plane, Liebb stated that the [two of them] have a legal right to know why they are being detained,” according to the complaint. “The CBP agents… responded that ‘[T]his isn’t county or state, we are [H]omeland [Security], you have no rights here.’”

Apparently annoyed with Liebb’s questions, one of the CBP officers tightened his cuffs “to the point that he verbally spoke out against the pain,” the complaint states. It says Liebb “pleaded” with the officer, pointing out that he was “cooperating fully” and insisting he was “not a threat.”


But, the complaint alleges, Liebb and Sebbag were instead thrown into separate cells and handcuffed to tables, while they, and their luggage, were “subjected to intrusive, unconsented, unwarranted and unreasonable searches.”


Liebb and Sebbag were released without charges, but missed their connecting flight home, which took off for New York while they were still detained, the complaint states. They were rebooked, for free, on a flight leaving the next day, according to the complaint. However, it says, the pair “had to incur additional charges for hotel and food during the delay, essentially negating the price of the complimentary flight.”


Liebb and Sebbag both claim the too-tight handcuffs caused “severe wrist pain,” which they say “persisted for days afterward.”

The entire situation, the complaint alleges, was “further worsened by [the United pilot’s] antisemitic rhetoric,” and says he “only escalated the encounter with… Liebb because he is Jewish.”


Liebb and Sebbag are demanding damages in an amount to be determined at trial, plus attorneys’ fees.

‘Constipated’ flyer claims enraged United Airlines pilot had him arrested for hogging the bathroom | The Independent

Hmmm turbo props the future..... prepare for a bumpy ride


I flew propeller planes for 17 years – here's why they're making a comeback


Green turboprops may replace jets in a bid to hit net zero - this is what it's like to fly in one


There is a pioneering feel to turboprop aeroplanes. They are smaller, lighter and lower-flying than a jet aircraft, so it is harder to forget that you are thousands of feet up and travelling at hundreds of miles per hour. For some, that’s exciting – a reminder of the amazing feat of air travel. Others find it rather nerve-racking.


Owen Sims, who spent 17 years piloting turboprops for now-defunct British airline Flybe, became used to nervous passengers. “People see propellers and think the plane must be old, knackered or cheap,” he says.


He remembers a passenger telling him the plane brought back his memories of the D-Day landings.


Sims spent most of his Flybe career in a Dash 8 Q400, a model of which he became fond – but it had its quirks. “The ‘Q’ stood for quiet because it had a suppression system installed that would damp down the noise and vibration. But sometimes that broke.”


This type of plane may seem like a relic of the 20th century. Yet cutting-edge propeller models could replace jets on the world’s busiest flight routes as the aviation industry works towards a target of net zero by 2050.


“Battery electric, hydrogen electric and SAF [Sustainable Aviation Fuels] have been the main technologies being developed,” explains Bernard Lavelle, principal analyst at BL Aviation Consulting.


Aerospace company Airbus is devising a propeller plane model that will use electric motors powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Airbus’s ZEROe project aims for zero-emission flights, and the firm says its next-generation aircraft could enter service by the second half of the 2030s.


Airbus had been working on a new hydrogen jet, but recently announced it is stalling this project. For now, its engineers are looking into zero-emission propeller planes that could carry up to 200 people.


They might appeal to low-cost airlines. Ryanair recently cited Denmark’s aviation tax (for emissions) of up to £5.60 per passenger as its reason for closing its base at Billund (the birthplace of Lego) and axeing routes to and from the northern city of Aalborg. In November, the carrier suggested it may cut flights from the UK by 10 per cent after the UK Government announced an air travel tax increase.


Carbon taxes are an incentive to develop new models, but a global shortage of aircraft may increase the use of turboprops in the short term. In March, British Airways replaced the Airbus A320 jet with an ATR 72 turboprop aircraft on its Gatwick-Glasgow route due to aircraft availability.


When working for Flybe, Sims found there was a “certain snobbery” towards turboprops. “I remember getting a phone call from operations saying, ‘Today you’ve been upgraded to the jet.’


“I said, I think you mean ‘changed to’.”


He adds that once turboprops would have been more challenging to fly than jets, but now both are reliant on autopilot.


There are differences, however. “In my turboprop, which flew at 25,000ft, we’d be looking to start our descent around 70 to 80 miles out. In a jet, you’d be at around 35,000ft and start your descent 100 miles out.”


Flying lower means turboprops pass through more clouds. Passengers might feel bad weather and turbulence more keenly.


Sims recalls a tricky landing in Guernsey. “It became very turbulent in the last 100ft before touchdown, which is a matter of a few seconds. A gust pushed push us to one side. Suddenly, rather than aiming for the runway, the aircraft was aiming for the grass to the left-hand side of it, so I had to make a go-around and another landing attempt.”


Sims then had to cut the power and the landing was bumpy. “I stood at the door as the passengers got off, to apologise. I could feel my knees going, because there was that much adrenaline – afterwards, I headed to the bar.”


That was a one-off, though.


He doesn’t think it would have an impact on passenger experience to replace jets with turboprops on short-haul routes, aside from adding time to flights – an extra 40 minutes from the UK to Alicante, for example.


There will be two million turboprop flights around the world this summer, with 10,290 planned from the UK, according to travel data provider OAG. By the late 2030s, many more of us could be heading to our holidays on emission-free propeller planes.

I flew propeller planes for 17 years – here's why they're making a comeback

Nothing wrong with the dash 8 or the French Atr
Both in use all over Asia for short hops. They use em.in Oz to for the mine workers where the mine has its own landing strip

(Almost) Great news for Airbus!

China has reportedly ordered its airlines not to take any further deliveries of Boeing jets, the latest move in its tit-for-tat trade war with the US.
The Chinese government has asked carriers to stop purchases of aircraft-related equipment and parts from American companies, according to a Bloomberg News article, which cited people familiar with the matter.

The order was reported to have come after the country raised its retaliatory tariffs on US goods to 125% on Friday in response to Donald Trump’s levies on Chinese imports totalling 145%. Beijing was also said to be considering ways to support airlines that lease Boeing jets and are facing higher costs.
About 10 Boeing 737 Max jets are being prepared to join Chinese airlines, and if delivery paperwork and payment on some of them were completed before Chinese ”reciprocal” tariffs came into effect, the planes may be allowed to enter the country, sources told Bloomberg.

The restriction marks a serious blow for Boeing and other manufacturers trying to navigate the escalating trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
The group chief executive of the budget airline Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, has said his company could delay taking deliveries of Boeing aircraft if they become more expensive. He told the Financial Times that Ryanair was due to receive a further 25 aircraft from Boeing from August but would not need the planes until around March or April 2026. “We might delay them and hope that common sense will prevail,” O’Leary said.
Shares in Boeing have been buffeted by worries about the impact of trade tariffs, as well as complaints from some shareholders that the company has underinvested in its engineering.
The company has lost 7% of its market value since the start of the year, and in March its chief financial officer, Brian West, said tariffs could hit availability of parts from its suppliers.
The rival European plane manufacturer Airbus said on Tuesday that it was watching the evolving situation on trade tariffs. Its chief executive, Guillaume Faury, told shareholders the company was having problems receiving components from the American supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which was weighing on the production of its A350 and A220 jetliners.

China reportedly orders its airlines to halt Boeing jet deliveries amid US trade war | Boeing | The Guardian

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has reinstated Thailand's Category 1 International Aviation Safety Assessment rating, allowing Thai-based carriers to fly to the United States. The FAA confirmed the change on April 23, 2025.

Late last year, Thailand's aviation sector underwent an FAA evaluation pending reclassification. A final meeting took place between FAA and Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) officials in March.

"This is good news for the aviation industry of Thailand," said Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungruangkit.
The FAA says the change now allows Thai operators to provide services into the United States and enter into codeshare agreements with US carriers without limitation.

US FAA reinstates Thailand's IASA Category 1 -
ch-aviation

Thai Airways (THAI) has made light work of fleet expansion plans in recent days after the carrier secured 14 Airbus A321neo aircraft in two separate agreements with two different lessors.
On April 23, 2025, the Singapore lessor BOC Aviation confirmed that an agreement had been signed with Thai Airways to deliver five Airbus A321neos from its current orderbook.
And just a day earlier on April 22, 2025, China Aircraft Leasing Group (CALC), announced it was collaborating with Thai Airways for the first time with an agreement to deliver nine Airbus A321neo aircraft in phases from 2026 to 2028.

THAI makes light work of fleet growth with 2 deals in 2 days

THAI Confirms Purchase of 45 Boeing Airplanes

Thai Airways International has confirmed the purchase of 45 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft under its business rehabilitation plan. The move aligns with its strategy to modernize the fleet and expand capacity. Future orders beyond the 45 aircraft will depend on business needs and return on investment, as the airline aims to make commercially sound decisions.


The aircraft procurement plan has also entered the scope of upcoming Thai–U.S. bilateral discussions, where the purchase is viewed as contributing to increased U.S. exports. However, the airline’s executives stated that it is still too early to assess the full impact of the current U.S.–China trade tensions, which have led China to suspend purchases of aircraft and related equipment from Boeing.


Thai Airways affirmed that if any fallout occurs from the ongoing trade war, it will likely affect the global aviation industry as a whole rather than only Thailand. The airline emphasized that it continues to monitor passenger volume across all key routes—Europe, Japan, Australia, India, and South Asia. So far, no significant drop in international travel has been observed.


Despite concerns over trade-driven disruptions to global tourism, Thai Airways remains confident. Its revised business strategy now focuses on diversified revenue sources instead of relying on a specific region. The airline also has contingency plans in place at all levels to mitigate potential impacts.

NBT WORLD - THAI Confirms Purchase of 45 Boeing Airplanes

Well isn't that an expensive way to suck up to the orange turd?

Well with a recession imminent hence less disposable income domestic and International discretionary travel may decline.

However I am sure with such vaste contracts there is so much "gravy' some can trickle into the spare handily open envelopes as is the local way.

Originally Posted by misskit

Thai Airways International has confirmed the purchase of 45 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft

Thai have been unhappy with Rolls Royce for a while now and this has influenced their decision to go with the Dreamliner fitted with GE engines.

Personally, I prefer the A350, but it has no alternative engine fit.

Originally Posted by Troy

Thai have been unhappy with Rolls Royce for a while now and this has influenced their decision to go with the Dreamliner fitted with GE engines.

Personally, I prefer the A350, but it has no alternative engine fit.

Oh purlease.

This is

1. Trying to please the orange turd so he'll cut the tariffs
2. The usual opportunity to trouser mountains of cash.

I know about the ongoing problems with the A350, but the longevity/parts shortage problems are all being dealt with and filtering through the supply chain, and will certainly not be an issue by the time these aircraft get delivered, as evidenced by RR's share price.

They shouldn't be buying aircraft anyway, they should be leasing them, as they're completely incompetent and will do their usual of running what's left of Thai into the ground again.