Man threatened to blow up plane on London-Hawaii flight

A passenger on a plane travelling from London to the US threatened to kill flight attendants and blow up the aircraft, it has emerged.

The FBI said Kevin Mosele, 20, of Kihei, Hawaii, was charged on Tuesday with interfering with a flight crew and could receive 20 years in prison if convicted.

According to the criminal complaint, Mosele told investigators he had several drinks in London before boarding the plane.

On the plane he became agitated, spitting water at the crew and saying he would kill them, then saying he was “going to set off a bomb”.

The FBI said he had to be restrained and was arrested when the plane landed on Monday for a stopover in Los Angeles. It had been headed to Hawaii.

Mosele is free on $10,000 bail.

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Seized: Hundreds of fake England shirts found at Heathrow

Hundreds of fake England football shirts have been seized during the World Cup at London’s Heathrow Airport.

A team from Border Force – containing officer Sean Rooney – discovered the consignment of more than 400 home and away replica jerseys in freight on Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 June.

The shirts, which had been imported from Hong Kong, have now been confirmed as fake by the official England kit manufacturers, Nike.

Conned

Sean said:

The package from Hong Kong was labelled up as being glassware, so when I opened it up and saw the shirts I knew they had to be fake.

To the untrained eye they look pretty genuine. I’m certain they would have ended up being sold to unsuspecting members of the public as the real thing, so it is good we have found them, taken them out of circulation and stopped people getting conned.

The shirts, which could have been worth between £20,000 and £30,000 if sold, will now be destroyed.

Rooney

Marc Owen, Border Force Heathrow Director, said:

Counterfeit goods cause damage to legitimate businesses and traders, which is why Border Force is working hard to stop them entering the UK.

Not only do they leave customers out of pocket when sold as the real thing, they are something that is at best inferior, at worst possibly dangerous.

This was a great result for Rooney and his team-mates at Heathrow.

Border Force officers work around the clock at ports, airports and international postal hubs to detect illicit goods, illegal drugs and weapons.

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Lightning causes passenger delays at Gatwick Airport

A lightning strike has caused disruption and delays to hundreds of passengers at Gatwick Airport.

A spokeswoman said the strike, which happened overnight, led to a power dip in the area which caused electrical trips to the airport's systems.

There were delays at check-in and in baggage handling.

Gatwick said 14 flights had been delayed from the south terminal and extra staff been brought in.

'Busy weekend morning'

At 09:30 BST, the airport said problems at check-in had been cleared but there was still delays with baggage handling.

The spokeswoman said: "We are trying to get people in and out of the airport as quickly as possible.

"Check-in is back to normal but there are still problems with baggage because it is a busy weekend morning in the summer."

The airport said out of of 75 flights, two were delayed for more than an hour and 12 flights were delayed for more than 20 minutes.

The airport said the lightning strike caused a local power outage before 04:00.

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Air Canada to start year-round St. John's-London service

Air Canada announced on Monday morning it would be starting a year-round, non-stop flight from St. John's to London, England starting in late October. The company said flights will depart Monday, Thursday and Saturday starting Oct. 26.

Air Canada said a strong economy has created demand for service between St. John's International and Heathrow airports. According to the company, a free trade agreement between Canada and Europe, along with tourism, increased the demand for business travel. The route will use a refurbished 120-seat Airbus A319 aircraft, offering business and economy service.

In 2007, Air Canada cancelled service between St. John's and London despite a promise of seasonal summer service. Air Canada picked up the seasonal service again in summer 2010.

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Delta to take over London-Los Angeles flight from Virgin Atlantic

Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic will start flying their own planes on routes previously operated by the other.

Beginning Oct. 26, Delta will operate one of Virgin’s two routes between London Heathrow and Los Angeles, the Atlanta-based airlines first nonstop between the two cities.

Delta will operate a B767-300 ER plane for the flight. Virgin Atlantic will continue to operate two daily services to Los Angeles until that date.

Both airlines have had a partnership since January 2014, aimed at increasing to network of each carrier.

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World Cup: Lufthansa becomes Fanhansa

They will be the centre of attention in the coming weeks before and during the football World Cup. A total of eight aircraft in the Lufthansa fleet will swap their well-known lettering for the new ‘Fanhansa’ logo. It will be the first time that Lufthansa has changed for a certain time period its name on the fuselage of some its aircraft since commencing operations almost 60 years ago. 

On the 16th of May, the first “Fanhansa Airbus” will take off from Munich to Hamburg and London. The first flight will be LH 2066 departing at 11.20 a.m. from Terminal 2. This Airbus A321-200 will be followed by two additional short-haul aircraft and a total of five long-haul aircraft, including the Boeing 747-8, the world’s longest aircraft, which will feature the ‘Fanhansa’ logo. 

“Fanhansa is more than a logo on the aircraft, of course – it is a surprise for our customers and a thank you to our fans,” says Alexander Schlaubitz, Head of Marketing at Lufthansa Passenger Airlines. “Over the coming days, we will be creating new travel experiences with a number of different promotions – there is no doubt that we will be flying the happiest fans to Brazil with Fanhansa, offering the best World Cup atmosphere and pure football fever. It will make Lufthansa the official carrier of all football fans.” 

With Fanhansa, Lufthansa will be flying not just the German national team to Brazil, as partner of the German Football Association, but also thousands of football fans, media representatives and officials. 

During the many surprise promotions that will be happening on board Lufthansa’s scheduled flights and at check-in counters and gates in German airports, participants will be able to qualify immediately for a ticket to Brazil on board a Fanhansa plane. This naturally includes the World Cup experience in the land of the Amazon, Copacabana and Caipirinha. 

Fans of the latest Lufthansa experience can follow everything to do with Fanhansa online at LH.com in the next few weeks: the night in the Lufthansa Technik hangar in Munich and the application of the lettering, which will be up to 1.23 metres high, the first surprise flight, the departure of the German team at Frankfurt Airport and, of course, the flight carrying all of the fans to Brazil in mid-June.

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Qantas cuts back London flights

Qantas has cancelled three return A380 flights next month between its new overseas hub in Dubai and London due to weak demand ahead of the peak travel season in the northern hemisphere. The temporary reduction in services follows its decision to cancel three return superjumbo flights from Melbourne to London via Dubai in February and March, citing a slowdown in demand during the northern winter.

Fares for flights to Europe remain at historical lows in real terms due to stiff competition between airlines. Qantas began flying via Dubai to Europe – instead of via Singapore – in March last year when it launched its extensive alliance with Middle Eastern airline Emirates. As part of the latest changes, Qantas has cance

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Delta-Virgin takes up battle for New York-London fliers

Delta Air Lines has been making inroads in the dogfight over the lucrative market for business travel between New York and London, but the newly merged American Airlines Group is fighting back.

Delta is hoping to attract customers through its new partnership with Virgin Atlantic, known for its high-tech and non-traditional approach to flying, and its own boosted profile in New York, where it expanded flights and renovated terminals.

Now under new management, American is trying to bounce back from years of under-investment and market share losses, drawing from its recent merger with U.S. Airways.

The New York-London route is popular with Wall Street executives who are willing to pay for the priciest seats and who often travel at the last minute. Eager for their business, airlines are using their best planes on the route and investing in upgrades such as satellite WiFi and seats that turn into flat beds.

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Heathrow Airport reports growth in February passenger traffic

London Heathrow Airport served 4.9 million passengers in February 2014, up 1% from corresponding period in 2013.

The increase in number of passengers can be attributed to a rise in passengers flying to emerging market countries, including BRIC countries.

Overall passenger numbers to BRIC countries increased 2.5%, with

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Gatwick Airport to provide annual compensation for noise-affected households

Gatwick Airport has announced that the households most affected by noise from its second runway would receive an annual compensation equivalent to band a council tax, which currently stands at £1000, once the proposed runway becomes operational.

The airport is planning to build a second runway at the south of the existing airport, and has outlined a three-point approach of

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BA flight forced back to Heathrow after 'engine surge'

Witness saw flames 'spitting out' of an engine and said France-bound plane was making spluttering noises as it took off.

A British Airways plane has had to turn back to Heathrow after experiencing "an engine surge" on take-off.

BA said the aircraft, an Airbus A319 bound for Lyon in France, landed safely after the incident at about 9pm on Thursday.

A witness told the BBC he had seen flames "spitting out" of an engine and that the plane was making spluttering noises as it was taking off.

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First premium lounge set to be opened at London Stansted

London Stansted Airport is planning on opening its first premium lounge this year as its seeks to establish the gateway as a base for long-haul airlines.

Owner Manchester Airports Group (MAG) is said to be spending $1.7 million on the Escape Lounge in its main departure area, which will be free to some customers and available on a pay-on-the-door policy.

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BA's robust domestic loads leave Little Red trailing

British Airways claims it has not suffered market share to Virgin Atlantic’s UK domestic carrier Little Red, as the spin-off airline approaches one year of operations.

Little Red began services in March 2013 on routes between London Heathrow and the cities of Manchester, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

But UK Civil Aviation Authority statistics for domestic scheduled operations show that Little Red’s load factor has been poor compared with that of BA.

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