News

The largest airline of Thailand, Thai Airways, is in financial trouble. Amidst the huge losses and rising debts as results of the ever-growing competition, Thai Airways barely survives among the budget carriers. Thai Airways front man, Sumeth Damrongchaitham, now wants to cut the paychecks of management.

Hundreds of Catalan protesters were able to partially shut down Barcelona El Prat Airport yesterday evening after the High Court of Spain gave prison sentences varying from 9 to 13 years to nine political activists and leaders of the Catalan Independence Referendum of 2017. In Madrid, protesters blocked several access roads to the airports.

One of the biggest holiday carriers, Thomas Cook, filed for bankruptcy last night, leaving more than six hundred thousand (!) passengers across the world stranded at their holiday destinations. 150.000 British passengers are awaiting the biggest repatriation ever in peacetime. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is taking responsibility for retrieving British passengers to the United Kingdom.

Pilots of British Airways are going on strike for five days in September. Thousands of passengers are going to be affected by the strike.

The Portuguese union SNPVAC is going on strike between 21 and 25 August on flights of Irish budget airline Ryanair. This will cause disruption on Ryanair flights operated by Portuguese personnel, flights from and to Portugal.

The malfunction in the fuel delivery system of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport yesterday affected more than 58.000 passengers flying from and to the Netherlands. Airports across Europe were also affected with the consequences of the fuel malfunction.

The summer of commercial air traffic in the United Kingdom is heating up quickly as the pilots of British Airways have voted for a strike this summer in a recent ballot. The pilots voted for a strike overwhelmingly with a result of 93 percent.

Passengers that experienced a delay of three hours or more on a connecting flight outside of the EU, are entitled to compensation as stated in Regulation 261/2004. The airline that established an official agreement with the passengers and conducted the first flight in the booking, has to pay the compensation due when both flights are in the same booking. This verdict was presented by the European Court of Justice earlier today in a case against Czech Airlines.

Problems with the Air Traffic Control systems at London Gatwick Airport yesterday heavily affected over 133 flights yesterday evening. Inbound flights had to divert to other airports or were cancelled altogether in light of the disruptions.

Drones have affected air traffic two times in one week at Singapore Changi Airport. Dozens of flights suffered delays and seven flights had to divert to a different airport.