Air Express

SOUTH Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has fined 19 airlines a total of 120 billion won (US$98 million) fine for cargo price-fixing, cautioning two others.

The FTC found the airlines guilty of conspiring to introduce fuel surcharges for freight cargoes or continued to raise them over the past seven years. This is estimated to have resulted in the loss if $5 billion worth of sales in the South Korean market.

Korean Air Lines took the brunt of the fine – $39 million – with Asiana Airlines next heavily fined with $16 million. However, Korean Air will actually only pay $18 million because it voluntarily admitted its wrong doing to the FTC.

Other airlines fined include Air France, Cathay Pacific Airways, Japan Airlines International, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, while the two companies warned were Air India and Scandinavian Airlines System.

AIR traffic remains seriously disrupted across Europe as a cloud of ash released from Iceland’s volcanic eruption continues to ground flights.

The following is a list airspace closures and re-opening times

- Austria to reopen its airspace at 0400 GMT Monday if conditions allow.

- Belgium extended the closing its airspace until 1800 GMT Sunday but indicated it could authorise resuming some flights depending on safety conditions.

- Bosnia’s airspace closed until further notice.

- Britain extends flight ban in its airspace until 0600 GMT Monday.

- Bulgarian airspace partially reopened from 1100 GMT Sunday.

- Croatia extended closure of airspace to the whole country overnight.

- Czech Republic airspace closed until at least 1000 GMT Monday.

- Danish airspace will remain closed until at least 0600 GMT Monday.

- Estonian airspace closed until at least 1200 GMT Sunday.

- Finland grounded all commercial flights grounded until 1200 GMT Sunday.

- In France, several airports reopened in the south, including Nice, Marseille, Bordeaux and Toulouse, but the rest are closed until at least Monday at 1300 GMT.

- Germany re-opens six airports temporarily.

- Hungarian airspace closed until 1000 GMT Monday.

- Iceland’s Airports remain open.

- Ireland’s airspace closed until 1200 GMT Monday.

- Airspace across northern Italy closed until 0600 GMT on Monday.

- Dutch airspace will remain closed until at least 1800 GMT on Sunday.

- Norway has opened up some airspace.

- All Polish airspace closed until further notice, forcing many foreign leaders to cancel their attendance at the state funeral of president Lech Kaczynski, killed in an air crash in Russia eight days ago.

- Romania reopened its airspace for transiting overflights from 0900 GMT on Sunday, but take-offs and landings at its airports remain suspended.

- Russia’s airports remain open.

- Airspace over Serbia and Montenegro closed from 1600 GMT Saturday until further notice.

- Slovakian airspace closed until 2159 GMT Sunday.

- Slovenia closed airspace until further notice.

- All airports in northern Spain that were closed today due to volcanic ash have been reopened. Madrid not affected.

- Some airspace open in Sweden but few commercial flights allowed to fly.

- Switzerland extended a ban on commercial flights at its airports until Monday at 1200 GMT. Overflights at altitudes over 11,000 metres allowed.

- Ukraine’s Kiev airport reopened and operating normally.

A security alert at Los Angeles International Airport temporarily shut down three terminals and caused several delays at the busy Californian transport hub, officials said yesterday.

The alarm was raised after a passenger with a carry-on bag bypassed security screeners, Los Angeles World Airports spokeswoman Nancy Castles said.

Terminals five, six and seven were closed for roughly 90 minutes before the passenger was located, questioned and screened. Fourteen departures were delayed as a result of the alert, Castles said.

“Airport operations expect to return to normal as airlines try to keep flights on time and insert delayed flights into schedules as quickly as possible,” Castles said.

The incident followed a security alert on a flight from Washington to Denver late Wednesday when a Qatari diplomat triggered a bomb scare after lighting a cigarette in one of the plane’s restrooms.

The incidents come one week after the United States unveiled new security measures subjecting all US-bound plane passengers to screening methods that use real-time intelligence to target potential threats, replacing the mandatory screening of passengers from a blacklist of 14 mainly Muslim countries.

The measures were announced after a Nigerian man failed to detonate explosives concealed in his underwear on a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam on Christmas Day.

According to figures released by the Transportation Security Administration Thursday, the number of passenger planes diverted or forced to land for security reasons has nearly doubled in the first three months of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.

Thirty-three flights were diverted January and March, the TSA figures showed, compared to 17 in the first trimester of 2009.

AFP

AMERICAN Airlines Cargo (AA Cargo) has opened a cargo terminal at John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York. The facility will have more than 135,000 square feet of warehouse space and 24 dock doors and includes two 20-foot elevating transfer vehicles with a storage capacity equivalent to 385 upper-deck aircraft positions.

Other features of the facility include three coolers for perishable products, an environmental room, and a live-animal handling area.

“We are pleased to provide a state-of-the-art cargo terminal at New York JFK – one of our most important hubs,” said Dave Brooks, President – American Airlines Cargo. “Our investment in high-speed handling systems for containerised freight, expanded dock and storage capacity, and a beautiful interior environment is designed to maximise the experience of our valued customers.”