Flyers rejoice!

Plane tickets are going to be cheaper in 2015 according to a recent report published by Expedia and Airline Research Corporation (ARC). 

"Though a number of industry reports suggest that air ticket prices will remain stagnant or rise slightly, a thorough analysis of data has led Expedia experts to believe that prices in many of the most popular destinations actually will decline slightly," Expedia wrote.

Although this is not the case across the board — Asia is getting more expensive — the trend in North America seems to be headed towards lower prices.

Expedia attributes the dip in prices to increased flights and supply (capacity) at most of North America's major destinations. Even with fuel prices and unemployment falling, Expedia anticipates that the increase in capacity will outstrip increases in flyers.

Overall, the travel website expects the total number of flights originating from North America to increase by 5% in 2015.

Two cities that will see the biggest increase the number of available seats over the first four months of 2015 will be Dallas and Seattle, with a 14% and 13.8% increase in capacity respectively. Expedia predicts an 11.2% fall in average tickets prices (ATP) for flights out of Dallas, while flyers out Seattle will likely see a 2.1% fall in ticket prices. 

The jump in available flights out of Dallas is a result of the repeal of the Wright Amendment which limited number of flight allowed in and out of Dallas Love Field, the city's secondary airport. The repeal of the amendment will allow Southwest and Virgin America to significantly bolster it's flight schedule from the airport, with a slew of new routes. 

The flood of available flights out of Seattle can be attributed Delta's increased presence at SeaTac. The airline is determined to turn the airport into its gateway to the Pacific Rim. Since the airline and its Skyteam partners do not have a Japanese partner, Delta has to find a jumping off point in North America for its trans-Pacific flights.

It believes Seattle is that place and is expected to increase its presence to the tune of 18% of all seats out of the airport.

Major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago will see less of a price shift. Flight out of New York and Chicago will see prices fall by 1.7 and 1.9% respectively. However, flights out of LA will see prices jump 1.3%.

Here's the complete chart from Expedia and ARC:

SEE ALSO: America's 15 Most Frustrating Airports

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Last week, a passenger on a China Eastern Airlines plane deployed the emergency slide after the aircraft landed at Sanya Phoenix International Airport, off China's southern coast.

The passenger's excuse for his actions?

He wanted to "get off the plane quicker," the Daily Mail reported. 

The flight, MU2331, originated in Xi'an in northwestern China. It had just landed at the resort city of Sanya and taxied to a parking slot, when a passenger opened the door just behind the right wing of the Airbus A321. 

The incident caused the aircraft to be delayed for two hours.

According to Sohu, the economic damages, including the cost of replacing the slide, amounted to roughly $16,000.

It is unclear if the passenger actually made it down the slide before being apprehended by the authorities — or if China Eastern plans to bill the passenger for his indiscretions.

Due to the design of airplane doors, it is impossible to open them while the aircraft is pressurized in flight.

However, when the plane is taxiing or parked, they can be opened.

Usually, when a plane is in service, the cabin crew will arm the slides and set them to deploy automatically when the doors open. When the plane pulls up to the gate, the cabin crew will then set the doors to "manual," which overrides the automatic deployment. 

The passenger in this case obviously popped the hatch before the cabin crew had the chance to switch the door to manual mode.

It's unknown at this point how the passenger will be punished. However, after a recent spate of poor behavior by Chinese airline passengers, the government has vowed to severely punish transgressors who tarnish the nation's reputation.

SEE ALSO: America's 15 Most Frustrating Airports

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With the recent mergers of American Airlines and US Airways, Delta and Northwest, as well as United and Continental, there are just three major international airlines left in America.

As the once great variety of names and brands withered away, so did their iconic paint jobs. Although some of these airlines have gone extinct, others have simply been merged into larger companies. All of them make great candidates for a special edition "retro" paint job to remind the airlines' passengers of its heritage.

Here are a collection 16 from America and abroad that we would love to see taking to the skies once again.

Pacific Southwest Airlines was famous for it's "smiling" paint job. Flyers were treated to this paint job until 1988, when the airline became part of US Airways. Prior to its merger with American Airlines, US Airways actually flew an Airbus A319 with the old PSA design.

For more than 75 years, Trans World Airlines and its iconic red and white airplanes were among the most recognizable in world. The airline, made famous by billionaire Howard Hughes, managed to stay aloft until 2001, when it was swallowed up American Airlines.

As for American Airlines itself, its shimmering unpainted airliners have become a common sight at airports around the world. American Airlines' venerable Massimo Vignelli "AA" logo and corresponding paint scheme went virtually unchanged from 1967 to 2013.

Paris (AFP) - Michelin-star food and vintage champagne: airlines are pulling out all the stops to cater to their top-tier passengers' tastes, as they seek a larger slice of the highly profitable market.

"Business class has become the main battleground for all companies because the market in this very profitable sector is highly competitive and the clients very demanding," said Bertrand Mouly-Aigrot, aviation expert at Archery strategy consulting.

The consultancy estimates the airline food market is worth a tasty 10 billion euros ($12.3 billion) with a wide discrepancy between the various classes of travel.

A dish in economy tends to cost between five and nine euros, business class between 15 and 30 euros and for first class, the sky is -- literally -- the limit.

Singapore Airlines touts itself as "the only company to offer the world's two most prestigious champagnes: Dom Perignon and Krug Grande Cuvee".

The airline spends around 18.4 million euros ($22.5 million) every year just on champagne and wine, with catering amounting to 5.5 percent of its total costs.

And with companies scrambling to stand out from the crowd with the extravagance of their menu, they are hiring top chefs to create tasty morsels.

"A meal helps to make people feel secure, to comfort people, to de-stress people," said Anne-Sophie Pic, the only female chef in France to hold three Michelin stars, who creates the first-class menu for Air France.

Posh picnic hampers

But serving haute cuisine to highly international and demanding diners at 30,000 feet brings its own challenges.

The chefs have to create a menu without certain ingredients -- raw fish is banned for example and cabbage and beans ill-advised given the close proximity and confined environment of the cabin.

Cultural niceties also have to be taken into account and not just the well-known aversions to pork: rabbit, for example, is considered delicious in France but seen as bad luck in certain religions -- not what you want when flying.

Additionally, tastebuds act differently at altitude and the cabin air is very dry, which also affects how the food tastes.

Chefs find themselves having to add flavour enhancers to compensate. "We add ginger to our sauces to give them a certain bite," said Michel Nugues, one of the top chefs at Servair airline catering firm.

The challenges don't stop there. Getting the timing and balance of flavours right for a Michelin-star dish is hard enough on the ground, never mind when having to reheat the food at altitude.

At the main Paris airport, Charles de Gaulle, thousands of sous-chefs whip up the food, dress the plate, then chill and store the meals that are served around the clock on planes around the world.

When just a few seconds of overheating can destroy a meal, chefs are so obsessed with the delicate issue of reheating their creations properly that they often train the flight attendants themselves.

And with so many different nationalities on board, when it comes to the menu, variety is the spice of life.

"The funny thing is our international guests usually want to try Indian food. The Indian ones want to try the international food. Of course we always offer them different choices," said Lieve Vannoppen, European catering manager for the Indian airline Jet Airways.

Boris Eloy, director of marketing and innovation at Servair, said that while the technology behind the catering is cutting-edge, the concept of offering air passengers something special dates back to the early days of flight.

"In 1933, the barmen of the Ritz and George V Hotels would spend their days off making picnic hampers for Air France passengers," said Eloy.

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Nearly 24 years after the original Eastern shut down on Jan. 18, 1991, the new Eastern Air Lines welcomed home its first new aircraft on Dec. 19.

Ex-Kenya Airways Boeing 737-800 “The Spirit of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker,” N276EA, arrived from Shannon, Ireland (SNN), via Portsmouth, New Hampshire (PSN), into the airline’s base at Miami International Airport at 3:13 p.m. local time on Runway 8R to a water-cannon salute.

The fanfare reached far beyond that of a traditional airline launch, particularly in Miami. Miami was the original Eastern’s headquarters, and the carrier was the city’s largest employer from the mid-1970s until its 1991 shutdown. It was evident that the event and ceremony were an emotional, tear-felt occasion for the new team, and especially for the retirees and former employees of the original Eastern. Their turnout was quite moving.

The airline has 10 Boeing 737-800s on order, with purchase rights on 10 737 MAX 8s. Moreover, the company announced in July 2014 that it had placed an order for 20 Mitsubishi MRJ90s, with rights for an additional 20 of the regional jets. Eastern starts flying in March 2015 and will initially operate as a charter carrier, with scheduled operations due to begin in the next 12 to 18 months following FAA certification.

Manny Diaz, former mayor of Miami and board member of the new Eastern, served as master of ceremonies for the arrival festivities. He proclaimed “The wings of man once again fly; we are back at 36th and LeJeune. We remember Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and Colonel Frank Borman.”

The next speaker was Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez. “I never thought it would be back, and we are pleased. When it ceased operations in 1991, it affected the city emotionally and financially. Eastern’s headquarters has returned to Miami after 23 years.”

Miami-Dade County Airport Director Emilio Gonzalez spoke next stating, “Our 100 airlines at Miami become 101 with the return of Eastern.” He presented Eastern President and CEO Edward Wegel with a picture depicting Eastern aircraft at Miami International Airport in 1948.

Randy Tinseth, Boeing’s vice president of marketing, has a history with Eastern that goes back to 1981, when the airline became the launch customer of the Boeing 757. At the time, Tinseth served as a flight test engineer for the aircraft. He said the 737 is the world’s most popular airliner and expressed hopes it will be the backbone of the Eastern fleet for years to come. He added he took his first flight to Miami on an Eastern Air Lines 757. He also said Eastern will be an iconic brand again and thanked the airline for being a great partner.

Tinseth handed the microphone over to General Electric’s Doug Izarra, vice president for American sales of the CFM International engines on the 737. He congratulated the leadership team and shareholders of the new Eastern and presented a crystal replica of the CFM 56-7 that powers the 737s.

According to Wegel, the crew said Eastern’s new 737 knew how to navigate itself home to Miami. He hailed the 737 as the best aircraft ever built and lauded the future MAX as the most efficient aircraft. He honored the tenure of Eddie Rickenbacker as a CEO who saw integrity and hard work as non-negotiable. He then told those involved in resurrecting Eastern, “we will not let you down. We will rebuild this airline to greatness plane by plane.”

There was a tribute to Captain Rickenbacker with a reading of his World War I Medal of Honor citation. Finally, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski blessed the plane with the words, “Lord, you walk on wings of wind. Bless this airplane and contribute to the wellbeing of those who fly in it. May your crew operate it with prudence to allow its passengers to reach their destination safely.”

AirwaysNews had a chance to speak to Wegel after the ceremony, and he provided more insight into his plans for the new Eastern. He stated the airline is currently in its next equity fundraiser. Its focus will be on Caribbean and Latin America regions first, with charters starting by the end of the first quarter of 2015.

Scheduled service will begin 12 months later, said Wegel. “For scheduled operations, we have the advantage of the Eastern brand recognition, as well as lower costs. Aircraft will have a business class, and there will be interline and code-share operations,” he said. “There is a cost advantage to a startup, and more focus on leisure travel.”

The charter service starting in March will fly to the Bahamas and Cancun. He considers charter operations to be significant business. He also added the company is overwhelmed with charter requests.

Plans for Boeing 737 seating will be 12 in business and 150 in economy, with additional plans to add state-of-the-art streaming video for the new aircraft. The initial fleet will have dropdown video for its IFE. The MRJs will have geared turbofan engines and seat up to 90 passengers, with available seat mile costs near those of the 737-700. The airlines will have five to seven used 737s by the end of 2015, and another five in 2016. The brand new Boeing airplanes arrive in April 2017 with the Mitsubishi MRJ’s in 2019.

Wegel also spoke of the tremendous name recognition for Eastern, which he said was very positive, at 80 percent, and lauded the high-energy culture of the company, as well as the tremendous support from the Miami community. When asked about his past with Eastern, he said he worked for former CEO Frank Borman.

In 10 years, Wegel envisions Eastern being the number two carrier in Miami with 30 to 40 aircraft operating to Latin America and the Caribbean. He described the festivities as a great day and that he had been waiting 24 years to bring Eastern back to Miami.

The new Eastern’s corporate headquarters are located at Building 5A at MIA on NW 36th Street at the former Eastern Operations Center. All of the former Eastern’s system and maintenance control centers were once located at the four-story building. The previous headquarter tower at the corner of LeJeune Rd and 36th Street was demolished back in the late 1990s, as was the original maintenance base.

Marilyn Cabrera was a flight attendant for 12 years with the original Eastern until its collapse in 1991. She said she’s coming back to the new Eastern because it flows through her veins and considers Eastern her family. She said her training starts on January 12 and described the energy with the management as phenomenal. She sees things as being easier the second time around.

Nostalgic relaunches have not been kind to airlines historically. Reincarnations of Pan Am, National, Braniff, and, most recently, PeopleExpress, have resulted in failure. Regardless, we are honored to have been part of this memorable event and wish the new Eastern Airlines nothing but the best as it takes to the skies!

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some major U.S. airlines including Delta and Southwest are rushing to finance losing bets on oil and revamp fuel hedges as tumbling crude prices leave them with billions of dollars in losses, according to people familiar with the hedging schemes.

In theory, airlines are among the top beneficiaries of a six-month slump that halved crude prices to five-year lows. Oil is the biggest variable cost for airlines, often representing a third or more of their total operating expenses.

But now, carriers such as Delta Air Lines and even Southwest Airlines, known for a successful hedging program that locked in cheap fuel prices before they rose a decade ago, see some of the benefits of cheap fuel eaten away by hedging costs.

That is largely because they have used common but risky hedging strategies, among them a "costless collar": selling financial options that pay off when oil prices fall and using the proceeds to buy protection against soaring costs when prices climb, according to three people familiar with the programs.

The two carriers have been moving quickly to strategise how to meet demands from brokers and banks for additional collateral to cover potential losses from a strategy that made perfect sense just six months ago, those people said. The airlines have also held a series of meetings that included airline executives, brokers and consultants, according to the people, who declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.

With oil prices tumbling faster and further than anyone had anticipated, the collar hedges left the airlines with insurance against high costs they no longer need and on the hook for protection they sold against a further slide, with potential liabilities on the rise.

Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said the meetings were part of a routine, although a rapidly changing market called for close attention.

"We continue to benefit from declining fuel prices," Mainz said in an email. "Obviously we're going to move faster when the price drops in the 40 percent range. (Our fuel team) have been very busy actively managing our portfolio to respond to the changes we are seeing in the market."

Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said the Atlanta-based carrier was not surprised by the slide, having been prepared to meet its financial obligations if needed.

BOON TO RIVALS

Southwest, Delta and other carriers that sources declined to name, will benefit from the drop in oil prices because they hedge only a portion of the fuel they buy. Southwest, for example, expects to cover only 20 percent of its fuel consumption with hedge contracts this quarter.

Delta expects a $1.7 billion gain from lower fuel prices in 2015, despite $1.2 billion in estimated hedge losses.

Yet rival American Airlines, which has not entered any hedge contracts since late 2013, are set to see a greater boost to their bottom lines.

Industry consultants say hedged airlines have a few choices to deal with the price slide, including selling forward positions on crude oil or jet fuel, changing the prices at which they hedge or selling assets, such as planes.

What airlines exactly plan to do remains unclear, people familiar with the discussions said.

A lack of disclosure requirements makes it almost impossible to tell how or when airlines have hedged, and none would discuss details of their strategies.

Collar transactions looked well suited to the market when prices hovered around $100 per barrel for most of the past four years, allowing airlines to cap their fuel costs at little or no cost, analysts said.

"(Costless) collars are an effective strategy that works best when prices stay within a range," said John Saucer, vice president of research and analysis, at Mobius Risk Group. "But it becomes a very different animal when the market goes against that."

In their October quarterly filings, Southwest and Delta said they used a mix of options and fixed-price swaps.

Southwest also explained that collar trades "carry more risk than purchased call options" because of possibly greater liability when the contracts expire.

The world's biggest low-cost carrier said that a 25 percent decline of crude prices from Sept. 30 would probably force it to pay $615 million in cash collateral, aircraft collateral and letters of credit.

Delta said it would pay $800 million to counterparties if oil fell 20 percent between Oct. 1, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2015. Brent already has tumbled 36 percent since then to trade at about $60 a barrel on Monday.

These hedges weigh on the costs of their future fuel consumption, too.

At current prices, Southwest says it expects to keep only about 80 cents of savings for every $1 in oil price decline, while Delta puts this figure at about 65 cents. American instead will reap the full benefit of cheap fuel.

And every cent counts. Delta has said that one cent change in the price per barrel of oil is worth $40 million to the carrier.

(Reporting by Catherine Ngai and Jeffrey Dastin in New York; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

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The pre-flight ritual of standing in long security lines, removing your lap-top and taking off your shoes is getting a little bit easier. That is, if you're willing to pay $85 to become part of the TSA Precheck program.

The program gives travellers access to shorter security lines and makes the airport experience a little less stressful.

We found how you can become a member. It's easier than you think.

Produced by Graham Flanagan

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SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors requested on Wednesday a detention warrant for a former Korean Air Lines executive who delayed a flight because she was unhappy about how she was served nuts in first class.

The prosecutors have been investigating the former executive, Heather Cho, who is the daughter of the airline's chairman, on charges of violating aviation law and another airline official for abetting perjury.

"The prosecution this morning requested a detention warrant," an official at the prosecutors' office said, adding the request would be reviewed by the court.

Detention warrants are issued when the court believes there is a risk of flight or evidence tampering by suspects while investigations are ongoing.

A probe by the Transport Ministry concluded that Cho abused flight attendants in the Dec. 5 incident at John F. Kennedy airport in New York, and airlines officials may have tried to cover up the incident.

Public outrage grew when Korean Air initially issued what many in the country took to be a half-hearted apology that instead appeared to rationalize Cho's conduct in the face of what it said was inadequate performance by the cabin crew.

Cho resigned from all her posts at the airline and subsidiaries and apologized after she came under intense public outrage and ridicule. The airline's chairman Cho Yang-ho subsequently apologized and said her daughter's conduct was "foolish".

The plane pushed away from the airport departure gate as the incident was taking place on board. The pilot then brought the plane back to the gate to expel the cabin crew chief, after Cho complained about being served macadamia nuts by a flight attendant in a bag and not on a dish.

The crew chief said in a local television interview that Cho swore at him and jabbed his hand with a document folder, pointing her finger at him while he kneeled to apologize to her.

The prosecutors are also investigating whether Cho physically assaulted any of the crew members.

(Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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Moscow (AFP) - Their international competitors may be cheering tumbling oil prices, but the collapse in the ruble has meant major financial turbulence for Russian airlines who have expenses in foreign currencies.

The ruble has slumped by 40 percent this year against the dollar and euro, mostly due to crude oil prices falling by half in the past six months as Russia's economy is heavily dependent upon oil exports.

As jet fuel accounts for upwards of a quarter of the cost for flights, most airlines are set to see a boost to earnings.

Russian airlines also stand to benefit, but that is expected to pale in comparison to the double whammy resulting from the drop in the value of the ruble.

First, traffic on their most profitable international routes has dropped as Russians stopped travelling as their purchasing power has been eroded, not to mention ticket prices being jacked up twice by 10 percent.

Second, the airlines have considerable costs in foreign currencies -- mostly aircraft leases -- which have nearly doubled in ruble terms as the currency has slumped.

According to Deutsche Bank, Russia's leading airline Aeroflot earns 90 percent of its revenue in rubles while 60 percent of its costs are in foreign currencies.

"The situation is very serious," said Oleg Panteleyev, the editor-in-chief of the specialist website AviaPort.

"The result is obvious: as a drop in traffic is inevitable, they must return planes to lessors, reduce foreign currency costs and lower the number of planes and flights," he told AFP.

With traffic rising by 15 to 20 percent annually in recent years, Russian airlines have leased and ordered new planes from Airbus and Boeing to retire their ageing fleet of gas-guzzling Russian aircraft.

Uncertainty has hovered for weeks over the third-largest Russian airline, Utair. Unable to repay some of its debts, Alfa Bank has been trying in court to seize its aircraft.

Then this past week doubts began to surface about the finances of number two airline Transaero, which boasts a fleet of more than 100 mostly Boeing aircraft.

TASS news agency reported that it had appealed to the government for help to avoid having to suspend flights.

Holiday connections

Even if Transaero denounced the report as an attempt to destabilise it by competitors, the possibility of thousands of Russian tourists stranded abroad as happened this past summer when a number of travel agencies went bust was enough to prod the government into quick action.

Anxious to show it was moving to contain the effects of the currency crisis, the government promised to help airlines by subsidising domestic routes and providing loan guarantees to ensure airlines had access to funds.

On Wednesday Transaero was granted a loan guarantee of 9 billion rubles (140 million euros, $170 million). The same day Alfa Bank said it was temporarily suspending, "at the request of the government", its legal action against Utair in order to avoid disruptions to flights during the upcoming holidays.

The government has a clear short-term goal, according to Panteleyev: "the airlines must transport all the passengers over the holidays".

Russia nearly shuts down at the beginning of the year as most people take holiday between the New Year and the Russian Orthodox Christmas, celebrated this year on Thursday January 7.

Panteleyev said "obtaining loans is indispensable... to pay for jet fuel, airport fees and salaries, but it isn't sufficient to survive."

With the Russian central bank expecting the country's economy to contract by nearly 5 percent if oil prices remain at current levels and for there to be no recovery before 2017, there won't be an easy out for airlines.

Complete upheaval

Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich warned airlines that the government aid would not help unless they optimised their fleet and routes and cut costs. Their owners would also have to pump money into them, he said.

Alexei Khazbiyev, a transportation specialist with the magazine Expert, also sees dark clouds ahead for Russian airlines.

"Next year, the traffic on international flights will continue to drop and the airlines will reduce their number of flights," he said.

Khazbiyev estimated that a majority of Russian airlines will lose money and several smaller regional companies may go bust, as happened in 2008-2009.

Air transport expert Elizabeta Kuznetsova wrote in a recent commentary in the business daily Kommersant that even if the state measures "soften the pain" for airlines there risks being a "complete upheaval in the market" in 2015.

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In 2007, all Indonesian airlines were banned from flying to the European Union.

Among them was Indonesia AirAsia, whose flight QZ 8501 apparently crashed on Sunday.

The EU was concerned about the safety record of Indonesian carriers.

The ban was lifted in 2010 for Indonesia AirAsia.

But of the 51 Indonesian carriers banned, only four (including Indonesia AirAsia) have been re-authorized to fly to the EU.

Indonesia's aviation market is expanding at a rate of 21% annually, but a series of accidents, including the crash of a Lion Air flight in Bali in 2013, indicate a weak safety record for the nation's airlines.

The Federal Aviation Administration does not rate, rank, or blacklist airlines, but it 2013 it assessed the Indonesian Directorate General of Civil aviation "as not being in compliance" with international safety standards.

[An earlier version of this post was written by Alex Davies.]

SEE ALSO: AirAsia CEO: 'This Is My Worst Nightmare'

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Korean Air's shamed former executive, Heather Cho, has been arrested in Seoul as a result of her behavior in the now infamous "nut rage" incident.

According to the Korea Times, the Seoul Western Prosecutor's Office sought Cho's arrest for "disrupting the flight schedule, assaulting two flight attendants, coercing them and disturbing their work."

On Dec. 5, Cho forced a Korean Air Airbus A380 superjumbo jet, on which she was a passenger, to return to the gate at New York John F. Kennedy Airport due to her displeasure over being served macadamia nuts in its original packaging by a junior flight attendant. 

Korean Air's service procedure requires the crew member to ask if the passenger would like some nuts and then serve the snacks on a plate.

Cho then proceeded to grill the flight's head flight attendant over the company's service policies. Apparently unhappy with the crew member's response, Cho ordered the airliner to abandon its place in line for takeoff and return to its gate at JFK to deplane the head flight attendant.

This maneuver caused the flight to be delayed 20 minutes and arrive at its destination in South Korea 11 minutes late. 

The incident has caused outrage both in Cho's native South Korea and in the West. Days after the incident, Cho resigned from her post as head of Korean Air head of inflight service and catering as well as her post in charge of the company's hotel holdings.

To add insult to injury, Cho's father— Korean Air and Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho — fired her from any positions with the company from which she had not already resigned. Before a crowd of journalists, the elder Cho apologized for his daughter's behavior and blamed himself for failing as a father. 

The arrest is the latest episode of the once high flying executive's downward spiral. According to the Times, Korean prosecutors took up the case after a probe by the Country's transportation ministry lead to allegations that the younger Cho physically assaulted the pair of flight attendants and ordered senior managers to destroy incriminating evidence against her.

According to Reuters, a judge with Seoul Western District Court said in statement, "The necessity for detention is recognized as the case is grave and there has been an attempt to systematically cover up charges from the beginning."

The disgraced former executive apologized once again as she was led away from the prosecutor's office to the detention facility, reported Reuters. 

Prosecutors have also issued a warrant for the arrest of a current Korean Air executive named Yeo for pressuring the airline's employees to cover up the incident, reported AP. 

SEE ALSO: The 20 Best Airlines In The World

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An AirAsia Zest Airbus A320 overshot the runway in the resort town of Kalibo in the Philippines this week.

The AirAsia Zest jet with 159 passengers on board was at the very end of a 200-mile long flight from the nation's capital, Manila, when it skidded off the runway. Three of the aircraft's wheels became lodged in the airport's muddy soil. The flight's cabin crew deployed the plane's emergency slides to assist passengers in escaping the aircraft.

The accident occurred just days after another AsiaAsia Indonesia flight QZ 8501 tragically crashed in the Java Sea enroute from Indonesia to Singapore. 

According CBS News, the incident in Kalibo occurred in an area that had been hit by a severe tropical storm

The storm left as many as 31 people dead and several others missing. 

AirAsia Zest is member of the AirAsia airline family, run by outspoken Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes.

Zest is a subsidiary of AirAsia's Philippines affiliate.

AirAsia flight QZ8501, also an Airbus A320, had 155 passengers and seven crew members on board when it disappeared from air traffic radars. The wreckage of the lost airliner has since been located and the process of recovering the victims' remains, along with aircraft's flight data and cockpit voice recorders, has started.

SEE ALSO: AirAsia's CEO Turned A 29-Cent Investment Into A Billion-Dollar Empire

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North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, is depicted in propaganda as a man of extraordinary abilities.

A couple of years ago, the hermit nation announced that its supreme leader mastered the art of driving at the young age of 3. And by the time he reached his eighth birthday, the future despot could pilot automobiles at speeds of up to 75 mph. Since then, he has been pictured at the helm of an attack submarine as well as an armored military vehicle.

Kim's latest foray into the mastery of machinery is in the captain's seat of an Air Koryo Antonov AN-148 airliner.

The latest video shows him at the controls of the Ukrainian-built aircraft during taking off, controlled flight, and landing. As much as the North Korean media would have you believe it is Kim flying, it is highly unlikely he actually possesses the ability to pilot a commercial airliner regardless of how idiot-proof modern aircraft have become. 

It's plain to see that Kim's Air Koryo co-pilot is actually flying the plane while the supreme leader holds onto the yoke.

 The AN-148 is the newest and most advanced aircraft in the North Korean airlines' fleet. The Ukrainian regional jet entered production in 2009 and can ferry up to 85 passengers more than 2,000 miles. 

The AN-148 is the latest in the airline's attempt to modernize its aging fleet of Cold War-era relics. Aircraft such as the Tupolev TU-154 and Ilyushin Il-62M from the 1960s and '70s are being slowly replaced by modern Russian Tupolev TU-204 and AN-148 aircraft.

Kim Jong Un's extraordinary exploits continue the tradition of tall tales from the Kim family. In the late 1990s, Kim's late father, Kim Jong Il, reportedly shot the greatest score in golf history at the opening of the Pyongyang Golf Complex. It is reported that the Dear Leader shot a 38-under par round of 34, including 11 aces. Amazingly, that was also the first time Kim Jong Il had ever picked up a golf club.

And so the legacy continues with his son.

See Kim Jong Un in flight here:

SEE ALSO: Check Out Cuba's Retro Cars Before They're Gone

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A Qatar Airways flight from New York was forced to make an unscheduled landing at a British airport because of a disruptive passenger, local police said Thursday.

"It would appear the staff had to restrain a male during the flight and the pilot had to re-route and land at Manchester. Police attended and have arrested the male," a police representative said.

The airport had earlier said the flight, which was headed to Doha, was diverted because of a minor medical issue.

(Reporting by William James; Editing by Louise Ireland and Susan Thomas)

SEE ALSO: Italy Prevented A Runaway Ship Packed With Refugees From Crashing Into Its Coastline

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There are conflicting opinions on what happened to cause AirAsia Flight QZ 8501 end up on the bottom of the Java Sea with all 162 persons onboard dying, but some believe it first landed safely on the water. That opinion is shared by a few.

No emergency locator engaged

The biggest reason they believe it landed in the water safely, more than one said, is that the Airbus A320-200 would have sent a signal if it had crashed. Any destructive crash, on land or in water, would send such a signal and the plane's emergency locator transmitters would have begun transmitting its location.

Flight 8501 did not and that has lead some to believe that the experienced former Air Force pilot, Captain Iriyanto, must have landed the plane safely in the water, noting that emergency water landings are indeed possible. The plane then, they say, must have become swamped by waves in the storm and sunk before passengers could get off safely.

Dudi Sudibyo is a senior editor of the aviation magazine 'Angkasa' and he is one who holds the belief that because there was no emergency locator transmitters (ELT) set-off there could therefore not have been a crash.

"The emergency locator transmitter would work on impact, be that land, sea or the sides of a mountain," Sudibyo told the Hindustan Times. "And my analysis is it didn't work because there was no major impact during landing. The pilot managed to land it on the sea's surface."

Airbus items recovered intact

Items that have been recovered from the sea include an emergency exit door and a inflatable slide, both intact, suggesting to some attempts to evacuate the plane had been made upon landing on water. Jusman Syafii Djamal, the former Indonesian transport minister, said a floating, intact exit door means that "someone had opened it."

"High waves may have (then) hit the plane, the nose, and sunk the plane," Djamal said.

Further, of the nine bodies discovered to date, they're all in one piece, and a former air force pilot says that, too means something.

"The conclusions I have come to so far are that the plane did not blow up in mid-air," Chappy Hakim, a former Indonesian air force commander, told AFP. "And it did not suffer an impact when it hit a surface, because if it did so then the bodies would not be intact,"

Black box of Flight 8501 sought

The fuselage is still down there under the surface but the Java Sea is shallow where the plane is located, and it appears from photos of the plane in its resting place, that the fuselage is also intact. That would be unlikely if the plane had crashed into the sea, the experts say.

Other disagree, some say judging from the maneuvers data shows. Given the plane appears under the surface, the efforts to find the black box (called that but really a 'flight recorder' and neither black nor box-shaped) should be successful. All relevant date will be there, including the cockpit voices, and once found the mystery of how the plane went into the water should be solved.

"We can only find out from the black box," Dudi Sudibyo said.

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Let's see if we can square away some of this “tracking” business that has been getting so much attention.

Christopher Drew, in a December 29th op-ed in the New York Times, said that “Airlines use satellites to provide Internet connections for passengers, yet they still do not stream data in real time about a plane’s location and condition.” Two days later, in a similar Times op-ed written by the editors, it was stated that airplane location is updated only in fifteen minute increments.

Neither of these things is true, usually. It depends where the flight is operating, what equipment is on board, and which air traffic control (ATC) facility the crew is working with. As a general rule, flights are constantly tracked and monitored. By regulation a flight must always be in contact, one way or the other, with both air traffic control and company dispatchers on the ground. This is true in domestic airspace, and over the remotest points of the ocean as well.

In the busiest airspace, such as over the continental U.S. and Europe (and many other regions), planes are generally in radar and VHF radio contact, which makes tracking a cinch. ATC and airline dispatchers can easily monitor a jet’s location, altitude and speed (plus other parameters, depending). The same is true even in some oceanic airspace, such as over the North Atlantic, where cockpit equipment such as CPDLC and SATCOM datalink allow more or less real-time monitoring of a flight’s progress. In addition to basic position data, newer aircraft can transmit data about engine performance and the mechanical status of certain onboard systems.

In some areas of the world, however, position reports are sent only intermittently, at designated waypoints rather than continuously. This is the “tracking gap” that the media has been so fixated on ever since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. There is room for improvement here, I feel, particularly for long-haul aircraft that operate routinely in non-radar airspace. Planes could and perhaps should be equipped with a relatively simple, inexpensive, and fail-safe technology that allows continuous location tracking, no matter where.

It was a little startling for the Times to begin with a pair of premises that are, at best, only partially true.

Another question that keeps coming up is why the various black box data — the data recorded by the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) — can’t also be monitored via satellite, radio or wi-fi, in real time, rather than stored away on a piece of aircraft hardware. In other words, we could be constantly aware not only of a plane’s position, but any malfunctions and mechanical problems it might be having.

The main reason why is because it would take immense mounts of bandwidth, multiplied by the thousands of airplanes in the air at any one time, to upload all of the hundreds of parameters monitored by the FDR and CVR. And for what practical purpose, exactly? For the one airplane every 25 years or so that is temporarily missing, out of the 40,000 or so commercial flights that operate every day? Such a thing is certainly possible, but it would be technologically challenging and highly expensive. Is it really needed, in practical terms?

This issue comes up all the time. To me, it’s symptomatic of a culture in which people are accustomed to instant explanations and instant access to everything. People are saying, “Why can’t we have all the answers, right now!”

SEE ALSO: AirAsia Crash: Flying Into A Thunderstorm Is The Biggest No-No In Commercial Aviation

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After more than a decade of development, China's first homegrown airliner has finally earned approval from the country's government to carry passengers.

The ARJ21-700, from China's government-owned aircraft manufacturer, Comac, is designed to compete with offerings from western airplane makers.

First test flown in 2008, the ARJ21-700 has overcome a series of design setbacks and production delays.

According to Aviation Week, the first two production jets will be delivered to Chengdu Airlines in April or May of 2015. Whether the ARJ21 will become a truly effective passenger carrier remains to be seen, but it will definitely force the competition to take notice.

The ARJ21-700 is a 90-seat short/medium range regional jet.

It's expected to have a range of around 2,000 miles.

Its main competitors include the Bombardier CRJ-900 and the Embraer E175.

Meteorological experts have said that icing is a likely cause behind the downing of AirAsia QZ8501, based on an analysis of available weather data from the day the plane disappeared.

In the Indonesian government’s first report about what might have caused QZ8501 to crash, the authors say: “The most probable weather phenomenon was icing that can cause engine damage.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, the 14-page report, which examines the weather conditions of the day the plane went missing, found that turbulence was probably far less of an impact on the plane than icing.

This weather-related issue occurs when tiny ice crystals are sucked inside an engine and can accumulate into chunks that damage turbine blades or the ignition system.

Despite the new data the authors have said that the findings aren’t conclusive, saying that icing is just one of the possibilities available for what happened to the plane.

It “is not a final decision about the cause of the incident,” the report said.

This theory is the latest in a string of assumptions made about the fate of the flight, along with the theory of a fatal mid-air stall which triggering the plane to crash.

There are also new reports that Indonesian recovery crews have found parts of the wreckage just 29 metres underwater.

The search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters yesterday that a 23-metre-long object has been located and they strongly suspect it to be the tail of the plane.

“With the discovery of an oil spill and two big parts of the aircraft, I can assure you these are the parts of the AirAsia plane we have been looking for,” he said.

So far 30 bodies have been found — all floating in the ocean, some still strapped into their seats — 132 passengers and crew remain missing.

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You've probably already heard the "hidden city airfare" story that's been all over the news.

Briefly, a 22-year-old tech whiz kid in his spare time designed a website called Skiplagged that shows people how to cheat the airlines out of revenue using an insider strategy that's been around for years.

For the uninitiated, here's how it works: a nonstop fare from Los Angeles to Dallas might be over $300 one-way on a given day, but a fare on the same airline from LA to Austin with a stop in Dallas might be $150. So you buy the flight to Austin and ditch the plane in Dallas.

And before we go on, let me say that I am not an airline apologist or shill, as this article should demonstrate. And I fully support Skiplagged's First Amendment rights to publicize fare savings. However, the way Aktarer Zaman, the site's founder, designed and monetized his website leaves some murky questions, as I'll explain in a minute, and there may be unintended consequences for consumers.

Also as known as "point beyond ticketing," most airlines, United among others, have language in their contracts of carriage, which you nominally agree to when you buy a ticket, forbidding this ploy. So United Airlines is suing Skiplagged's founder, asking for reimbursement of lost revenue and other remedies. Orbitz, an online travel agency, has joined the suit, claiming that Skiplagged, which monetized its website through Orbitz's affiliate program, led Orbitz to sell numerous hidden city fares, causing it to breech its contract with United and that Skiplagged "expressly agreed to stop engaging in this prohibited form of booking, only to continue the conduct unabated."

First, let us explain one simple reason why airlines price fares this way. Let's say that Virgin America charges $150 to fly LA to Austin nonstop. If American doesn't fly that route nonstop, but only with a connection in Dallas, in order to offer the same low fare as Virgin America and to retain market share, American will lower its fare to the same $150 to Austin via its Dallas hub. American isn't trying to overcharge LA-Dallas passengers, it would argue; rather it's trying to compete with Virgin on the LA-Austin route by offering the same lower fare.

For a much more in-depth explanation, read Brett Snyder at Crankyflier.com.

Why airlines don't like hidden city ticketing

Airlines don't like "hidden city ticketing" for obvious and not so obvious reasons.

• It reduces their revenue and messes with their hub-and-spoke business model. Their position, which has merit, is that "hey, we're not gouging you on the nonstop, we're giving you a break on the connecting flight to Austin in order to compete with other airlines and you're taking advantage of us." And we charge less on connecting flights because they encourage people to use our hubs, and the hub and spoke system allows us to increase flight frequencies, giving you more scheduling options.

• It increases the number of no-shows, which either means that seats will go unsold and empty or that airlines will miscalculate how many passengers they'll need to bump.

• It can delay flights if too-widely abused as gate agents wait for people who have no intention of making the flight.

Why maybe you shouldn't like it either

Here's how this ploy can work against consumers, whether or not they actually use it.

• First and foremost, let's assume that Skiplagged achieves its goal of making hidden city fares easy to find and book and airlines ending up selling tons of them. If they lose a lot of revenue from hidden city passengers, they'll need to recover that revenue by raising fares for everyone who doesn't use hidden city fares. Airlines are not simply going to pay for the revenue hit. You are.

• By messing with the hub-and –spoke business model hidden city fares could lead to airlines reduce service and frequencies, which could lead to higher fares for everyone, along with greater inconvenience.

• Another way that hidden city fares cause fares to rise for everyone else: If a large number of people abandon their flight at the hub airport, the airline's computers, assuming the flight is still fully booked, will be tricked into charging a "scarcity"airfare—the fewer unsold seats, the higher the fare.   

• Or maybe people needing to fly that route wouldn't find any seats at all even though the flight was nearly empty, disrupting their travel plans.

• And although airlines don't always hold flights for connecting passengers, they do if there are a lot of them on a single flight. If 20 people don’t show up for a flight it could delay other passengers.

• Plus, hidden city ticketing can backfire. If your LA to New York flight via Chicago suddenly gets rerouted via Denver, you'll be stuck with a useless airfare to with no recourse.

• Not all airlines prohibit hidden city ticketing, but those that do have been known to kick passengers out of their frequent flyer programs for using the tactic too often, and they've also charged agents for the higher fare when tickets have been arranged through travel agencies.  

• You can't check bags on hidden city trips (your bag will be checked to final destination). And if you're thinking that you can get by with a carryon, what if the flight attendant insists there's no more room in the overhead bins and grabs your bag for gatechecking to that final destination? Kiss your airfare, or your bag, goodbye. And although it's probably obvious, you can't use hidden city ticketing for round-trip flights. Once you fail to show up for Dallas-Austin, your Austin-Dallas-LA return will be canceled.

A shady way of doing business?

Someone asked me recently if hidden city ticketing was "ethical." Simply put, Skiplagged has every right to publicize these fares, even if it ends up hurting consumers in the long run (American, for one, says it is unethicaland also points out that it's a breach of the passenger's contract with the airline). It's not "illegal" in the sense that no one has ever gone to jail for hidden city flying and you could argue that all's fair in love and airfares.

One thing is clear, however: the way Skiplagged went about monetizing its website is at best shady. It dragged Orbitz, through its affiliate program, which pays a set dollar amount for every ticket referral, into a situation where Orbitz was selling airfare types that it promised United it would not sell. Then when Orbitz asked Skiplagged to stop and kicked it out of its affiliate program, Skiplagged pulled some fast ones as documented on Skift.com, hiding its actons and intentions with clever programming tricks. Now, Skiplagged is sending traffic, via deep links, to Kayak and Hipmunk, two meta-search engines that monetize by sending onward traffic to online travel agencies, including, ironically, Orbitz.

Meanwhile, although Skiplagged will probably get pro bono legal representation from some airline-hating law firm, its defense kitty has raised nearly $60,000 via GoFundMe.com—probably more money than it ever made from selling airfares. 

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In 2007, Nepal Airlines sacrificed a pair of goats to help solve some of its aircraft maintenance issues.

According to the BBC, the airline confirmed that the animals were slaughtered at Kathmandu's international airport in front of the airline's malfunctioning Boeing 757-200.

According to the news organization, the 757 — one of two in the airline's fleet — had been suffering from a series of electrical malfunctions in the time leading up to the sacrifice.

In addition to making physical repairs, the airline also decided to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu god of sky protection. 

"The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," a senior airline official told Reuters.

Following the ceremony, the aircraft safely completed a flight to Hong Kong.

Nepal Airlines is the government-owned national carrier for the small Himalayan country. Flying is the most effective way to get in or out of the mountainous country. 

Unfortunately, the country's aviation safety record is far from stellar. In fact, Nepal Airlines has been rated as one of the least safe airlines in the world by AirlineRatings.com. 

Last month, the European Union banned Nepal Airlines planes from entering its airspace.

"The current safety situation in Nepal does not leave us any other choice than to put all of its carriers on the EU air-safety list," European transport commissioner Siim Kallas said in a statement. "We do hope that this ban will help the aviation authorities to improve aviation safety."

SEE ALSO: Here Are The World's Best Airlines For Long Flights

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