American Airlines Flight Number 49 Emergency Landing at Keflavik Airport, Iceland

Chemical fumes aboard an American Airlines Flight 49, with 145 people on board, forced an emergency landing Tuesday in Iceland.

Five crew members became ill as a result of chemical fumes in the cabin.

The plane which was traveling from Paris to Dallas-Ft. Worth managed to land safely just after 1345 GMT (9:45 a.m. EDT).

Keflavik Airport spokesman Fridthor Eydal said that they were investigating the cause of the fumes.

“They were apparently having some sort of problems with some sort of fumes in the cabin,” said spokesman Tim Smith for American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp.

He confirmed that either the maintenance people in Iceland would ascertain the cause of the problem or another plane would be sent from London.

John F. Kennedy International Airport Now Operating With Sensis ASDE-X

Sensis Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X, a runway incursion detection and alerting system, is now operational at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Seventeen of the 35 airports to receive the technology through the FAA’s ASDE-X program are now operational. ASDE-X provides air traffic controllers with increased situational awareness of traffic on the airport’s runways and taxiways and an advanced conflict detection and alerting capability to improve runway safety.

ASDE-X combines surface movement radar, multilateration and Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) to provide air traffic controllers with highly accurate, real-time position and identification information of all aircraft and vehicles on the airport surface. By integrating multiple sensor technologies, the system delivers a comprehensive picture of ground operations, increasing controller situational awareness and improving airport safety in all weather conditions. The system also features advanced runway conflict detection and alerting technology, Safety Logic, which uses complex algorithms to alert controllers of potential aircraft or vehicle incursions.

At JFK, the ASDE-X system has been augmented with additional multilateration surveillance coverage of the gate and ramp areas to provide highly accurate aircraft and vehicle location and identification information to the Sensis Aerobahn(R) airport automation and management tool. Sensis Aerobahn is being used by the FAA, the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey and authorized airlines at JFK for improved situational awareness of ground operations at the airport.

“ASDE-X is a highly flexible surveillance platform that can be easily adapted to provide data to other airport efficiency systems, such as Aerobahn,” said Marc Viggiano, chief operating officer of Sensis Corporation. “The system will also serve as the surveillance backbone for the upcoming Runway Status Lights deployment that will further increase runway safety.”

In a separate press release issued today, Sensis announced that ASDE-X is also now operational at Los Angeles International Airport.

JetBlue to Waive Change Fees and Fare Differences to Assist Customers Affected

JetBlue Airways Corporation will waive change fees and fare differences to allow customers booked to travel to, from or through New York metro airports or Boston on Saturday, Jan. 10 or Sunday, Jan. 11 to voluntarily rebook their travel through Tuesday, January 13, 2009, due to inclement weather forecasted to impact the region.

Boston Logan and eligible New York metro airports include:
– Newark, NJ (EWR)
– Newburgh, NY (SWF)
– New York City – JFK and LaGuardia (LGA)
– White Plains, NY (HPN)

Customers may rebook their travel online at www.jetblue.com anytime prior to their originally scheduled departure. To check on the status of flights or to check the availability of alternate flights, customers are encouraged to log on to www.jetblue.com or to call 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583) for the latest flight information.

All customers booked to travel to/from the Northeast are encouraged to check the status of their flight online at www.jetblue.com prior to leaving for the airport. Customers with web-enabled cell phones and PDAs may check the status of their flight via mobile.jetblue.com.

New York-based JetBlue Airways has created a new airline category based on value, service and style. Known for its award-winning service and free TV as much as its low fares, JetBlue is now pleased to offer customers Lots of Legroom and super-spacious Even More Legroom seats. JetBlue introduced complimentary in-flight e-mail and instant messaging services on aircraft “BetaBlue,” a first among U.S. domestic airlines. JetBlue is also America’s first and only airline to offer its own Customer Bill of Rights, with meaningful and specific compensation for customers inconvenienced by service disruptions within JetBlue’s control. Visit www.jetblue.com/promise for details. JetBlue serves 51 cities with 600 daily flights. New service to Bogota, Colombia, and San Jose, Costa Rica, begins in 2009. With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all travel is ticketless, all fares are one-way, and an overnight stay is never required. For information or reservations call 1-800-JETBLUE (1-800-538-2583) or visit www.jetblue.com.

AirAsia New Flight Destination To Melbourne

Having launched into its third Australian market with a new A330, AirAsiaX is now hunting for its fourth destination.

The Kuala Lumpur-based airline started four-weekly services to Melbourne on Wednesday after recently starting services to Perth.

It already operates to the Gold Coast and Sydney is its next obvious target.

AirAsiaX chief executive Azran Osman-Rani said the airline would be looking at a fourth Australian destination “pretty soon”, but declined to specify.

Noting that the airline wanted to fly to all the major cities, he agreed Sydney was a possibility if the airline could make a service work “with the limitations of the airport”.

AirAsiaX also announced this week that it was axing all fuel surcharges on its fares to Kuala Lumpur.

Mr Osman-Rani said the move, like the airline’s sales fares, was designed to encourage people to travel.

“We do want people to keep travelling, even in these more challenging economic times, and we’ve always believed that lower fares will get people to travel when they would not normally think of travelling,” he said.

Mr Osman-Rani agreed the financial crisis was starting to feed through to the real economy, but said he expected the impact on AirAsiaX to be neutral.

He said the outlook for the next three or four months was “quite robust”.

“There will be segments of passengers who may have travelled with us but during this time would be cutting back,” he said.

“Then there also people who would have travelled with full-service carriers but are perhaps more price conscious, so they are gravitating to us. And that’s why we’re seeing more people at our low-cost terminal in KL.”

The airline hopes to upgrade its Melbourne services to daily for the peak Christmas season and launch permanent daily flights to the Victorian capital from March.

It also plans to start services the Britain in March and still hopes to offer sub-$1000 return fares to and from Australia. Mr Osman-Rani said this would boost volumes on the Australian routes.

Jetblue Airways’ BWI-To-Boston Launch Could Lead To Expanded Flights

JetBlue Airways’ entrance into Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport sets up a three-way fare war on the airport’s route to Boston, and could open up additional service to the West Coast and Caribbean.

BWI’s dominant carrier, Southwest Airlines, said earlier this month it would start service from Boston Logan International with five daily trips to Baltimore. But that was on top of seven daily flights currently taken by BWI’s No. 2 carrier, AirTran Airways, as well as six from Delta Airlines. All three low-fare carriers are offering service for less than $50 one-way.

Meanwhile, JetBlue could also beef up BWI’s service to other areas, spokesman Sebastian White said. There are no plans yet, but depending on the airline’s success at BWI, eventual expansion could include routes to JetBlue airports in Oakland and Long Beach, Calif.; Orlando, Fla.; and nearly a dozen locations in the Caribbean.

JetBlue will offer four daily departures from Baltimore to Boston starting in September. Fares will be as low as $39.

Southwest’s five daily flights on the route start Aug. 20. Fares were set as low as $49 for tickets bought by April 20.

AirTran offers a $39 online special for its Baltimore-to-Boston route.

White said JetBlue is used to the competition.

“It’s just a fact of life in the airline industry,” he said.

Southwest and AirTran executives could not be reached.