SEATAC, Wash. (AP) - Alaska Airlines Flight 72 is still 20 minutes missing from the airport, but dozens of ramp workers, mechanics, fuelers, cleaners and gate agents are previously staged for its arrival.

A huge electronic sign above the airport's Gate C-11 displays the flight's vital statistics.

It tells the effort team that the flight is coming from Juneau, Alaska, to Sea-Tac Airport. It also spells out where the flight goes subsequently.

Most prominently, the screen counts down the minutes remaining until the airplane must push back from the gate as Flight 464 bound for Los Angeles.

If Flight 72 is on time, that crew has an hour to deplane the Juneau passengers and their luggage, clean the airplane, service the bathrooms, add fuel, load new luggage and passengers, and fix any mechanical or electronic issues that have developed on the air travel down from southeast Alaska.

Odds are, they will be successful. Sea-Tac based Alaska ranks first among the nation's major airlines this year in on-time presentation. In unofficial statistics compiled by Portland's Flightstats.com, 90.12 percent of Alaska's flights arrived on time previous month.

It wasn't always so. Less than five years ago, Alaska ranked dead last among the 19 airlines tracked by the federal Department of Transportation, with just 69.7 percent of its flights arriving promptly.

While Alaska's standing for customer service over the years has ranked high, its on-time presentation was less than mediocre. The airline ranked seventh among airlines the DOT tracks for on-time recital in the 23 years since the DOT began compiling on-time figures. That seventh ranking is not as excellent as it appears. Only eight domestic airlines that existed in September 1987 when tracking happening are still flying today.

Alaska had excused itself for lateness by citing its intricate flying conditions in remote parts of Alaska and on the foggy West Coast, said Ben Minicucci, Alaska chief operating officer. But Minicucci said that excuse was just a prop for substandard performance.

Relatives of the 113 people killed in the 2000 Concorde crash close to Paris will have to wait until December 6 for a decision in the test that ended in France on Friday.

AFP - The trial over the Concorde collide that killed 113 people in Paris in 2000 ended on Friday after four months and the French court said it would give a decision on December 6.

A lawyer for US Company Continental Airlines gave his closing arguments on the last day of the trial, which seeks to found who was to blame for the crash, in which most of those killed were German passenger.

Continental is the main defendant along with two of its employees and three French previous aviation officials.

Prosecutors have called for a two-year suspended jail term for engineer Henri Perrier, a past director of the Concorde programmer, and a 175,000-euro (220,000-dollar) fine against Continental Airlines.

They cite experts who said the Concorde was brought down by a strip of metal on the landing strip that had fallen off a Continental jet that took off just previous to the Concorde.

They also called for 18-month balanced sentences against two of Continental's US employees -- John Taylor, a mechanic who supposedly fitted the non-standard strip, and airline chief of preservation Stanley Ford.

Continental has maintained the Concorde caught fire earlier than hitting the metal strip from its aircraft.

The federal government ordered all aircraft that utilize the nation's busiest airports to have satellite technology on board by 2020.

The Obama administration is taking a main step toward an air traffic control system based on satellite technology.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has released an regulate Thursday that requires all aircraft that utilize the nation's busiest airports to have equipment by 2020 that repeatedly broadcasts their place to other aircraft and air traffic controllers.

LaHood said the new system will be safer and more competent than the radar-based system presently in use. It's also expected to cut fuel consumption and pollution.

Airlines and little plane owners say they can't afford the new equipment. They want the government to assist pay for it.

Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, located close to Panama City, FL, opened this past Sunday with flights operate by Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines. The airport, who claims it to be the first global airport, built in the U.S. in more than a decade, offer service to Atlanta, Memphis, Baltimore, Houston-Hobby, Nashville and Orlando.

What's an airport so little doing with carriers so big? The St. Joe Co., the real estate developer that donated 4,000 acres for the airport, has offered to cover Southwest's operating wounded for three years. Financial support, typically from smaller regional airports, has helped lure airlines in the past to test-drive the market. Could Northwest Florida's latest airport be a victim to the Southwest Effect? Southwest will fly eight round-trip flights to Baltimore, Orlando, Houston-Hobby, and Nashville from Northwest Florida global.

Delta Air Lines, the world's biggest airline, offers regional and mainline service to the airport, just as they do to many other lesser regional airports in Florida, like Daytona Beach International Airport and Melbourne. The carrier flies eleven round-trip flights out of Northwest Florida global to Atlanta (Delta Mainline, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Comair) and Memphis (Pinnacle Airlines).

In addition to the seven gates 105,000 sq. feet terminal, an air cargo ability is planned for the airport.

Could the timing be any worse? said St. Joe CEO Britton Greene (source: Business week). A primary anxiety for the airport is the B.P. oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Florida beaches do not emerge to be major affected by the spill. If oil blackens Florida's beaches, the state of Florida is expected to act punctually on the matter. The beaches will be cleaned up and tourism will persist, said Greene.

During April, 813,329 passengers traveled through Southwest Florida worldwide Airport, a decrease of 4.3 percent compared to April 2009. Year-to-date, passenger traffic is losing 2.4 percent from the same period previous year.

The traffic head in April was Delta with 159,448 passengers traveling to and from Fort Myers. Rounding out the pinnacle five airlines were AirTran (131,712), JetBlue (108,177), Southwest (92,801) and Continental (82,156).

Southwest Florida International Airport had 8,658 aircraft actions (takeoffs and landings), a decrease of 3 percent compared to April 2009. Page Field General Aviation Airport saw 7,897 movements, an enlarge of 12.2 percent from April 2009. In addition, almost 3 million pounds of air freight moved through Southwest Florida International Airport in April 2010.

Southwest Florida International Airport served over 7.4 million passengers in 2009 and is one of the pinnacle 50 U.S. airports for passenger traffic. No ad valorem (property) taxes are used for airport process or construction.

Iceland's main Reykjavik-Keflavik airport will close from 1230 IST today awaiting the end of the day due to the volcanic ash cloud, airport official have said.

"The airport is due to close at 0700 GMT tomorrow morning and will wait closed till midnight, we have brought departure forward so that passengers can leave before the closure," a spokesman for Iceland's major airport told AFP.


The air company Icelandair said the airport be supposed to reopen tomorrow. After more than a few days of disruption in Europe's skies, air travel return to normal yesterday, according to the European authority, Eurocontrol.

Bjorn Oddsson, a geologist and geophysicist at the University of Iceland's Institute of Earth Sciences supposed there were no indications that the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjoell, ongoing since April 14, was coming to an end.

"The pulse movement continues, it increases for about 3 hours, then decrease for another three," he said, adding that "it's nothing to worry about."

Come back of a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland was expected to force the cancellation of hundreds of flights Monday but airports reopened in Portugal on the eve of a visit by Pope Benedict XVI. About 500 fewer flights would take to the skies in Europe on Monday since the ash cloud, which would also power transatlantic planes to fly lengthy detours, European air traffic agency Eurocontrol said in a statement.

Lisbon airport, where Pope Benedict XVI is due to turn up on Tuesday for the start of a 4 day visit, reopened Monday at 9:00 am, 4 hours ahead of schedule because the ash cloud had moved away "more quickly than expected", civil aviation authority NAV spokeswoman Sofia Azevedo told AFP.

The airport in the northern city of Oporto also reopened as did all 7 airports in neighbouring Spain, including at Bilbao and Santander, which were closed on Sunday because of the danger posed to engines by the ash.

But Euro control warn that during Monday afternoon "areas of higher ash concentration could move in a north-easterly direction from the Atlantic into the Iberian Peninsula", most important to fresh flight disturbance in Spain and Portugal. Somewhere else airports reopened in Austria, England, Germany, Ireland and Scotland, except for the airport at Barra island in the west.

But transatlantic flights were suffering delays, especially those departure from London's Gatwick airport. A Virgin Atlantic flight from Gatwick to Orlando in Florida that should have departed at 11:15 am was delayed until 4:15 pm while another flight to Las Vegas was pushed back to 5:45 pm from 11:25 am.

Flights to Canada and the Caribbean were also suffering delay. No airports were closed in Bulgaria on Monday but official in the country said there was a risk that the ash would affect its skies later on Monday.

The eruption of the Eyjafjoell volcano on April cause travel chaos worldwide, with airspace closed over more than a few European nations for a week previous month because of fears the ash would damage aircraft engines with fatal results.

It was the major aerial shutdown in Europe since World War II, with more than 100,000 flights cancelled and eight million passengers affected.

Recent images have shown movement in the volcano intensifying. Experts at Britain's Met Office said Sunday it was sending ash up to heights of 30,000 feet (9,100 metres).

The nation's major and busiest international airport terminal at Auckland was successfully shut down at the height of the city's rush hour this evening since of a gas leak. The leak at the Novotel building site in the car park area was reported to have occurred after a pipe was hit by a digger.


Police said tonight traffic was being unfocused at the intersection of Tom Pearce and George Bolt Memorial Drive. The leak was not reported to be endanger aircraft actions at Auckland International Airport (AIA), but the incurable and the car park were evacuated.

No approximation was available as to when the leak would be repaired.

"We have to make sure the skies are safe." Mayor of Clare, Cllr Tony Mulcahy (FG) was speaking as news was expected last evening from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) about the probable closure of Shannon International Airport again today (Tuesday). Last night, the IAA informed Irish-based airlines that it was worried Shannon and Dublin airports, along with a number of local airports, may be precious by the drift south of the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland caused by the north easterly winds. Full report in this week's Clare People.