Canadian low cost airline West Jet announced Tuesday that it will begin nonstop service from Vancouver and Calgary to John Wayne Airport in May and June, according to a news release from West Jet.

These are the first nonstop international destination to be added since Air Canada broken its JWA service to and from Toronto in October.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors, which oversees the airport, accepted the West Jet flights in December.

City administration is still pulling together the final numbers on the cost of the airport tunnel, delaying a report that had been expected to go before council today.

The results of the highly anticipated cost-crunching exercise are being held up for the moment as the city sorts out some monetary requests being made the Calgary Airport Authority.

This is according to Ald. Jim Stevenson, who declined to give more details, but added he was confident everything would be ironed out in the next few days.

He still believes the final price tag will likely come in between $150 million and $200 million.

"I'm sure it's going to be in that area," he said.

The report will likely come to council in early February.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi said there will be a meeting with Transport Canada next week, where it's hoped the body will give its preliminary approval of the tunnel plans being proposed by the city.

Work is still being done on the construction cost estimates, he said, and there is still some "noodling" of engineering documents.

"It wasn't quite ready yet," Nenshi said. "They needed a few more days and I suggested I'd much rather have them have fully baked numbers than things that may still shift a little bit."

The lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago just days after the two biggest carriers at O'Hare warned Mayor Richard Daley in a letter that proceeding with a nearly $1 billion airport bond sale later this month could lead to litigation.

The airlines asked the court to declare that the city is obligated to obtain airline approval for the $3.36 billion completion phase of the O'Hare Modernization Program. The carriers also want the court to block the city from constructing all or any part of the completion phase.

"These kinds of capital projects require airline scrutiny and approval because they increase airport costs, which the airlines pay for through landing fees and other rates and charges imposed by the city," United and American said in the lawsuit.

The airline industry has been battered severely in the last decade by sagging travel demand, volatile fuel costs and an economic downturn.

"While this severe economic downturn has left the industry as a whole in flux, airlines operating at O'Hare face an even more challenging economic situation," the airlines said in the lawsuit.

In a statement, the Chicago's aviation department said the city believes it has the legal right to continue to move forward to secure funding for O'Hare.

"We remain willing to discuss modernizing O'Hare with the airlines that serve the airport; however, timing is essential. The opportunity to realize the OMP's benefits for the region and national aviation system cannot be lost," the statement said.

In their January 14 letter to the mayor, United and American said the program's continuation is not needed at this time as both airline delays and operations have fallen at O'Hare.

Instead, the carriers said they want to negotiate a construction timetable with the city using agreed-upon operational triggers, similar to a plan used for phase one of the O'Hare Modernization Program.

"We are alarmed at the city's actions to proceed with the issuance of debt for this project without airline approval, which our leases with the city require," the letter said.

A municipal bond market source told Reuters on Tuesday that a $411 million grant receipts and subordinate line passenger facility charge revenue bond sale is scheduled to price next week through Citigroup. Another $587 million of bonds backed by passenger facility charges will be sold the week of January 31 also through Citigroup.

The preliminary official statements for the deals acknowledged the litigation threat by the airlines but stated that the city intends to proceed with the bond sales as it continues discussion with United, American and other carriers.

In their letter, United and American said, while the initial bonds will be paid off with federal grant funds and enplaned passenger charges and not with revenue tied directly to O'Hare carriers, the bonds sale is "inextricably linked to the second debt issuance, which would be backed by airline revenues."

The airlines asked the court to force the city to provide carriers with the city's proposal for the completion phase at least 45 days before issuing general airport revenue bonds, which the airlines fear would increase their costs.

They also want the court to block the city from issuing GARBs to finance the costs of the completion phase unless it has received the prior approval of the phase and its financing from a majority airline coalition.

The carriers want the court to block the city from charging airlines for operation and maintenance expenses related to the completion phase unless it has the coalition's approval. (Reporting by Karen Pierog and Kyle Peterson; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Tehran, Jan 10 (IBNS) The toll in Sunday's crash of an Iranian airplane touched 72 with the recovery of more bodies, even though 30 people survived the deadly accident, aviation officials said on Monday.

The IranAir Boeing 727, carrying 106 people on board, was flying from Tehran when it came down and broke into pieces near the city of Orumiyeh, a mountenous region, 700km (430 miles) north-west of Tehran.

Details of the survivors are, however, still awaited.

The plane had taken off from Mehr-Abad Airport in the Iranian capital Tehran an hour later than scheduled, and it was making an emergency landing because of bad weather conditions, the officials said.

The rescue efforts were hampered due to heavy snow in the area.

Reports said the plane was about 40 years old but was still flying in Iran.

Passenger airline crashes are not uncommon in Iran which still run ageing fleet and cope with US imposed sanctions.

The US imposed sanction of 1995 bans aviation companies from selling aircraft and repair parts to Iranian airlines directly.

Steven P. Canning said he heard the fatal plane crash that occurred near his home on East River Street around 6 p.m. Saturday.

"I was with a buddy of mine and my son in my electrical shop behind my house," said Mr. Canning. "I heard him gun the engine, then a huge crash. I said, 'A plane just crashed,' and we ran right out."

He and his friend Eddie Verheyen, from Athol, ran outside to his truck. They met up with friend Hans Harris from Petersham, who was on his way to the crash, too.

They ran into the woods with flashlights, looking for the downed plane.

The twin engine Cessna 310F, manufactured in 1960, was about 900 feet from the runway at Orange Municipal Airport. It was upside down in a shallow running brook on private property, its landing gear resting about 100 feet from the plane.

Officials said the pilot had taken off from Keene, N.H., about 4 p.m. for a "local flight." It was doing a touch-and-go landing, in which a plane lands on the runway and takes off again without taxiing, when it crashed just outside a fence on the boundary of the airport off Shingle Brook Road, Federal Aviation Authority spokesman Peter C. Knudson said last night.

Mr. Canning and his friends found pilot Steven T. Fay, 56, of Hillsborough, N.H., yelling for his daughter, Jessica L. Fay, 35, a passenger in the twin engine Cessna 310F, when it crashed.

"He was yelling his daughter’s name,” said Mr. Canning. "We asked him how many people were in the plane, and he said, ‘Just two. Just two.’ He was bleeding from his head. He was in shock and crying.”

It was dark and they all started searching for his daughter, said Mr. Canning.

After several minutes, Mr. Harris found Ms. Fay’s feet, Mr. Canning said.

"I ran down into the water to get her out," he said. "I was able to pull her head up out of the water and hold her up by her shoulders. She wasn’t conscious. I supported her with my leg.”

Mr. Canning said Ms. Fay had been ejected from the plane and was pinned under a tree and branches held down on top of her by the weight of the plane’s tail.

"My buddy tried pulling the tree off her, but there was one big branch we couldn’t get off her," he said. “She was pinned under the branches."

While Mr. Canning continued to support her with his leg Mr. Fay administered CPR on his daughter for about three minutes until a police officer arrived and took over, Mr. Canning said. An EMT later pronounced her dead at the crash site.

"It just happened so fast," he said, still obviously emotional around 2 p.m. yesterday. "I just wish we could have saved her. I'm a pilot, too. I would want someone to do the same for me."

Mr. Fay was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus in Worcester. A nursing supervisor said he was discharged yesterday.

His plane was based at Dillant-Hopkins Airport in Keene.

Authorities yesterday morning were searching for parts to the plane to help piece together the cause of the crash. Mr. Knudson said investigators would review any evidence at the scene that was "perishable" and planned to move the wreckage to a secure indoor facility for a closer examination.

Mr. Knudson said the plane appeared to have "impacted trees," and both wings separated from the fuselage, which landed upside down.

According to the FAA's aircraft tail number database, the Cessna is owned by Mr. Fay.

State police said the plane was approaching the airport in a north-to-south direction when it went out of control and crashed upside down in a shallow marsh. Authorities were focusing on whether its landing gear struck nearby trees during its approach, causing the plane to go out of control, state police said.

Assistant Airport Manager John G. Vanbobo said the height of trees in the area of the crash may have been a factor. "If the FAA determines the treetops are penetrating the airspace they may determine they need to be removed," he said. "The homeowner owns right up to the fence. If the trees are in line with the main approach (to the airport), there is legal recourse for that."

State police said the airport is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but pilots can activate runway lights themselves and are allowed to land after normal hours.

The crash was the second in the town since August. A Cessna 172 Skyhawk airplane crashed into the woods about 9:15 p.m. Aug.10, roughly 20 minutes after a worker at Orange Airport finished fueling the aircraft. The crash killed the pilot and a passenger.

And last month a Spencer man was killed Dec. 22 at an airport that he owned in Spencer.

Gregg E. Andrews, 50, of 204 Paxton Road, Spencer, was flying a single-engine Piper that apparently clipped the tops of trees as he was approaching the runway. The FAA is continuing to investigate that crash, as well.

In 2010, eight people died in aircraft crashes in the Bay State. Mr. Knudson said sometimes there is a crop of crashes in an area, though the incidents usually are not related. The investigation into the crashes usually yields a preliminary report in about 10 days and a full report in 12 months.