RUNWAYS
Winter is upon the USA and airports face a de-icing fluid shortage. Supplies of potassium acetate, the main raw material in most popular de-icer, are short owing to a long strike at potash mines in Canada. A hard winter could dent airport cash flow, as US Federal Aviation Administration-approved alternatives are effective but far more expensive. The FAA says that although the strike has been settled it could be February before supplies are back to normal.
Source: Flight International
Investigators have determined that a Delta Air Lines Airbus A330-300 touched down short of the runway at Amsterdam, after the crew sought to mitigate a perceived risk of overrun and descended below the glideslope.
American Airlines and United Airlines are resuming flights having been forced to temporarily halt operations as part of the wide-ranging global impact of an IT outage today.
A global technology outage appears to have caused several major US airlines to ground departing aircraft, in addition to creating problems at airports and airlines worldwide that threatens to snarl air traffic.
