Airport

CANCUN, Mexico -- Tens of thousands of haggard tourists, fed up after five days in hot and dirty emergency shelters, battled for airline and bus seats out of Mexico's hurricane-battered Caribbean resorts yesterday. Officials said they still had no solid estimate of the damage caused by Hurricane Wilma, which lashed the coastline Friday and Saturday and wiped out the heart of Mexico's $11 billion foreign tourism industry, even washing away Cancun's famed white beaches. President Vicente Fox's office said that about 22,000 foreign tourists remained in the area, down from a peak of almost...

WASHINGTON — A Democratic-controlled Senate panel Tuesday approved a $2.50 increase in airline security fees that would double the per-passenger fee for those taking nonstop flights. The move by the Senate Appropriations Committee would increase the fee on a nonstop round-trip flight from $5 to $10. Fees on a one-way, nonstop ticket would increase from $2.50 to $5. Passengers who change planes to reach their destinations would continue to pay $5 each way. A similar move last year failed because of opposition by Republicans, and the current effort faces long odds in an election year.

Because of the airport’s location on a peninsula in Boston Harbor, Logan officials can’t just add a runway when traffic gets tight. “I can’t say what’s going to happen in 50 years,” says Matthew Brelis, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, the independent public agency that manages the airport and the port of Boston, “but right now we have no plans for expansion.” The agency’s executive director echoes him. “We’re at...

She smiles, answers questions and can guide you to the nearest restroom or to your connecting flight. But don't try to shake her hand. That's because "she" is an avatar, the latest high-tech venture at the three major airports in the New York City area. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey unveiled the device Monday at Newark and La Guardia airports. Those two, along with JFK, will be the first airports in North America to get an avatar this summer. The Port Authority is renting them for about $180,000 for six months.

A Philippine official says "Friday Night Lights" star Taylor Kitsch was not hassled at Manila's airport recently, as the Canadian actor indicated this week. Kitsch said Wednesday on the "Late Show with David Letterman" that customs officers stopped him at the airport and ordered him back to Japan because his passport didn't have enough pages to stamp his arrival. He was to finish filming Oliver Stone's "Savages" in the Philippines. Kitsch said he was let in only after proving with his iPhone that he was an actor.

A Kentucky man's attorney says welding material he was carrying in his luggage prompted an evacuation at the Omaha airport. Gabriel Copley, of Mount Sterling, Ky., is charged with possession of a destructive device. He was arrested Saturday after screeners found the suspicious item, believed to be a homemade firework, prompting an evacuation at Eppley Airfield. Copley's attorney, James Martin Davis, told KMTV-TV that he wrapped welding material together with duct tape. Davis said Copley was going to use it on the Fourth of July but forgot about it. Copley's father, Courtney...

PHILADELPHIA - A day after a sport utility vehicle crashed through a fence and sped onto a runway, causing an approaching plane to have to pull up quickly, officials said the facility's perimeter fencing meets federal standards but that police are investigating whether there are ways to make the airport more secure. Kenneth Richard Mazik is being charged with disrupting operations at the airport and endangering safety there, the US attorney said yesterday. Mazik, of the Philadelphia suburb of Chadds Ford, drove his Jeep through a fence Thursday and sped up and down two runways at speeds of more...

The international airport for Guatemala's capital is back in operation after shutting down for a few hours when an older-model cargo plane experienced problems with its landing gear and a propeller during landing and skidded on the runway. No injuries were reported. Civil aviation spokeswoman Oddra Lacs says authorities removed the Convair cargo plane and reopened the airport four hours after Friday's mishap. It isn't clear how many flights were canceled or delayed. Lacs says the plane came to a rest about 100 meters (yards)

HONOLULU - Dozens of employees at Honolulu's airport were fired or suspended after an investigation found workers did not screen checked bags for explosives, the Transportation Security Administration said yesterday. The firings and suspensions were the largest personnel action for misconduct in the federal agency's history. It said in a statement that 28 workers were "removed," 15 suspended, and three resigned or retired. The cases of two other employees were being decided. The agency began an investigation at the end of last year after two Honolulu employees told...

Work on the main runway will ground commercial flights for up to two months at the airport in Maine's capital city. Cape Air will suspend operations while the Augusta State Airport's main runway is closed for reconstruction during most or all of May and June. The airport will remain open with a shorter 2,700-foot runway available for smaller aircraft and charter flights. But Andrew Bonney from Massachusetts-based Cape Air says its aircraft need at least 3,200 feet of runway for daily flights between Augusta and Boston.

Speak your mind about your airline experiences. The Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) has produced an online survey to gather tales from travelers related to their recent flights. Rant or rave about anything from your pre-departure experience to in-flight movies, publications, Internet access, food, or ambience. The Passenger Choice Awards survey is open year-round, so you can complete it after every flight you take. The results of all information recorded through June will be used to determine the world's top-rated airlines for 2012.

A terminal at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was closed for a time after an unknown chemical sent five people to the hospital with respiratory complaints. Terminal 2 was evacuated for about two hours Friday as hazardous materials technicians investigated what caused several people to become ill. The cause remains under investigation, though an airport spokesman says it appears an aerosol can discharged. Broward County Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles says three Transportation Security Administration agents and two passengers were affected by the...

WASHINGTON - Commercial air travel is at risk from terrorists who quietly get jobs at airports so that they can attack sensitive areas from within, a senior Homeland Security Department official told lawmakers. There has never been such an incident, but a security supervisor at Newark Liberty Airport is facing criminal charges that nearly 20 years ago he took the identity of a New York man who was later killed. This case raised questions of whether the Transportation Security Administration knows the true identities of those who work in airports.

NEWARK - A Newark Liberty Airport security supervisor pleaded not guilty to identity theft Tuesday as new details emerged about his alleged 20-year odyssey of deception, including that he may have assumed the identity of a New York man weeks before the man was slain. Through his court-appointed attorney, Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole pleaded not guilty to one count of identity theft, an offense punishable by a maximum 10-year sentence. Standing in an orange prison jumpsuit, Oyewole appeared via video feed from the jail where he has been held since his arrest Monday at his home in Elizabeth.

New York magazine asked actress-writer Mindy Kaling to keep a diary during upfronts, the annual meeting of TV execs to roll out the networks' new season of shows. We learn that Kaling returned to her childhood home in Cambridge while she waited to hear if her show, "The Mindy Project," made Fox's fall lineup. "Going through my bedroom and find some great relics from junior high, like a Denis Leary ‘No Cure for Cancer' tape, but nothing to play it on," she writes. Later, she went to a matinee of "The Avengers.

For 20 years, co-workers on the security team at one of the nation's busiest airports knew him as Jerry Thomas. His real name, authorities say, was Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole, a Nigerian who used the name of a murder victim to hide his status as an illegal immigrant. Though there's no indication of any other intent or transgressions, the revelation comes the same day a federal report says security breaches at the Newark airport were mishandled. Authorities say Oyewole worked undetected for years as a security guard and later a security supervisor.

Rhode Island's T.F. Green Airport plans to spend $25 million over the next three years to stop chemicals from airplane deicing trucks from polluting the environment. The Providence Journal reports ( http://bit.ly/tisgO8) the money will go toward the construction of a new collection system to gather runoff from de-icing trucks. The trucks use chemicals to prevent ice buildup on airplanes. The runoff collection system is intended to reduce the amount of chemical discharged into a nearby brook and wetlands.

Authorities say a prisoner is back in custody after he was caught by airline workers while trying to escape at Phoenix's airport. Police say 22-year-old John Riebesel was being extradited from Detroit when he managed to get away from two Yavapai County sheriff's deputies at Sky Harbor International Airport Thursday evening. KSAZ-TV reports ( http://bit.ly/IlZQxt) Riebesel found his way onto the tarmac, but was spotted by a US Airways employee. Other US Airways employees came to the aid of the first and detained him until police arrived.

The international airport for Guatemala's capital is back in operation after shutting down for a few hours when an older-model cargo plane experienced problems with its landing gear and a propeller during landing and skidded on the runway. No injuries were reported. Civil aviation spokeswoman Oddra Lacs says authorities removed the Convair cargo plane and reopened the airport four hours after Friday's mishap. It isn't clear how many flights were canceled or delayed. Lacs says the plane came to a rest about 100 meters (yards)