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WASHINGTON – Three top US airlines groups accused Qatar and the United Arab Emirates Thursday of lavishing $42 billion in subsidies on their airlines to wrest business from competitors.

The US carriers together with workers’ groups issued a 55 page report detailing how “unfair” subsidies given to Gulf rivals Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates have allowed them to wrest market share from the US industry.

They called on the US government to raise the issue with the governments and urged changes to the bilateral commercial aviation agreements with them.

“The multi-billion dollar subsidies… have allowed Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates to rapidly expand their fleets and international routes, distorting the commercial marketplace to the severe detriment of US employment, the US economy and the US airline industry,” the US group said.

American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines along with US pilot and airline labor groups said the three Gulf fliers have benefitted unfairly from huge interest-free loans, subsidized airport charges, government protection on fuel losses, and below-market labor costs that are considered unfair subsidies under the World Trade Organization.

The report said that, with the backing of state support, the Gulf airlines are targeting more international traffic to the United States on the back of the US “Open Skies” aviation agreements with Qatar and UAE.

It noted their huge share of orders for widebody aircraft, representing about one-quarter of the entire global fleet of widebody aircraft.

“Because the Gulf carriers are adding this new capacity at rates that substantially exceed global GDP growth — which drives growth in demand for air transport services — the only way to accomplish this feat is to continue taking passengers from other countries’ carriers,” they said.

They called on the US government to open new talks over the air agreements to address what they said are violations of those pacts, and pressed for changes.

“The Open Skies agreements conferred enormous benefits on Qatar and the UAE by opening the most lucrative market in the world to their airlines,” the group accused.

If Qatar and UAE refuse to address the problems, they recommended, the US should move to terminate the agreements and negotiate new deals based on “principles of comity and reciprocity,” the US group said.

The Delta Airlines plane came close to toppling into the icy waters of New York’s Flushing Bay.

Flight 1086 from Atlanta skidded off the runway at LaGuardia airport in snowy conditions on Thursday morning, and hit a fence before coming to rest.

Officials said all 127 passengers and five crew members were evacuated safely from the plane – a McDonnell Douglas MD-88.

My day so far. #crashland pic.twitter.com/dpNnGP5oQk

— Steve (@steveblaze98) 5 Mars 2015

Some passengers described the terrifying experience to the New York Daily News, saying there had been a sudden jolt and that the plane approached the water very quickly.

The airport’s operator praised the pilot’s actions, adding that others had experienced no problems.

“Before the incident at approximately 11.05, two planes landed and reported “good braking action” on the runways. This particular runway had been ploughed shortly before the incident and the pilots on other planes reported good braking action,” said Pat Foye, Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The AFP news agency quoted an official as saying there had been two dozen light injuries, but that only three people were taken to hospital.

The airport was closed temporarily and was expected to reopen around 7pm local time.

The winter weather has brought snow and freezing rain across a wide part of the US.

A plane skidded off an icy runway into a fence at New York’s LaGuardia Airport today while landing during a winter storm, shutting down the airport’s runways, officials said.

Delta Flight 1086, an MD-88 arriving from Atlanta, skidded off Runway 13 around 11:05 a.m., according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

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Small Plane Crashes in Botanical Garden in Virginia; 3 Dead

NOW: #ESU #Harbor @FDNY PAPD at #LGA. Minor fuel spill. All passengers removed. Minor injuries @Delta @nycoem pic.twitter.com/SbYRLV9FLI

— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) March 5, 2015

At least 28 passengers had non-life threatening injuries, of those injured five people were transported to hospitals, according to the Fire Department of New York.

a plane just slid off the runway at LaGuardia Airport… pic.twitter.com/LRoUHcWTsh

— Sarah Wagner (@swags201) March 5, 2015

The runway where the plane landed had been plowed just minutes before and two other pilots reported “good braking action” as they landed, according to Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye.

Stuck at LaGuardia. There’s only one thing left to do: play terminal tinder at the airport bar

— Kevin Tschirhart (@KevinTshirt) March 5, 2015

Once the plane landed, it veered sharply left about 4,500 to 5,000 feet down the 7,000-foot runway, skidding off to the side and nearly ending up in the water, according to Foye.

An Instagram video shot shortly after the crash showed a man at the scene leaving in a stretcher.

LaGuardia’s runways were closed for most of the day, but one runway reopened at 2 p.m., according to Foye.

Officials said they were checking for a fuel leak.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced it would send an investigator to secure the flight data recorders and document the damage.

Images of the plane taken by eyewitnesses showed that it apparently crashed through a fence after skidding off the runway.

“Customers deplaned via aircraft slides and have moved to the terminal on buses,” Delta Airlines said in a statement. “Our priority is ensuring our customers and crew members are safe. Delta will work with all authorities and stakeholders to look into what happened in this incident.”

Passengers on the plane included New York Giants tight end Larry Donnell, who said he was “safe and sound” after the crash.

“I feel fine physically and hopefully all the other passengers did not have any significant injuries,” read a portion of Donnell’s statement. “We were all shocked and alarmed when the plane started to skid, but most importantly, as far as I know, all of the passengers and flight crew were able to exit the plane safely.”

An incredible photo was captured by passenger Jared Falleci from inside the plane just after it came to a stop. Falleci told ABC News he had no idea if the plane would stay out of the water as they skidded off the runway.

“I was holding on to the seat in front of me and I was praying,” he told ABC News. “It literally stopped a matter of feet, as you can see from the photos, from the water itself.”

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A Delta Airlines plane swerved off a runway during a snowstorm at LaGuardia Airport around 11 a.m. Thursday, according to multiple reports.

Delta Airlines said in a statement that flight 1086, an MD-88 traveling from Atlanta, “exited Runway 13 Thursday morning during landing,” and that the airline was working with authorities to determine the cause of the crash.

The nose of the plane appeared to have broken through a fence separating the runway from the East River, and NYPD Special Operations said that there was a minor fuel spill.

WCBS in New York reported that all passengers and personnel were evacuated from the aircraft. According to the New York City Fire Department, of the 131 passengers and crewmembers were on the plane, 24 sustained non-life threatening injuries, three of whom were transported to medical facilities.

The FAA has closed LaGuardia Airport due to an aircraft incident, and is expected to reopen the airport around 7 p.m. Earlier status reports on the FAA website showed warnings about flight delays due to snow and ice.

Georgia lawmakers may eliminate a tax break for airlines buying jet fuel at the world’s busiest airport, setting up a face-off with one of the state’s largest employers, Atlanta-based Delta Airlines.

The latest version of the bill from Republican Rep. Earl Ehrhart would remove the break for all airlines, updating his original proposal to end only Delta’s. State officials estimate the exemption is worth about $23 million, and supporters of the bill said that money could be used for aviation-related upgrades throughout the state.

But the proposal also has become a political flashpoint. From the House floor early this session, Ehrhart accused one of Delta’s lobbyists of threatening members who had signed on. The company has denied that.

Ehrhart still bristled this week at the airline’s opposition to eliminating the perk while its CEO has been a prominent backer of more revenue to improve Georgia’s roads and other infrastructure.

“It’s been said that we need to step up and tax individuals in our district for transportation,” Ehrhart said this week in a subcommittee. “After you.”

The tax break was first approved in 2005 as Delta faced bankruptcy. Ehrhart himself voted for its creation and later for allowing it to continue indefinitely.

Wesley Tharpe, an analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said corporate breaks often remain on the books for years in Georgia without any review. He’s hopeful the bill will encourage lawmakers to take a look at other exemptions or credits.

A similar bill to eliminate the jet fuel credit went nowhere in 2014. But members of a subcommittee and a key committee chairman this week signaled their support, meaning the bill could receive a House vote in the coming days.

“Companies are looking for an airport that has a 5,000-foot runway or has taxiways or a radio control tower, all sorts of assets that these smaller communities can’t afford to do,” said Republican Rep. Jay Powell, a Camilla Republican who chairs the influential Ways and Means committee considering the bill. “Just like the internet has made rural Georgia accessible to companies, this also will make rural Georgia accessible to companies.”

Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said Thursday that lawmakers risk the Atlanta airport’s competitive status.

“If approved, this measure would put Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport at an economic disadvantage by making aviation fuel taxes in Georgia some of the highest in the industry,” Banstetter said, citing Georgia’s #11 jet fuel tax ranking by the Airlines for America trade organization.

Vaughn Jennings, a spokesman for the group, called the changes “unnecessary tax hikes.”

“We urge the legislature to enact a business climate which values air transportation, promotes travel and encourages airlines to further invest in the economic prosperity of the state,” Jennings said.

Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, indicated in a Thursday meeting that he was leaning in favor of the bill but asked the question on some members’ minds.

“Do you have any concerns that this would potentially cause Delta to move their corporate headquarters from here or potentially divert business assets because of the action we’re taking?” Peake asked Ehrhart.

Ehrhart said he wasn’t worried about that.

Moving an airline’s headquarters is no easy feat though companies sometimes threaten it during fights over expenses, said industry analyst Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann Company. Fuel tax exemptions add some competitive edge but commercial airlines worry more about per-passenger and landing fees set by airports, he said.

“But it’s a pile of money and people seeing a pile of money tend to want it,” Mann said.

The United Airlines has said it will no longer carry bulk shipments of lithium-ion batteries, becoming the second major US airline to do so.

Delta Airlines had stopped bulk shipments of the batteries in February.

A report by BBC also said aviation officials believed lithium-ion batteries contributed to fires that destroyed two Boeing 747 cargo planes, killing all four crew members.

Federal Aviation Administration tests found overheating batteries could cause major fires.

In its tests, the FAA filled a cargo container with 5,000 lithium-ion batteries and a cartridge heater, which was added to simulate a single battery overheating.

The heat from the cartridge triggered a chain reaction in other batteries, with temperatures reaching about 600C.

This was followed by an explosion, which blew open the container door and set the cargo box on fire.

A second test, some months later, produced similar results, despite the addition of a fire-suppression agent.

“Our primary concerns when transporting dangerous goods are the safety of our customers, our customers’ shipments and the environment,” the United Airlines said in a statement.

Experts think that batteries have contributed to several cargo plane fires in recent years.

In 2010, a Boeing 747 cargo plane operated by UPS Airlines developed an in-flight fire and crashed in an unpopulated area in Dubai. Both crew members were killed.

In the subsequent investigation, the FAA highlighted the fact that a large quantity of lithium-ion batteries had been on board.

In 2011, an Asiana Airlines cargo plane carrying 880lb (400kg) of lithium batteries crashed into the Korea Strait, killing both crew members.

The cause of the fire was never determined, but the International Civil Aviation Organisation did recommend new safety standards for the carriage of such batteries.

And back in 2006, a UPS cargo plane made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport, following a fire. In that case, all crew members escaped unharmed.

The cause of the fire was never determined, but the recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board included advice about the transport of lithium-ion batteries.

Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was also reported to have been carrying 440lb of lithium-ion batteries in its cargo, adding yet another theory to the mystery surrounding its disappearance last year.

The increasing focus on battery safety will put pressure on other airlines to follow suit, as well as on the technology industry to come up with safer ways of transporting them.

Lithium-ion batteries power mobile phones, laptops and other digital devices. An estimated 4.8 billion lithium-ion cells were manufactured in 2013 and production is forecast to reach eight billion by 2025.

Shipments of rechargeable batteries on passenger planes are supposed to be limited to no more than a handful in a single box, under safety standards set by the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation.

But a loophole permits many small boxes to be packed into one shipment, meaning that thousands of the batteries may be packed into pallets and loaded into the cargo holds of passenger planes.

No cargo fires aboard passenger airlines have been attributed to batteries.

American Airlines stopped accepting some types of lithium-ion battery shipments in February. It continues to accept small packages of batteries grouped together or packed into a single cargo container. But this has raised safety concerns because of the large number of batteries in one container.

The FAA tests also revealed that lithium-metal batteries, which are not rechargeable and power devices such as cameras and calculators, could catch fire much faster than other versions.

The UN banned shipments of these batteries on passenger planes last year, and the ban came into effect in January.

About 10 per cent of the 2.5 billion lithium-metal batteries manufactured annually are shipped by air.

Lithium-ion batteries are far more frequently shipped by air.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwired – Mar 4, 2015) – Siluria Technologies, a pioneer in the commercial production of fuels and chemicals made from clean and abundant natural gas, announced today that Paula Reynolds, current director of Delta Airlines, Inc., BAE Systems plc and TransCanada Corporation, has joined the company as an independent director on the board and will serve as chairperson of Siluria’s audit committee.

“We are honored to have Paula join the board,” said Karl Kurz, Siluria’s chairman. “Her broad executive experience and deep understanding of the energy industry will add an invaluable perspective to the company. We are confident she will make a significant contribution as Siluria commercializes its revolutionary technology.”

“Siluria is a great example of how scientific breakthroughs can be applied to long-standing energy industry challenges,” said Reynolds. “I look forward to working with the Siluria team to see this technology adopted across the energy processing and chemical manufacturing value chain.”

Ms. Reynolds began her career in the energy business and was an executive in the utility, pipeline and power generation businesses with Pacific Gas and Electric and Duke Energy. She rose to become the chair and CEO of AGL Resources, Inc., a natural gas infrastructure and energy services company. Later, she joined the financial services industry, serving as chair and CEO of Safeco and vice chair and chief restructuring officer at AIG during the financial crisis.

Ms. Reynolds was a former director of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and Safeco. In 2014, she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Association of Corporate Directors. 

About Siluria Technologies
Siluria Technologies is pioneering the commercial production of fuels and chemicals made from clean, abundant natural gas. Siluria’s break through Oxidative Coupling of Methane (“OCM”) process technology is believed to be the first commercially viable process to directly convert methane to ethylene. Siluria’s second process technology can convert ethylene to liquid fuels such as gasoline, diesel or jet fuel. This enables natural gas to potentially supplement petroleum as the worldwide basis for transportation fuels and commodity chemicals. Siluria’s revolutionary catalyst and process technologies uniquely combine nanomaterials, templating and chemical engineering, to convert natural gas into higher value products using efficient processes that can be seamlessly integrated into existing industry infrastructure. For more information about Siluria, visit www.siluria.com

Don Brunell

Don Brunell

The fierce competition between Seattle’s Alaska Airlines and Atlanta’s Delta Airlines is spilling over to the Port of Seattle, and it may reach your wallet in the form of higher airfares.

The port commission, which manages Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, must decide whether to build a new international arrivals terminal at the south end of the airport or expand the north satellite to accommodate additional domestic flights.

The commission prefers the international terminal, but there’s a problem — the price keeps ratcheting up. It started at $344 million and has now swollen to $608 million.

Because Delta has more than 5,400 flights daily to 64 countries on six continents, it would benefit from a new international arrivals terminal. On the other hand, Alaska, which is mainly a domestic carrier, wants the port to enlarge the north terminal, increasing the current 12 gates to 20, with more room for restaurants and shops.

The commission’s decision will shape the future of Sea-Tac Airport.

Sea-Tac handled 37.7 million passengers last year and analysts predict that number will grow to 66 million passengers by 2034. While 20 years seems like a long time, airport megaprojects take years to design, permit, finance and construct.

For example, the port started planning the airport’s third runway in 1992, but after lawsuits and delays, it did not open until November 2008. Preliminary costs shot from $216 million to $1.1 billion at completion.

The commission’s decision on the dueling terminal expansions involves two of the port’s most important customers, airlines that are also direct competitors.

Alaska is the port’s biggest customer. It pays the port $115 million a year and uses 40 percent of the terminal gates. While other airlines have consolidated and grown just 6 percent over the last decade, Alaska has grown by a whopping 43 percent on its own.

Delta is the world’s second-largest airline. The company, which has grown due to a number of major airline mergers, plans to nearly double the number of flights originating in Seattle by 2017. And Delta has begun competing directly with Alaska Airlines, even flying into Alaska’s capitol, Juneau.

Alaska leaders object to the commission’s plan to pay for the new international terminal with a surcharge on all airline tickets — including Alaska and its subsidiary Horizon Airlines, which have more than half of the passengers flying through Sea-Tac.

In a recent Puget Sound Business Journal article, Joe Sprague, Alaska’s senior vice president, says the passengers who use the international terminal should pay for it. Mike Mederios, Delta’s vice president in Seattle, counters that the international arrival facility was built in 1973, and since that time, not a local dollar has gone into it. He figures it is high time the port ponies up.

The bottom line is, whatever the commission decides, it has to rein in the costs for this project because the port’s master plan for the airport also includes a list of other essential projects. It is in the best interest of all airlines to control skyrocketing construction costs. Another third runway fiasco is not in the interests of travelers, airlines or the Port of Seattle.

Failing to control costs could also shape the future of Sea-Tac Airport in way the commission did not intend.

Raising air fares unnecessarily could drive passengers to other airports such Portland International Airport, where ticket prices may be lower. PDX, which grew at nearly the same rate as Sea-Tac, also has twice as much room to expand and is just 150 miles away.

The commission should make sure its decision doesn’t tip the balance in favor of one airline over another or force Northwest travelers to look elsewhere to book a flight.

Don Brunell, retired as president of the Association of Washington Business, is a business analyst, writer, and columnist.

Airline stocks have soared over the past several years, and Delta Air Lines has been one of the leading airlines to reap the benefits. Delta has enjoyed many of the same tailwinds as its peers, including less competition in a consolidating industry, tighter seating capacity, and rising demand among travelers for air travel. Yet alone among its peers, Delta made an innovative strategic decision in 2012 aimed at controlling its exposure to volatile fuel costs: buying a refinery. Although that move was much maligned, the refinery has become a useful source of profits recently. Let’s look more closely at Delta’s refinery acquisition and how it helped profits soar in the airline’s most recent quarter.

Why Delta bought a refinery
In 2012, the U.S. energy boom had created huge price differences between the cost of domestic crude oil and higher global oil prices. Because the U.S. generally doesn’t allow crude-oil exports, those price differences persisted due to large increases in oil production from domestic shale and other new drilling plays. Those lower crude oil prices had no impact on Delta’s fuel costs, though, because the price of refined products such as jet fuel is tied more to the global price of crude. That’s because, unlike crude, U.S. producers are allowed to export refined products, and that keeps U.S. and world-market prices from getting out of sync.

In hopes of taking advantage of cheap U.S. oil, Delta bought a refinery in Pennsylvania. Advocates of the move hoped that by doing so, Delta would effectively benefit from lower domestic oil prices, rather than giving up those savings to a third-party refiner. Skeptics argued that without refinery expertise, Delta would potentially expose itself to a low-margin business with only minimal upside. Indeed, in its first quarter under Delta’s umbrella, the refinery lost $63 million, disrupted by restart costs and the impact of Hurricane Sandy.

Refinery profits were slow in coming…
For a long time, profits from Delta’s refinery operations didn’t play a huge role in the company’s overall results. Even with fuel costs soaring in 2013 and early 2014, demand for travel was sufficient to allow airlines to pass through those higher costs to passengers.

In fact, Delta didn’t see the refinery as a source of huge revenue. Rather, its goal was to keep the operation marginally profitable while allowing it to hedge against the possibility that jet fuel prices would rise much more sharply than the price of crude. This “crack-spread” hedge gives Delta a more predictable cost structure that isn’t as dependent on changing supply and demand dynamics within the U.S. energy market.

…but big when it mattered
In its most recent quarter, Delta demonstrated the wisdom of its refinery strategy, as the operation paid off for investors. Like other airlines, Delta manages the risk of some of its fuel-cost exposure through traditional hedging strategies; when the price of crude oil plunged in the fourth quarter of 2014, those hedging strategies backfired for players in the airline industry. At Delta alone, hedging losses added up to $180 million during the quarter, wiping out a portion of the airline’s anticipated cost savings from cheaper fuel prices.

Yet falling domestic oil prices helped boost the crack spread at Delta’s refinery, and that produced huge profit for the facility. During the quarter, Delta reported a $105 million profit, which itself reversed more than half of Delta’s hedging losses. Moreover, with conditions remaining favorable during early 2015, Delta could continue to see big profits from its refinery operations.

Some still believe that Delta’s refinery remains a distraction from its airline business, and that the company would be better off using regular hedging strategies. Yet that criticism assumes an efficient, open market that simply doesn’t exist under current U.S. regulations. And as long as spreads between domestic and global oil prices persist, Delta will have a chance to take advantage of the situation thanks to its in-house refining operations.

Delta Air Lines has soared largely on the health of the airline industry. Yet its astute move to capture some cost savings has turned out quite well, and as long as the domestic oil market looks like it does now, Delta has a chance to keep profiting nicely throughout 2015.

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Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned.