Eight Etihad Airways flights departed Abu Dhabi on Monday, even as the airline said operations remain suspended. Nearly 100,000 people tracked the first plane - a double-decker Airbus A380 bound for London - on Flightradar24 when it took off at 2:39 p.m. local time. It was soon followed by seven wide-body jets bound for Paris, Amsterdam, Moscow, Karachi, Mumbai, Islamabad, and Delhi.
American Airlines is adding 3,000 additional seats by adding flights and using larger planes in the Caribbean region. JetBlue says it expects to resume normal operations as well. A look at air traffic from Flightradar24 shows empty airspace over the weekend. There was minimal activity across the eastern Caribbean. Airlines cancelled over 1,000 flights nationwide on Saturday in part due to the Caribbean airspace closures, as well as other factors like weather.
As United States lawmakers fail to agree on a deal to end the government shutdown, around 750,000 federal employees have been furloughed, millions of Americans go without food assistance, and air travel is disrupted across the country. The shutdown began on October 1, after opposing sides in the US Senate failed to agree on spending priorities, with Republicans rejecting a push by Democrats to protect healthcare and other social programmes.
The attack targeting Collins Aerospace technology caused chaos at airports across Europe and beyond. It began on September 19 and spilled into the working week. It impacted ARINC SelfServ cMUSE software used by airport workers to process traveler check-ins and bag drop functions. Airports caught up in the incident included London Heathrow, Berlin Brandenburg, and Brussels Airport, leading to hundreds of cancelled flights and extensive delays on both sides of the Atlantic.