Free Republic

Workers from nine U.S. airports are planning to block bridges, march through terminals and protest at airline headquarters during a day of civil disobedience on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The workers - a mix of cleaners, baggage handlers, fuelers and wheelchair attendants - will risk arrest at airports and other locations including the Mall, to bring attention to their campaign for better wages, the Service Employees International Union said. The actions are the latest in the airport workers' campaign for a $15-per-hour minimum wage, a benefits package and job protections. They're also protesting threats against their efforts to unionize....

<p>Matt Brandon, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union Local 73, which represents the aviation police officers, said he doesn’t understand why the officers are prohibited from carrying guns.</p> <p>He said the union has been unable to get the aviation department to change the no gun policy, which dates to the early 1990s.</p>

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Mall of America was used as "a decoy" to start a protest that quickly moved to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and blocked a terminal on a busy holiday travel day, one organizer of the demonstration said. Access to one of two terminals was closed after more than 100 protesters gathered inside and blocked roads leading to the airport Wednesday, airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said. He said the protest caused some flight delays but no cancellations. Protesters hoping to draw attention to the police shooting last month of a black man in Minneapolis had described in advance...

ISTANBUL (AFP) - One person was killed and another wounded after an explosion of unknown origin Wednesday at an airport in Istanbul, Turkish television reports said. Airport cleaner Zehra Yamac, 30, died of head wounds hours after the blast on the tarmac at Sabiha Gokcen airport on the Asian side of Turkey's largest city, CNN-Turk and NTV television reported.

MIAMI (CBS12) -- A flight from Paris is being held on the tarmac at Miami International Airport due to a suspicious item. Miami-Dade Police are investigating the item on board American Airlines flight 63 from Paris. There are 214 people on board. The search by the bomb squad is not impacting other operations at the airport. The plane has been moved to a remote area of the airport for the investigation, according to Miami-Dade Aviation Department Communications Director Greg Chin.

Vice President Joe Biden once compared it to a "Third World country" - but LaGuardia Airport has become so riddled with homeless that it could now even make some of those nations look good. The number of derelicts living at the airport has increased dramatically in the past year, turning the main terminal into the city's most popular de facto flophouse, where they sleep, eat and wash up while competing for space with passengers, according to Port Authority sources.

An American pilot has been arrested in Peru after police claimed they found 22lbs of cocaine in one of his bags - although he denies it belongs to him. Kenneth Parrock was arrested at Jorge Chavez airport in the city Callao and is currently being held by Peruvian authorities. He was en route to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he was scheduled to fly a TAM Airlines plane to Asia.

The Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris has forced France to examine its security policies, including at the Charles de Gaulle Airport, where it was recently discovered that 57 employees who had access to airplanes and runways were on a terror watch list. Now, the security passes of 86,000 workers at the Paris airport will be reviewed, according to a report by the Sunday Times of London. **SNIP** The recent finding of Arabic graffiti on four planes at two French airports, including one that had "Allahu Akbar" written on a fuel tank hatch, has only increased security concerns. While the...

EXCLUSIVE: 150 on flight from Mexico allowed to skip customs, leave JFK airport What airheads! Airline and security officials at Kennedy Airport let 150 passengers arriving from an international flight leave the airport without going through customs, the Daily News has learned. American Airlines Flight 1671 arrived at JFK from Cancun, Mexico, at 8:50 p.m. Friday. When the plane landed, passengers walked out of the airport without having their passports or bags checked by Customs and Border Protection, sources told The News. A source familiar with the matter said passengers disembarking the plane “just followed” a gate agent. The...

Ticketed airline passengers crossing between San Diego and Tijuana will soon have a new option. A 390-foot pedestrian bridge linking Tijuana International Airport directly to Otay Mesa in San Diego is set to launch operations on Dec. 9. Users of the privately operated port of entry, called the Cross Border Xpress, will be charged for each crossing. Enrique Valle, chief executive officer of Otay Tijuana Ventures, builder and operator of $120 million facility, said Friday that the toll will be $15 for those who purchase tickets ahead of time on the website for the facility and $18 for those who...

Airport commission approves a private LAX lounge for the rich and famous A proposal to build a posh private lounge at Los Angeles International Airport for Southern California’s glitterati was approved Thursday in a move that officials hope will reduce disturbances by paparazzi, looky-loos and autograph-seekers in the busy central terminal area. The Board of Airport Commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the exclusive facility, which would cater to wealthy Hollywood celebrities, sports figures, diplomats and anyone else seeking privacy while waiting for their flights or after arriving at LAX. Airport officials say the lounge will be located in a...

As it becomes clearer ISIS was responsible for the downing of a Russian jetliner over the Sinai peninsula two weeks ago, U.S. government officials and leaders are expressing growing concerns about airport security here at home. "This is a major game changer,” House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said in a recent interview about the situation. "They [ISIS] have the capability, if proven true, to down aircrafts with bombs. That concerns me a great deal because traditionally they've been focused on the caliphate, not external operations. This is a very significant departure from that mission and one that I think...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Mysterious maneuvers over the Pacific are forcing a change in Los Angeles International Airport landings late at night, meaning noise for thousands of people in the flight path.

According to her son, a 90-year-old woman was forced to strip off her shirt and bra for Oregon Transportation Security Administration agents because her emergency cash set off alarm sensors while she was going through the security apparatus.Her son Alan Charney told KATU-TV his mother Harriette Charney had to take off her shirt and bra inside the Portland International Airport after a scanner picked up on an abnormality on her chest.Threat to the republic?“There was no sanity or sensitivity at all to the work that they were doing,” Charney said.Mrs. Charney was heading back to the East Coast after...

The Washington Examiner is reporting that a left-wing 'activist' group (CREDO) is lobbying embattled House Speaker John Boehner to strip Ronald Reagan's name from our official RR Washington National Airport -and presumably tear-down his statue- all in the name of their hatred for everything -and everybody- that ever made this country great... The CREDOaction group -which is financed by their mobile phone company- 'funds progressive nonprofits' and is currently circulating an online petition named 'Tell John Boehner: Rename Ronald Reagan Airport'. They claim to have 60K signatures already. But this appears to be a sort of shot-across-the-bow to put...

Officials reported big delays Saturday at New York and Washington airports because of an air traffic control issue. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport reported that a computer outage was limiting flight arrivals and departures there as well as Washington's Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport. The problem also affected flights leaving New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports, according to FlightAware’s online tracker. By 12:30 p.m. departure delays were at 1 hour and expected to grow, PIX11 News reported. Delays out of Newark International Airport were at 30 minutes and decreasing at that particular time, the station said,...

Washington area airports and others along the East Coast are reporting flight delays due to an issue with the system that routes air traffic, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control Web site. “The FAA is diagnosing an automation problem at an air traffic center in Leesburg, Va.,” according to a statement from the agency. “Some flights into and out of the New York and Washington, DC metro area airports area may be delayed.”

ORLANDO (CBS Tampa) — The Orlando International Airport will soon be opening a Muslim prayer room. WKMG-TV reports the airport will spend $250,000 to build the “Reflection Room” where Muslims can pray. The airport decided to build the room after Emirates Airlines announced it will make non-stop flights from Orlando to Dubai. “These rooms provide travelers an opportunity to pray in their own way and have peace before they take on a long flight,” Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, told My News 13. Many Muslims currently pray in public, and even the bathrooms, at...

ORLANDO (CBS Tampa) — The Orlando International Airport will soon be opening a Muslim prayer room. WKMG-TV reports the airport will spend $250,000 to build the “Reflection Room” where Muslims can pray. The airport decided to build the room after Emirates Airlines announced it will make non-stop flights from Orlando to Dubai. “These rooms provide travelers an opportunity to pray in their own way and have peace before they take on a long flight,” Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, told My News 13. Many Muslims currently pray in public, and even the bathrooms, at...

Spain's "ghost airport" - that cost hundreds of millions of euros to build and which became a notorious symbol of the excess of the country's bonanza years has been sold to a group of British and Asian investors for just €10,000 ($10,835). Ciudad Real airport airport, in the central Castilla-La Mancha region, has been closed since 2012, despite opening only four years prior to closure. The regional authorities raised an estimated €1billion in private investment to build it. They had hoped it would draw millions of visitors each year to Ciudad Real and the surrounding area, which is known as...