Summary: <br> Flying on Thanksgiving Weekend can be a crazy experience. But this year it seems someone took one of those idiotic "how to get upgraded for free" stories <a href="https://cbs4indy.com/2019/12/02/police-plane-returns-to-airport-after-woman-fakes-being-sick-to-get-better-seat-on-flight/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a bit further than they probably should have</a>.<br> <br> <br> <br> [powerpress[<br> <br> <br> <br> Also in this episode:<br> <br> <br> <br> * India's IndiGo continues to have trouble with its P&W engines on the A320neo, to the point that <a href="https://paxex.aero/2019/11/indigo-a320neo-pw1100g-engine-replacement-grounding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">regulators want to ground older frames awaiting replacement engines</a>. But it might also be possible to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-29/pilots-revving-engines-too-hard-led-to-indigo-airbus-groundings" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fix the problem simply by not running them so hard</a>.* EL AL will try Melbourne service in Summer 2020, with some technical and routing challenges along the way* The FAA wants to have more control over the 737 MAX return to service, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-737max-faa-idUSKBN1Y02KP" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">including individually approving each aircraft</a> before <a href="http://www.boeing.com/commercial/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Boeing</a> delivers them to airlines.* Hong Kong Airlines is in a <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3039913/hong-kong-airlines-fighting-survive-licensing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world of financial troubles</a>, with the IFE system offline because it cannot pay for the content and regulators threatening to shut it down if more money doesn't show up this week.* <a href="https://www.norwegian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Norwegian</a>'s long-haul operations will soon <a href="https://paxex.aero/2019/11/norwegian-tatl-cuts-stockholm-copenhagen/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">drop Copenhagen and Stockholm as European gateways</a>, closing routes that launched the airline's 787 services. But it could also launch service at Heathrow with a trio of weekly slot pairs in Summer 2020.* The A350-1000 got a boost in the total seating capacity, which is <a href="https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/a350-1000-maximum-seating-rises-to-480-462615/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">probably bad news for your hips and knees</a>.<br> <br> <br> <br> A fun, brief anecdote from Bhutan is also in the mix this week; more to come on that front eventually.<br> <br> <br> <br> Enjoy the show!<br>
