The planned project between KLM, Air France, Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic has been approved by United States authorities. This means that the airlines will essentially conduct transatlantic operations as a single joint venture.
Delta and Virgin Atlantic are two of the carriers involved in the transatlantic joint venture proposal. Photo: DeltaTransatlantic alliance
The Points Guy reports that the US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao granted final approval for an expanded alignment between the firms. The Department of Transportation tentatively agreed to the move back in August. It planned to grant the group of carriers antitrust immunity to allow the move. Now, the plans have now been officially approved.
This alliance would allow these airlines to combine their resources together when it comes to US-Europe operations. Together, they would be able to produce joint marketing campaigns, sell flights, coordinate schedules and plan fares.
This joint venture replaces two previous arrangements that were in place between the regions. One was between the US and the United Kingdom, while the other was between the US and continental Europe. Chao hopes that the overhaul will allow for additional benefits, including greater options for passengers on transatlantic services.
Meanwhile, Delta spokeswoman Susannah Thurston spoke with The Points Guy about the venture. The airline believes that the move will allow the carriers to deliver more effective operations between the regions.
“This is the final regulatory step for the airlines to begin to work together to offer customers the best streamlined travel experience across the Atlantic,” Susannah Thurston said, as reported by The Points Guy.
Air France-KLM knows the value of leveraging extended networks. Photo: Air FranceSimilar agreements
This news follows Virgin Atlantic’s announcement of its plans for a similar partnership with Air France-KLM and China Eastern. This joint venture would see the British carrier leverage China Eastern’s presence in its country.
If approved, the deal would replace the agreement that is in place between Air France-KLM and the Chinese carrier. Virgin Atlantic hopes that this JV will be in place by early 2020.
Meanwhile, Delta recently announced that it is joining Silver Airways on a codeshare agreement. This would increase its influence in the Caribbean due to Silver’s presence within the region. Delta’s extended network now includes San Juan, Anguilla, Antigua, Dominica, Tortola, Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. Maarten. American Airlines also followed with its own Caribbean codeshare with Silver.
Air France-KLM is also aligning with Virgin Atlantic on operations to China. Photo: KLMIndustry changes
With the aviation industry going through various struggles this year, airlines now have a greater drive to share resources. By aligning, these carriers will be hoping to maintain their development heading into the next decade.
However, not everyone involved would be delighted with these movements. Delta’s pilots previously expressed their dismayof the joint venture due to claims of losing out on work. Ultimately, all factors need to be considered by authorities when giving the green light.
What do you think of the joint venture between KLM, Air France, Delta & Virgin Atlantic? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
WILLEMSTAD (ANP) – The Curaçao politician and businessman Amparo dos Santos has promised Thursday a reward of 1 million dollars (900,000) euros for the person who solved the murder of politician Helmin Wiels in 2013.Dos Santos states that the Public Prosecution Service has no idea who committed the murder.
Remarkable detail is that former finance minister George Jamaloodin, half-brother of Amparo dos Santos, was sentenced earlier this year to 28 years in prison for involvement in the murder.His other brother, lottery boss Robbie dos Santos, has been detained for the same reason since this week.According to Amparo dos Santos, his two brothers had no motive for the murder.
The popular politician Wiels was shot on May 5, 2013 on the beach of Marie Pampun in Curaçao.He was then political leader of the Pueblo Soberano party (Independent People).Wiels conducted research into, among other things, lottery sales in Curaçao.The murder may have been connected with that.
I tried to vlog from Mullet Bay yesterday, but it was crowded. Today I tried to vlog from Belair, but I got wet in the rain last night, so I’m under the weather.
As I was leaving Belair, someone called my name, I have never met her before.
She told me that she recognized me from my blogs.
So we spoke for a little bit, and she started going in to the plight and struggles of the seniors.
I assured her that once I feel better, I will cover the topic, one of St Maarten’s most important topics.
Well, I’m sweating with a fever, like Bibi in church on Good Friday.
Raymond Jesserum is on person to speak to…if you know his contact info, please tell him to contact me.
Willemstad – Robbie dos Santos was transferred to Curaçao yesterday afternoon.Last Monday he was arrested in Sint-Maarten on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Helmin Wiels.
The lottery king is stuck in the SDKK prison.Allegedly there is new evidence, which gives sufficient serious objections and grounds for the detention of Dos Santos.His lawyer is Eldon “Peppie” Sulvaran.https://curacao.nu/robbie-dos-santos-overgebracht-naar-curacao/
Salvatore ‘Sam’ Anello faces three years in prison if he’s found guilty of negligent homicide in the death of his granddaughter Chloe Weigand
The elderly IT worker arrived at court in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Wednesday, wearing a pinstripe black suit and checkered tie and declined to comment
Anello is accused of lifting Chloe towards an open window before she tumbled 150ft to her death on to a concrete dock on July 7
Chloe’s parents Alan and Kimberly Weigand did not accompany Anello to court but they have been steadfast in their support for the maternal grandfather
The family blames Royal Caribbean for ‘inexplicably’ leaving a window open in a family play area, as Anello was unaware the clear pane had been slid open
Negligent homicide is a misdemeanor under the Puerto Rican penal code however it is punishable by a minimum of three years in prison
The grandfather accused of dropping toddler Chloe Weigand from the 11th deck of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship made his first court appearance on Wednesday as Puerto Rican prosecutors insisted it was their ‘duty’ to charge him with negligent homicide.
Salvatore ‘Sam’ Anello faces three years in prison if he’s found guilty of causing Chloe’s death by lifting her towards an open window before she tumbled from the Freedom of the Seas while it docked in San Juan on July 7.
The elderly IT worker from Valparaiso, Indiana, cut a sad, isolated figure as he arrived at San Juan Superior Court, shuffling silently through a throng of reporters.
Wearing a pinstripe black suit and checkered tie, he sat alone in the wooden benches with a court-appointed translator who relayed the Spanish language proceedings to him in English.
Judge Gisela Alfonso Fernandez told the grey-haired, bespectacled granddad she was giving both the prosecution and defense more time to prepare ahead of a December 17 pre-trial conference.
She said Anello will also be expected to tell the court on that date whether he wants to choose a bench trial or trial by jury.
Defense attorney Jose Guillermo Perez Ortiz asked whether his client could be excused from attending but the judge snapped back: ‘In this type of case it is mandatory to attend.’
The court heard that ‘several’ eyewitnesses, including two from overseas, will be asked to describe what they saw in the moments before 18-month-old Chloe plunged 150ft on to a concrete dock this summer.
Her parents Alan and Kimberly Weigand did not accompany Anello him to court Wednesday but they have been steadfast in their support for the maternal grandfather, instead blaming and threatening to sue Royal Caribbean for ‘inexplicably’ leaving a window open in a family play area.
They maintain Anello lifted Chloe up so she could bang on the glass as she loved to do at her older brother’s ice hockey games, unaware the pane had been slid open.
Outside court, lead prosecutor Laura Hernandez Gutierrez defended the decision to charge Anello with negligent homicide, considered a misdemeanor under the Puerto Rican penal code but punishable by three years in prison.
‘What I can tell you is that we have initiated this criminal procedure because we have the evidence to sustain the charges pressed,’ she told reporters.
Asked whether Puerto Rican authorities came under pressure to prosecute Anello rather than challenge Royal Caribbean, the world’s biggest cruise line operator, she said: ‘Of course not.
‘We don’t act under the influence of anybody. We just act because it is our duty.
‘We just investigate everything that it is in our jurisdiction. What I can tell you right now is that we have a negligent homicide charge against Mr Anello.’
Forensic experts studied the boat’s windows, furniture and layout in the wake of the accident for clues as to how the child could have gone overboard
Hernandez Gutierrez said on-board CCTV could be used as evidence but said it would not be made public until the trial and refused to say what it showed.
Anello was quizzed by police in the hours after Chloe’s fall but left San Juan without giving a formal witness statement, blaming confusion, his extreme distress and the lack of an interpreter.
He voluntarily returned to Puerto Rico however when a judge issued an arrest warrant and he learnt last month there was probable cause to charge him with negligent homicide.
Chloe and her granddad had been about to embark on a seven-night Caribbean cruise with her parents, older brother, fraternal grandparents and Anello’s wife Patricia.
The fun-packed family vacation was supposed take in the sights of San Juan, St Maarten, St Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados.
But the first signal their trip had gone horrifically wrong came at around 4:30pm on July 7 when passengers in a dining area overlooking a pool heard screams.
Chloe’s mom arrived moments later and broke down as she looked over the side and saw her daughter lying motionless on the concrete Pan American dock below.
Doctors stationed on board the 15-deck ship raced to save the toddler but she was declared dead at the scene having suffered suspected blunt force trauma to her head consistent with a fall.
‘When they told me Chloe had died, I didn’t know she went out a window,’ Kimberly, 36, said in an interview with Today.
‘I just saw Sam standing next to the wall of windows, screaming and banging on it and there was like somebody trying to stop me. I just kept saying, ‘Take me to my baby. Where is my baby?’
‘I didn’t know she had gone out the window. Then I looked over, and it wasn’t water beneath, it was concrete. To lose our baby this way is just unfathomable.
‘I never want another mother to have to experience what I had to, to see what I had to see or scream or how I had to scream.’
The elderly IT worker from Valparaiso, Indiana, cut a sad, isolated figure as he arrived at San Juan Superior Court, shuffling silently through a throng of reporters. Wearing a pinstripe black suit and checkered tie, he sat alone in the wooden benches with a court-appointed translator who relayed the Spanish language proceedings to him in English
Forensic experts studied the boat’s windows, furniture and layout in the wake of the accident for clues as to how the child could have gone overboard.
They found the area had been busy but didn’t obtain any first person accounts, with fellow passengers seemingly distracted by the pool, drinks and vacation plans.
Officers did however obtain critical video footage from the Freedom of the Seas on-board camera system which was described as ‘definitive’ by police sources.
In the wake of the tragedy Anello was described by friends and family as a proud and loving grandparent who doted over his Chloe.
Puerto Rican officials insisted a range of charges, from neglect to murder, remained in play but her parents said they didn’t blame him, insisting the cruise operator should be held accountable instead.
‘He was extremely hysterical. The thing he repeatedly told us was, I believed there was glass. He would cry, over and over,’ Kimberly told Today.
The couple said they intended to take legal action against Royal Caribbean, saying the firm was ‘obviously’ to blame for Chloe’s death.
‘There are a million things that could have been done to make that safer,’ added Chloe’s grieving dad Alan, 40.
‘Why on earth is a window open on the 11th floor without a screen or anything? Their answer was ‘we need ventilation.’
To date no lawsuit has been filed against Royal Caribbean but their US-based attorney Michael Winkleman predicts that will change because police will finally have to hand over on board CCTV tapes now they are being entered into evidence.
He told DailyMail..com he plans to use those tapes as the basis of the family’s suit.
Royal Caribbean has described Chloe’s death as a ‘tragic incident’, refusing to comment further and referring inquiries to Puerto Rican authorities.
Grandfather who dropped toddler from cruise ship returns to States
Parliament just approved the credentials and admission of Ms. Solange L. Duncan, Mr. drs. Rodolphe E. Samuel, Ms. Anna E. Richardson and Mr. Wycliffe S. Smith as Members of Parliament in this urgent Public meeting no. 06 of today.
Scott Hapgood, the 44-year-old UBS banker from Darien, has beenaccusedof killing Anguillan hotel worker Kenny Mitchel.
Mitchel showed up at the Hapgood’s hotel room with a knife, demanding money, according to the Hapgood family’s account of the incident.
A fight ensued, and Mitchel died about an hour later. Hapgood was charged with manslaughter.
Hapgood, who returned to the United States after making bail in Anguilla, refused this month to return to the Caribbean Island for his latest court appearance and is now considered a fugitive.
Here are four things that remain unknown about the Hapgood case.
1. Will the U.S. protect Hapgood from extradition?
One day after Hapgood’s missed hearing,an arrest warrantwas being sought in Anguilla and he was labeled a “fugitive.”
Hapgood has reportedly been threatened since returning to Connecticut, and the family said his life would be in danger it he returned to face authorities in Anguilla.
His defense team notified officials on the Caribbean island the night before that they advised their client to not return, Anguillan Attorney General Dwight Horsford said.
“The letter further stated that this advice rested on concerns for their client’s safety and the fairness of the judicial process in Anguilla,” Horsford wrote in a statement released Tuesday. “Both concerns are totally groundless.”
Anguilla, as a territory of Great Britain, is subject to an extradition treaty between the U.S, as the Washington Post reported, but it is not known yet if politicians will intervene to prevent Hapgood’s extradition.
In October, Hapgood’s wife, Kallie,appeared on Fox & Friendsto ask President Donald Trump to intervene on her husband’s behalf.
“I’ve seen Trump help Americans around the globe and we really need his help,” Kallie Hapgood said on the show.
Trump responded on Twitter: “Something looks and sounds very wrong. I know Anguilla will want to see this case be properly and justly resolved!”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal was among about 100 people who gathered last month, rallying support for Hapgood outside of Darien Town Hall and, last week, Blumenthal and other federal lawmakers — including Sens. Chris Murphy and Lindsey Graham, and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes — sent a letter to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to express their concerns for Hapgood’s “safety and fair treatment.”
2. Why did hotel workers wait 45 minutes to call police?
According to the Hapgood family’s account, Mitchel and Hapgood fought in the family’s hotel room. Hapgood, once a football player in Darien, subdued and restrained the 27-year-old hotel worker.
It took 45 minutes for police to arrive.
Mitchel was later taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, but the reason for the delay is unknown.
Photos ostensibly taken immediately after the scuffle, shared by the Hapgood family, show the Connecticut banker with cuts and abrasions to his face.
3. Did Hapgood’s children give a statement to police?
Kallie Hapgood said she was not present when Mitchel came to the door, but that two of her children were present for the entire fight.
Hapgood was arrested and charged with manslaughter, which makes the children the only witnesses to the fight.
Were they interviewed by police? Hapgood did retain the services of an attorney on the Caribbean island, and it’s possible that his three children, being minors, were shielded from police interviews.
If they did provide statements to police, what they recalled has not been made public.
4. Did Hapgood and Mitchel cross paths before the fight?
Toxicology reportsobtained by The New York Times showed that Mitchel had a significant amount of cocaine in his bloodstream, more than what is commonly considered a lethal dose.
That resulted in a revised autopsy report, suggesting Mitchel might have died from cocaine misuse instead of the trauma sustained during the fight as was initially reported by Anguillan medical officials.
Mitchel came to the Hapgoods’ hotel room wearing a hotel uniform, saying he was there to fix a broken sink, according to the family.
He then allegedly pulled a knife and demanded money.
Hapgood has said no sink was broken in their hotel room, so what drew Mitchel to the Hapgoods’ room is unknown.
Mitchel was a hotel employee, and it is unknown how Hapgood may have come to his attention before the incident.
Media reports suggested that the Hapgoods were one of only a few guests at the resort at the time.
May 30, 2005, was the last day of Alabama teenagerNatalee Holloway’s graduation trip to Aruba with her high school senior class. She didn’t return to her hotel and wasnever seen again.
Since that day, the details surrounding Holloway’s disappearance have captured the media spotlight. Now, nearly 15 years after she vanished, there are still questions about what happened to her.
*Watch the full story on “20/20” FRIDAY at 9 p.m. ET*
The following is a timeline of the investigation:
May 30, 2005:
Holloway, 18, did not return to her Aruba hotel after a night out at a club called Carlos’n Charlie’s in Oranjestad, Aruba.
She was last seen driving off in a gray Honda with a group of local young men, including the man who would become the main suspect in her disappearance, Joran van der Sloot.
June 2005:
Van der Sloot and two brothers, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murder in June 2005.
By September of that year, all three were released without charges.
November 2007:
Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers were arrested again in November 2007.
By December of that year, all three were released without charges and the case was reportedly declared closed.
February 2008:
Aruban officials reopened the case against van der Sloot after a tape showing him describing Holloway’s death, filmed via hidden camera by Dutch crime reporter Peter de Vries, was released. Aruban officials, however, were unable to corroborate van der Sloot’s statements.
May 30, 2010:
Exactly five years to the day after Holloway’s disappearance, van der Sloot killed Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian student, in a hotel in Lima, Peru.
He then fled across the border to Chile.
June 2010:
Van der Sloot was arrested in Chile and sent back to Peru to face charges for Flores’ murder.
Van der Sloot was indicted in an Alabama U.S. district court on federal charges of wire fraud and extortion. He is alleged to have demanded $250,000 from Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, to provide her with the location of her daughter’s remains.
“He extorted, or attempted to extort, someone — an individual — in exchange for the location of Natalee Holloway’s remains and information about her death,” said Peggy Sanford, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Birmingham.
Peruvian officials declined to extradite van der Sloot to the U.S. for these charges until he faced justice in Peru for Flores’ murder.
Jan. 12, 2012:
Alabama Judge Alan King declared Holloway legally dead.
Holloway’s father, Dave Holloway, requested the declaration, but her mother, Beth Holloway, opposed it.
Jan. 13, 2012:
Just one day after Natalee Holloway was declared dead, van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years in prison for killing Flores in Peru.
“Yes, I want to plead guilty. From the first moment, I wanted to confess sincerely,” van der Sloot said in court. “I truly am sorry for this act. I feel very bad.”
Summer 2019:
“20/20” exclusively documented Beth Holloway’s emotional return to Aruba, her first extensive trip to the island in nearly 10 years.
“Every time I looked out at the ocean, I couldn’t handle it… It just disturbed me greatly. Because it made me feel as if I was never going to get an answer as to what happened to Natalee,” she said. “But I feel like I have accomplished a huge feat… I can come back now to Aruba. I can get in the water… It feels great.”
Where things stand today:
Aruban prosecutor Hans Klaver told ABC News, “As far as the [Public Prosecutor’s Office] is concerned, the Natalee Holloway case has never been closed.”
“Throughout the years the PPO has ordered new investigations in this case. And we will do so in the future if new information give rise to do so,” Klaver said.
Klaver also said “the cases against Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers have been dismissed. Only new facts and circumstances unknown at the moment of the dismissal can lead to reopening their cases.”
Journalist Greta Van Susteren, who interviewed van der Sloot in 2008, says he still emails her from prison in Peru. He will be eligible for parole before his sentence is finished.
Since being sentenced, van der Sloot has married a Peruvian woman. They have a daughter together.
In 2014, it was announced that van der Sloot would be extradited to the U.S. after he finishes his sentence in Peru.
“He is terrified of that U.S. indictment in Alabama, he does not want to come to the U.S. to go to prison,” Van Susteren said.
