The 1986 Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to provide a wheelchair for passengers with disabilities at the airport. The problem, though, is that many travelers are faking it, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said.

“There is massive, rampant abuse of special services. There are people using wheelchair assistance who don’t need it at all,” Biffle said at a Wings Club luncheon on Thursday in New York.

He said he has seen some Frontier flights where 20 people were brought in wheelchairs at departure, with only three using them upon arrival.

“We are healing so many people,” he joked.

Biffle wasn’t talking about travelers’ personal wheelchairs, but rather the service airlines provide when travelers arrive at the airport.

It costs the airline between $30 and $35 each time a customer requests a wheelchair, Biffle said, and abuse of the service leads to delays for travelers with a genuine need for assistance.

“Everyone should be entitled to it who needs it, but you park in a handicapped space they will tow your car and fine you,” he told CNBC. “There should be the same penalty for abusing these services.”

Biffle isn’t the only executive to complain about travelers falsely claiming they need access to a wheelchair at the airport.

In July 2022, John Holland-Kaye, the then-CEO of London’s Heathrow Airport, told LBC Radio amid staffing shortages that some travelers were “using wheelchair support to try to get fast-tracked through the airport.”

“If you go on TikTok, that is one of the travel hacks people are recommending,” he said. “Please don’t do that. We need to protect the service for people who need it most.”

John Morris, a triple amputee and founder of WheelchairTravel.org, noted there are reasons why some travelers might need wheelchairs on their outbound leg but not upon arrival. For example, they could need the help to get through a large airport like in Atlanta or New York City, but not so at smaller facilities.

“Disability impacts people in a lot of different ways,” he said.

“I think there’s a good case to be made that abusers should face some consequence but I’m not sure how we do that in a society when our disabilities aren’t [always] visible,” Morris said.

Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation proposed stricter rules aimed at preventing wheelchair damage by airport ground handlers and ensuring “prompt assistance” to travelers with disabilities when getting on and off the plane.

Airspace closures through the Middle East grounded and diverted flights on Saturday as Iran launched drones toward Israel.

United Airlines, which resumed service to Tel Aviv early last month after suspending Israel flights after the Hamas attacks in October, called off its Newark to Tel Aviv flight on Saturday after Israel closed its airspace. Jordan and Iraq had also closed their airspace, according to Jordanian state-owned media news outlet Al Mamlaka.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and will make decisions on upcoming flights with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews,” United said in a statement. The carrier is the only U.S. airline to have resumed service to Israel since October. Delta was scheduled to restart flights to Tel Aviv on June. 7. American Airlines has not resumed Israel service.

United also canceled its flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to Amman, Jordan on Saturday night, “due to unrest in the Middle East.”

It was not clear when flights would resume.

Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 said multiple flights bound for Tel Aviv and Amman had diverted on Saturday.

Airlines also canceled service scheduled for Sunday. Israel’s El Al cancelled more than 20 Sunday flights. Two El Al flights headed for Israel from Thailand diverted to Bangkok. The carrier told passengers not to come to the airport until notified.

Emirates Airline canceled its Dubai-Amman flight scheduled for Sunday. Air France’s Israel service was canceled for Sunday and British Airways canceled its two flights to Tel Aviv on Sunday and scrubbed a flight to Amman. Lufthansa also canceled its service to Israel.

A tire fell off a United Airlines plane taking off from San Francisco International Airport Thursday morning and landed in a nearby parking lot, damaging several vehicles, officials said.

The tire from United Flight 35, which later arrived safely in Los Angeles, landed in an employee parking lot, SFO spokesman Doug Yakel said. No injuries were reported.

The runway was briefly closed to allow crews to clear debris, Yakel said. There was no further impact to airport operations.

Flight 35 was headed for Osaka, Japan, before being diverted to Los Angeles International Airport, where it landed safely.

The plane, a Boeing 777-200, has six tires on each of its two main landing gear struts, according to the airline. It is designed to land with missing or damaged tires.

The plane was carrying a total of 249 people – 235 customers, 10 flight attendants and 4 pilots, according to the airline.

United said customers boarded a new plane at LAX to Osaka.

“We’re grateful to our pilots and flight attendants for their professionalism in managing this situation. We’re also grateful to our teams on the ground who were waiting with a tug to move the aircraft soon after it landed and to our teams in the airport who assisted customers upon their arrival,” United said in a statement. “We will work with customers as well as with the owners of the damaged vehicles in SFO to ensure their needs are addressed.”

The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered a temporary grounding of dozens of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections, a day after a piece of the aircraft blew out in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight.

Images and video of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 that were shared on social media showed a gaping hole on the side of the plane and passengers using oxygen masks before it returned to Portland shortly after taking off for Ontario, California, on Friday afternoon.

The FAA’s emergency airworthiness directive will affect about 171 planes worldwide and applies to U.S. airlines and carriers operating in U.S. territory, the agency said.

No serious injuries were reported on the flight, according to federal safety officials. There were 171 passengers and six crewmembers on board, Alaska Air said.

“Safety will continue to drive our decision-making as we assist the NTSB’s investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement.

Large-scale groundings of aircraft by the FAA or other aviation authorities are rare. The FAA has heavily scrutinized the Boeing 737 Max since two fatal crashes grounded the jetliner worldwide almost five years ago. Two other models of the Max, the smallest and largest version, have not yet been cleared by the agency to enter commercial service.

The section of the fuselage missing appeared to correspond to an exit not used by Alaska Airlines, or other carriers that don’t have high-density seating configurations, and was plugged.

The incident was described as “an explosive decompression at the window exit,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the labor union that represents Alaska’s cabin crew and flight attendants at United, Spirit and other carriers.

Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said such an incident is extremely rare.

“Rapid decompression is a serious matter,” he said. “To see a gaping hole in an aircraft is not something we typically see. In aviation safety, we would call this a structural failure.”

The incident is also a reminder to keep your seatbelt fastened when seated, he added.

“I always advise people on a commercial aircraft, keep your seatbelt on regardless of what the light says,” Brickhouse said.

A passenger didn’t appear to be seated in the seat next to the panel.

Before the FAA issued its directive, Alaska Airlines earlier said it would ground its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes. Alaska said on Saturday afternoon that of the 65 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes in its fleet, 18 “had in-depth and thorough plug door inspections performed as part of a recent heavy maintenance visit.”

Those planes were returned to service on Saturday, Alaska said.

More than 140 flights, about 14% of Alaska’s schedule, were canceled on Saturday, according to FlightAware.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to Portland on Saturday to investigate the incident.

United Airlines, the largest operator of the planes in the U.S., had prepared to ground dozens of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections, CNBC reported earlier.

United has 79 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft in its fleet but just over 30 of them have already “received the necessary inspection that is required by the FAA,” the airline said. The inspections were expected to cause about 60 flight cancellations on Saturday, United said.

The FAA said the inspections will take between four and eight hours per plane.

The Boeing 737 Max 9 is a larger version of Boeing’s best-selling jetliner, the 737 Max 8. Max planes were grounded worldwide in 2019 after two fatal crashes within about five months of one another. The U.S. lifted its flight ban on the jets in late 2020 after software and training updates.

The Boeing 737 Max 9 has an emergency exit door cut behind the wings for use in dense seating cabin configurations, like those used by budget airlines, according to Flightradar24.

“The doors are not activated on Alaska Airlines aircraft and are permanently ‘plugged,'” Flightradar24 said.

Boeing didn’t comment beyond its statement when asked about the sealed emergency exit door. Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the fuselages for the planes, referred CNBC to Boeing when asked about the incident.

“Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers,” Boeing said in a statement on Saturday. “We agree with and fully support the FAA’s decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane.”

The company said it is supporting the NTSB’s investigation.

There are 215 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes in service worldwide, according to aviation-data firm Cirium. In addition to United and Alaska Air, other operators include Aeromexico, Turkish Airlines, Icelandair and Panama’s Copa Airlines.

Southwest Airlines and American Airlines operate the smaller 737 Max 8.

Late last year, Boeing urged airlines to inspect aircraft for a “possible” loose bolt in the rudder control system, the latest in a series of manufacturing flaws on Boeing jets that have prompted additional inspections, and slowed deliveries of the jets.

In air travel, minutes matter.

A few moments could be the difference between making and missing a connection for passengers — and could avoid delays that ripple across the schedule for airlines. Saved time could even lead to big savings for carriers as they scramble to get a handle on costs.

Major airlines are rolling out strategies that executives say could translate to lower costs and more efficient operations, even if the time savings on paper look negligible.

Some of these tools will be put to the test during what’s expected to be a busy holiday season, a year after a meltdown that stranded thousands of passengers at the end of 2022. Many of the improvements are being made behind the scenes.

American Airlines last year started using new technology to assign flight gates at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the world’s second-busiest airport and American’s biggest hub, where it operates out of 135 regional and mainline gates.

The new procedures, replacing a near-manual hours-long process, allowed the airline to avoid many of its planes crossing from the east side to the west side of the sprawling airport, saving an average of two minutes of taxi time per flight, adding up to about 11 hours saved a day, American said.

The technology helped reduce taxi time by 20% and halved gate changes and conflicts, according to the carrier.

“It took the nightly process of gating the airline from four hours to about 10 minutes,” said American COO David Seymour.

The so-called Smart Gating program has been expanded to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Miami International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and most recently, in May, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Seymour said, adding that the airline is considering using the technology in Phoenix as well.

The gating technology in other airports aims to avoid gate congestion that could delay flights from departing or parking upon arrival.

“If you try to do late-minute gate changes as planes arrive … you could get out of sync with your caterers and fuelers,” Seymour said, adding that the tools American built are tailored for each airport’s issues.

In the first eight months of the year, 76.4% of American’s flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival times, which the Transportation Department considers on time. That performance ranks American third among major U.S. carriers for on-time arrivals, an improvement from fifth place during the same time period last year.

Short taxi times and other improvements can help airlines save fuel, one of airlines’ biggest costs. American said its new gating program saves it 1.4 million gallons of fuel a year, equal to about $4 million based on fuel prices at major U.S. airports this month.

American isn’t alone in looking to shave off a few minutes.

United Airlines last month launched a new boarding procedure for economy class, accommodating window-seat passengers first followed by the middle and then the aisle. United told staff the changes could save it up to two minutes per flight.

Southwest Airlines has also experimented this year with ways to expedite boarding, trying everything from better signage to music on the jet bridge to keep travelers moving. For years, Delta Air Lines flight attendants and gate agents have used digital messages during boarding, to send alerts for issues such as full overhead bins.

Discount carrier Frontier Airlines is aiming to speed up boarding and deplaning through pathways outside jet bridges. The company has started using stairs directly onto and off the plane, taking advantage of a second door on the carrier’s Airbus jets.

“If you want to board an airplane faster, use two [gates] instead of one,” CEO Barry Biffle said.

The Denver-based airline is in talks with several airports to increase that type of boarding, without a traditional jet bridge. Biffle estimated that the carrier could have a third of its flights using stairways for boarding and deplaning in about two years.

Biffle said that could save as much as 10 minutes off the turn time, the amount of time it takes for a plane to park, deplane, reload and depart.

Robert Mann, who has worked at several airlines and is president of aviation consulting firm RW Mann & Co., said how airlines use the time savings will be key. Baking it back into the schedule could mean airlines wouldn’t have to block off as much time for a flight, he said.

“When you actually plan shorter flight times, you have more airplanes available,” he said.

An American Airlines spokesman said that as the airline becomes more efficient, in future schedules, it could allot less time for each flight, increasing the airline’s ability to add more flights.

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Travelers are flocking to airport lounges in search of complimentary food, drinks and perhaps most importantly, a chance to relax away from the hordes of travelers at the gate. The problem: plenty of other travelers are too.

Armed with high-end rewards credit cards and fresh from years of big spending, more and more travelers are gaining access to airport lounges, turning what were once small, exclusive spaces for an elite few into a must-have stop for millions of passengers.

The trend has posed both an opportunity and a challenge for airlines and credit card companies as they market luxury to the masses. The spaces have to be both exclusive and attainable for enough people.

For top frequent flyers and certain credit card holders, standard airline lounge access is complimentary or discounted. Individual annual lounge memberships run between $650 and $850 for the major U.S. carriers, which have raised prices in recent years.

Delta Air Lines Sky Club lounges — and the credit cards that grant entry to them — became so popular that customers complained about the long lines and crowds at many locations. The airline in response curbed access for employees, instituted time limits and in its most controversial move yet, announced annual limits on visits for many credit card holders — even stripping some credit cards of access altogether.

But many customers complained about those changes, too, saying they were too strict. This week, Delta walked back some of the changes, highlighting how hard it has become to strike the right balance between exclusivity and access.

“Any wait is too long, and we are doing everything we can to minimize that,” Delta’s chief customer experience officer, Allison Ausband, told CNBC last summer at the opening of a new, larger Sky Club at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

She said the lounges are “not a profit center for Delta by any means” but are an “investment that we’re making in the premium experience for our customers.”

Delta executives have said that revenue growth for its premium products like business class has outpaced that of main cabin economy.

Delta, United Airlines and American Airlines are racing to build more lounges and spaces and larger ones to fit high demand.

They have also divided, or are planning to divide their lounges into different tiers. United, for example, opened a grab-and-go express club at its hub at Denver International Airport last year, for travelers making tight connections, which the carrier said could free up space in more full-service lounges.

The carrier separately operates a network of Polaris lounges for travelers booked in its highest cabin class, usually on long-haul international routes.

Delta is in the process of building a network of highest-tier lounges aimed at travelers in its Delta One suites and other top customers. Those spaces are slated to begin opening next year, starting with one at Kennedy Airport, followed by Los Angeles and Boston.

Credit card issuers such as JPMorgan Chase, Capital One and American Express are also opening new spaces in airports, eager to attract and retain high-spending customers.

“Customers reward companies that take care of them and that are on their side and and that create amazing experiences,” said Jenn Scheurich, head of travel at Capital One.

The company has opened clubs at Washington Dulles International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and plans to open one at Denver International Airport early next month, with other projects at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Capital One Venture X cardholders pay a $395 annual fee for that card, which comes with unlimited access to the company’s lounges, as well as access for two guests. The general public can get in for $65 a visit.

Chase opened its first Chase Sapphire lounge in Hong Kong in 2022 and its first in the U.S., at Boston Logan International Airport, in May, featuring a tap room and massage chairs. It’s planning to open other lounges at LaGuardia Airport, Washington Dulles, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego.

Those lounges are open to customers with Chase Sapphire Reserve cards, which have a $550 annual fee, along with two guests.

The US military is raising the stakes – and expanding the field – in the high-profile competition for Space Force mission contracts.

The Space Force plans to purchase more rocket launches from companies in the coming years than previously expected, giving more companies a chance to secure billions in potential contracts.

“This is a huge deal,” Doug Pentecost, deputy program executive officer at the US Space Force’s Space Systems Command, told reporters during a briefing this week.

Earlier this year, the Space Force began the process of purchasing five years’ worth of launches, under a lucrative program known as National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase III.

The United States sees increasing momentum to improve its military capabilities in space, spurring the need to nearly triple the number of third-stage launches it has purchased in second-stage in 2020.

“It just amazes me,” said Pentecost. “We only estimated 36 missions for Phase 2. For Phase 3, we estimate 90 missions.”

In February, the Space Force outlined a “mutual fund” strategy to purchase launches from the companies. NSSL divided Stage 3 into two groups. Track 1 is the new approach, with lower requirements and a more flexible bidding process that allows companies to compete as rockets debut over the coming years. Path 2 represents the current approach, in which the Space Force plans to select a select number of companies for missions that meet the most demanding requirements.

Pentecost said the Space Force hosted an industry day in February to review details of the program and 22 companies attended. Since then, Space Force has made a number of tweaks to Phase 3. It has added more missions, introduced a price cap, expanded Path 2, and established an annual schedule of missions.

The government weighs bids according to a company’s “gross estimated price” to launch. This is broken down into “launch service,” which means the cost of building and launching a missile, and “launch service support,” which covers special requirements the military might have for a launch. The maximum launch service subsidy amount is $100 million per year, per company.

“We’ve implemented some cost constraints so we don’t get inflated. We don’t want to [a situation where] Everyone gets a mission—you get a mission, you get a mission, you get a mission—because there’s no real competition after that,” Pentecostals said.

“We believe all of our partners in the industry want to be the first man, so we think that will provide competitive pricing to keep our costs down,” he added.

While track 1 is expected to attract the most bids and award 30 missions, track 2 is the big show.

With Lane 2, the Space Force awards the most valuable contracts to launch national security satellites at the highest stakes.

“These are billion dollars [satellite] “The payload going into unique orbits,” said Pentecost.

Not only has Lynn 2 seen an increase in the number of missions available for grabs — it’s currently estimated at 58 launches, up from 39 in February — but Space Force also made the decision to expand the slots available for final prizes to three companies, rather than limiting them to two.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Boeing And Lockheed MartinThey were supposed to be the main contenders for Lane 2, but now there’s an open door for another company like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

Space Force will allocate 60% and 40% of the 51 missions to the two largest bidders, respectively, and the remaining seven launches will go to the third-place bidder.

Regardless of where a company ranks, it must demonstrate that it can meet all of Track 2’s requirements, which include having launch sites on both the East Coast and West Coast, and the ability to reach nine high-accuracy “reference” orbits, many of which are much farther from Earth than the LEO requirements of Track 1.

Asked by CNBC how many companies are developing missiles that can meet these requirements by the launch deadline, a Space Force spokesperson declined to specify, saying the Army is “tracking several” that are “expanding their launch capabilities into most of these orbits.”

“Hopefully, not only will ULA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin compete for that, there are others who have interest in the past.” Chad Mellon, chief of procurement and integration at Space Systems Command, said during the briefing.

Space Force presents an annual festival for the month of October. 1 Deadline for assignment of tasks to companies that have won a contract.

Pentecost clarified that the first missions will end in October 2025, but the aforementioned contracts do not guarantee assignments, which protects the Space Force from delays that companies may experience in developing and flying missiles.

“You could have won the contract already, and you had this great plan about how you were going to fly [fiscal year] 2027. But since you haven’t flown yet, and I have a satellite that needs to fly in a couple of years, we’re not going to give you that task—we’re going to pass it on to the other person,” Pentecostal said.

Space Force aims to finish its solicitation for bidders by September and then submit all proposals by December, with contracts awarded in October 2024.

The main driver for this push, Space Force officials said, is “capacity assurance,” since there are “a lot of other companies” trying to buy satellite launches and the Space Force needs to close their orders.

“We wanted to make sure that we basically hedged against the scarcity of launches that could happen because if there is absolutely too much demand and everyone is [buying]”The prices can be very high,” Mellon said.

But despite that fear, Pentecost said that 2026 “looks like the sweet spot” when a number of the companies’ rockets will be developed and ready to fly. And the companies that stay on the right track will have the upper hand in the third phase of the NSSL.

“If you fly before then, or if your schedule shows you will fly before then, you will have significant strengths, which will put you in a better position to win the best provider or second best in this competition,” said Pentecost.

American And Jet Blue One will stop selling seats on flights next Friday, two months after a federal judge ruled that the Northeast airline partnership violated antitrust laws.

The judge ordered the airlines to end their partnership of more than two years, which allowed them to share passengers and revenue, and coordinate schedules in the northeastern United States. Delta And united In busy airports serving New York and Boston.

The Department of Justice, six states, and the District of Columbia sued to block this partnership, winning their case on May 20.

““We are disappointed to end popular benefits such as codeshare and mutual loyalty benefits,” Dave Fintzen, JetBlue’s vice president of Northeast Alliance, said in a statement. With the recent court ruling and the termination of the NEA, we have to go down I say in short order.”

JetBlue said last week it would not appeal the ruling, so it could focus instead on its $3.8 billion acquisition. Spirit Airlines, a deal also challenged by the DOJ, though JetBlue said it did not agree with the judge’s ruling on the Northeast alliance. However, America said it still plans to appeal the ruling on the Northeast Alliance.

Earlier this week, airline websites still offered flight options on each other’s airlines during the year-end holidays, but those sales will only last through July 20.

Both airlines said they will work with customers who have existing reservations so that their plans are not disrupted.

“This is only the first step in the truce process that will take place over the coming months,” American said in a statement. “We will continue to work with the JetBlue team to ensure that customers with existing codeshare reservations can travel smoothly without disrupting their travel plans.”

Thursday is also the last day customers can use their American AAdvantage frequent flyer miles to book flights on JetBlue.

Manufacturer of spacecraft engines and builder of small rockets Astra It intends to conduct a reverse stock split of 1 to 15, the company disclosed in a securities filing on Monday.

The request said Astra was also seeking to raise up to $65 million through an “on-the-market” placement of ordinary shares.

Astra shares were little changed in after-hours trading, closing at 40 cents a share. The company went public in July 2021 through a SPAC deal, at a valuation of nearly $2 billion, before the stock began to crash after launch failures and development setbacks.

The reverse stock split is expected to take place on or before October 2, Astra’s filing said, after its board of directors approved the plan on July 6. The company previously scheduled a reverse split as part of its plan to avoid delisting by the Nasdaq.

A reverse split does not affect the fundamentals of the company, as it does not dilute the value of the stock nor change the valuation of the company, but it will raise the share price through the combination of shares. A reverse split can be seen as a sign that a company is in distress and is trying to “artificially” increase its share price, or it can be seen as a way for a viable company with crumbling shares to continue its operations on a public stock exchange. Functionally, the reverse split, often done as 1 for 10, means that a stock worth, say, $3 will become $30 a share.

“Now Boarding” is a videocast about air travel and the business of flying. CNBC airline reporter Leslie Josephs and CNBC senior producer Erin Black delve into topics like turbulence, airline status, boarding, jumbo jets and all things aviation. Watch this episode and others on the CNBC YouTube channel.

In this episode of Now Boarding, Leslie and Erin discuss why boarding a plane can be so complicated and what airlines are doing to make it faster. They talk to Steve Goldberg, Southwest Airlines senior vice president, operations and hospitality, about the carrier’s unique boarding process and its experiments to make boarding more efficient. They also talk to Kerry Filipovich, former senior vice president of customer experience at American Airlinesabout the reasons behind all the different boarding groups and ways to make boarding faster.