Barcelona/Madrid  - Outgoing flights were resumed at Madrid's Barajas airport Friday afternoon after more than five hours of suspending operations owing to snowfall, the airport operator AENA said.

The airport was also about to resume landings after more than 50 flights were diverted to other airports.

Only 268 of the 1,205 scheduled flights had taken place before operations were suspended.

Long queues of passengers formed at the airport, which has also been affected by an alleged unofficial work to rule stoppage by pilots of the Spanish airline Iberia.

Vilnius  - The owners Lithuania's national flag-carrier, FlyLAL-Lithuanian Airlines, have agreed to sell the struggling company to industrial holding company SCH Swiss Capital Holdings in a deal that should be completed within the next two weeks, according to a company statement released Friday.

"Negotiations with the Swiss investment fund SCH Swiss Capital Holdings have agreed on the sale of FlyLAL-Lithuanian Airlines' shares. Today an agreement was signed under which SCH Swiss Capital Holdings will purchase 100 per cent of company shares," the statement said.

Vijay Mallya-run private air-carrier Kingfisher Airlines is planning to start daily flight between Mumbai and London from Monday. The move is aimed to expand its overseas operations. The new flight would leave for Heathrow's Terminal at 1.50 pm IST from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Terminal, Mumbai and reach London at 5.55 pm GMT. The company would use brand new Airbus 330-200 aircraft which is configured in two classes namely Kingfisher First and Kingfisher second Class.

The UB Group-owned Kingfisher Airlines has announced a 21 to 65% fare cut on various routes with effect from Jan 1.  

Kingfisher chairman and chief executive Vijay Mallya further informed, “The declining price of ATF (air turbine fuel) facilitates such consumer-benefiting initiatives that will also stimulate the industry. The rate cuts are consistent with our mission to aggressively pursue increase in market share and to deliver India's only five-star experience at highly competitive fares.”

Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines has finally slashed its domestic basic fares by up to 65 per cent, indicating an average reduction of around 20 per cent in overall fares.

Last week, Kingfisher had declared a range of fare cuts without indicating the quantum of cuts across sectors.

The company's announcement follows moves by rival Jet Airways and Air India, the country's national carrier to trim their basic fares by an average of 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

Washington, Jan 3 : A US airline has apologized to nine Muslim American passengers from the Washington area who were removed from a flight out of Reagan National Airport.

But a Muslim civil rights group has said that it intends to press a discrimination complaint against the airline for its treatment of the passengers, The Washington Post reported.