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Southwest Airlines launches service today from Boston’s Logan International Airport, even as it shrinks its overall flying for the first time ever. The aircraft for the 10 daily flights – five each to Chicago’s Midway Airport and Baltimore/Washington International – were taken from weaker routes on Southwest’s flying schedule of 3,300 daily departures.

Ryanair is due to make Leeds-Bradford Airport its 34th European base, with the low-cost carrier set to offer dozens of new routes to Europe from the Yorkshire hub. Starting in March 2010, the Irish airline will offer a total of 63 return flights a week to around a dozen top European holiday destinations. These include Palma, Malaga and Murcia in Spain, as well as Nantes in neighbouring France. In addition, Ryanair will offer flights from Leeds-Bradford to Pisa, Venice and Faro, with the airline revealing that it intends to create as many as 1,000 jobs through this latest expansion.

Boeing said on Friday an Italian supplier stopped production in June on two sections of its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner after structural flaws were found on fuselages. Alenia Aeronautica halted production because of wrinkles in the fuselage skin caused by flaws in subcomponents of the one-piece composite barrel, said Boeing spokeswoman Loretta Gunter. Flaws were found on 23 airplanes, starting with the seventh in production, Gunter said. She said a solution has been designed and patches will be applied to all the planes built so far. The carbon-composite 787 has been delayed repeatedly. On June 23, the same day as the Alenia Aeronautica production halt, Boeing announced another delay to the first test flight of the 787.

On at least a dozen recent flights by U.S. jetliners, malfunctioning equipment made it impossible for pilots to know how fast they were flying, federal investigators have discovered. A similar breakdown is believed to have played a role in the Air France crash into the Atlantic that killed all 228 people aboard in June.

The equipment failures, all involving Northwest Airlines Airbus A330s, were brief and were noticed only after safety officials began investigating the Air France crash — on a Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight — and two other recent in-flight malfunctions.

The discovery suggests the equipment problems are more widespread than previously believed. And it gives new urgency to airlines already scrambling to replace air sensors and figure out how the errors went undetected despite safety systems.

Bangkok Airways ATR-72 HS-PGL (msn 670) skidded off the runway and crashed into a building after landing on the Thai resort island of Samui on Tuesday, killing the chief pilot and injuring at least seven people including foreign tourists. The flight landed in stormy weather and hit the airport’s old air traffic control tower, which had been converted into a fire station. The co-pilot and six tourists were hurt. Samui, located 298 miles (480 kilometers) south of Bangkok, is an island in the Gulf of Thailand popular with foreign tourists.

A Continental Airlines flight from Brazil to Houston hit turbulence over the Atlantic ocean that injured 26 people, forcing an emergency landing in Miami early Monday, officials said. Four people were seriously injured aboard the Boeing 767-200 and another 22 were in stable condition with bumps and bruises. Continental Flight 128 was traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Houston with 168 people on board when it was diverted. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the turbulence struck when the plane was about halfway between Puerto Rico and Grand Turk island, north of the Dominican Republic. The plane reported hitting severe turbulence at 4:30 a.m. and landed safely at 5:30 a.m, Bergen said

Southwest Airlines is seeking to trump a rival bid and acquire Frontier Airlines, a Denver-based carrier operating under bankruptcy protection. A court had already approved the sale of Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. to the parent of Republic Airways for $108.8 million, but that deal can be nixed if a better offer comes along. Dallas-based Southwest said it submitted a nonbinding bid of $113.6 million. Southwest hopes that making the bid will allow it to talk with Frontier and get information to help shape its final proposal. Southwest said it faces an Aug. 10 deadline for submitting a binding bid. If there is more than one qualified bidder, an auction will be held the following day.

The co-pilot in February’s airline crash in upstate New York complained to the flight’s captain that she felt ill and would have skipped the flight but didn’t want to pay for a hotel room, according to a new cockpit voice recorder transcript released Monday. The extended transcript, released by the NTSB, shows Captain Marvin Renslow commiserated with First Officer Rebecca Shaw, but didn’t suggest she pull out of the flight.

The two conversed while Continental Connection Flight 3407 sat on the ground waiting for clearance to takeoff from Newark Liberty International Airport.

Shaw also complained about poor treatment by Colgan Air Inc. of Manassas, Va., which operated the flight for Continental Airlines. She said she earned only $15,800 the previous year and the airline was refusing to give her $200 in back pay she felt she was owed.

Flight 3407 crashed on Feb. 12 as the twin-engine Q400 turboprop began preparations for landing in Buffalo, killing all 49 people aboard and a man in a house below. Testimony at an NTSB hearing in May showed Renslow and Shaw made a series of critical errors leading up to the crash.

United Airlines parent UAL Corp. swung to a second-quarter profit on hedging gains, overshadowing a continuing fall in demand and revenue. UAL posted income of $28 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $2.74 billion, or $21.57 a share. Excluding hedging gains, the company posted a loss of $2.23 a share. Revenue decreased 25% to $4.02 billion. Load factor, or the percentage of available seats filled, fell to 82.5% from 83.2% as capacity cuts couldn’t outweigh the drop in demand. Revenue per available seat mile, considered the best basic measure of revenue for airlines, fell 20%.

The airline also announced that it will cut international capacity by another 7% for the last four months of the year.

Southwest Airlines said Tuesday its second-quarter profit fell to $54 million, or 7 cents a share, from $321 million, or 44 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, the Dallas-based airline said it earned 8 cents a share.

Continental Airlines announced on Tuesday it would cut 1,700 jobs amid a slump in revenue and passenger numbers. The airline said it would be “eliminating approximately 1,700 positions across the company, including management and clerical positions.” Announcing earnings for the second quarter, the airline posted a net loss of 213 million dollars at earnings of -1.72 dollars per share, close to analysts’ expectations. “Second quarter results were adversely affected by significant declines in high yield traffic as many business travelers curtailed travel or purchased lower yield economy tickets due to the weakened economy,” the airline said.

Caspian Airlines TU-154M EP-CPG (msn 91A-898) crashed today shortly after takeoff on a flight from Tehran, Iran to Yerevan, Armenia. Wreckage was spread over a large area in a field in Jannatabad village, about 75 miles north-west of Tehran, state TV said. The aircraft had been airborne for about 16 minutes. All 168 passengers and crew aboard were killed in the accident.

Photo: Caspian Airlines TU-154M EP-CPG is seen landing at Teheran Mehrabad Airport in March, 2009 (Photo Copyright M. Khodaei)

China Eastern will take over Shanghai Airlines in an 8.9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) deal that will create a carrier with more than half the market share in the coastal city. China Eastern will swap 1.3 of its Shanghai-listed A shares for each Shanghai Airlines share. China Eastern also said it will raise around seven billion yuan through a sale of new yuan-denominated A shares and Hong Kong-listed H shares to improve its financial position. Shanghai Airlines will become a wholly owned unit of China Eastern and retain its brand, but it will be de-listed from the Shanghai stock exchange after the merger.

Southwest Airlines inspected about 200 planes overnight after a football-sized hole opened up in the passenger cabin of a jet in flight, forcing an emergency landing in West Virginia. Travelers on the Boeing 737 aircraft could see through the 1-foot-by-1-foot hole that appeared during the flight Monday. The cabin lost pressure, but no one was injured on the Nashville-to-Baltimore flight with 126 passengers and five crew members on board. Passenger Brian Cunningham told NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday that he had dozed off in his seat in mid-cabin when he was awakened by “the loudest roar I’d ever heard.” He said the hole was above his seat. People stayed calm and put on the oxygen masks that dropped from the ceiling. The incident occurred just four months after Southwest agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle charges that it operated planes that had missed required safety inspections for cracks in the fuselage.

Two ships using U.S. listening devices to search for the black boxes of Air France Flight 447 were ending their hunt Friday, an American commander said. A French nuclear submarine, however, will continue to look. U.S. Air Force Col. Willie Berges, the Brazil-based commander of American military forces supporting the effort, said one ship towing a U.S. Navy listening device had already stopped searching. “The last ship will be departing the search area today,” Berges said. He didn’t know what time the final ship would leave the search area. Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, more than 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) off Brazil’s northeastern coast, on June 1. All 228 people aboard died. Investigators have said without the black boxes, it may be impossible to know with certainty what caused the crash.

Photo: Air France A330-202 F-GZCP (msn 660) was the aircraft involved in the incident. (Photo Copyright Olivier Corneloup)

Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary wants passengers to stand on the budget airline’s flights, in a bid to pack in more people and boost profits. Passengers would pay less to huddle next to what have been described as “bar stools,” with seat belts around their waists. O’Leary has already held talks with US plane manufacturer Boeing about designing a jet with standing room. He is now hoping to get the go-ahead from the Irish Aviation Authority before ordering a new fleet. A Ryanair spokesman said: “If they approve it, we’ll be doing it.” O’Leary got the idea from Chinese airline Spring, which put forward similar plans — estimating they could pack in up to 50 percent more passengers and slash costs by 20 percent.

The owners of discount-carrier Spirit Airlines will purchase Air Jamaica, renaming the money-losing government-owned carrier Spirit of Jamaica, according to the Jamaica Gleaner. Indigo Partners and Oaktree Capital have reportedly bought the airline for an undisclosed sum, according to unnamed sources, the newspaper said. Sources close to the negotiations would only confirm that Trinidadian-owned Caribbean Airlines did not win the bid for Air Jamaica. The Jamaican government wants to privatize the airline.

An Airbus A310 belonging to Yemenia, the state airline of the Arabian peninsula nation of Yemen, crashed early Tuesday morning off the coast of Comoros, an archipelago nation jetting into the stretch of sea between Mozambique and Madagascar, Reuters is reporting. All 150 passengers and crew aboard the plane are believed to be dead.

The flight, IY627, which had taken off from Paris Monday morning, making an intermediate stop in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, before setting out for Moroni, the capital of Comoros. It is believed that the plane went down during its final descent. The control tower, it is reported, had received notification of the plane’s approach, but lost contact shortly thereafter. Search and rescue crews have been dispatched to comb an area of coastline between the airport and Ntsaoueni, a small village nearby. No survivors have been found as of yet.

Photo: A Yemenia Airbus A310, the same model of aircraft involved in today’s crash, is seen landing at London’s Heathrow Airport (Photo Copyright Paul Denton)

Boeing lost half of a 30-plane order for its 787 Dreamliner from Qantas Airways Ltd., formerly the model’s biggest airline customer, amid slumping demand for international travel. The carrier canceled 15 787-9 aircraft scheduled for delivery by 2015 and will delay taking another 15 787-8s by four years, Sydney-based Qantas said in a statement today. The changes weren’t influenced by Boeing’s announcement this week of a design issue with the planes, the airline said. The cancellation, valued at as much as $3.1 billion based on Boeing’s current list prices, follows the fifth delay of the 787, already two years behind schedule. Boeing has lost orders for 58 Dreamliners this year as carriers struggle with record declines in passenger traffic and the International Air Transport Association forecasts industry losses worldwide may total $9 billion in 2009.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the Caticlan Airport in the Philippines when operation was stopped because of a Zest Air plane that overshot the runway at 7:53 a.m. on Thursday. Zest Air Flight Z2-863, operated by 60-seat Xian MA60 turboprop RP-C8892, overshot the runway while landing and came to rest on the grassy portion of the field. There were no reported injuries among the passengers, comprising of 50 adults, four children and one infant.