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This week: Chile’s airport strikes, Denver’s snow & more

All good things must come to an end at some point. Unfortunately this post is the last of our weekly airport news updates from around the world. We’ve decided to revert back to our original format where we infrequently post topical airport stories we are passionate about. But don’t worry, we will continue to tweet about interesting airport news on our Twitter account.

So for our last news round-up, these are the headlines:

Yahoo! News reported that ten of Chile’s airports remained closed on Saturday as striking workers tied to the civil aviation authority and officials failed to reach an agreement, with the outlook for Sunday not looking much better. The article further outlined that LAN, Chile’s flagship airline and part of LATAM Airlines, has already been forced to cancel 200 domestic flights in the three days since the strikes began, the company said. The work stoppage, which was initially set to only last 48 hours, has already stranded thousands of passengers in the run-up to the Christmas holiday. Luckily flights were still being operated to and from the capital, Santiago (SCL), and the cities of Iquique, Antofagasta, Calama, Temuco and Punta Arenas.

In the United States the Denver Post reported this week that Denver International Airport (DEN) has canceled about 500 flights Tuesday morning and hundreds of other flights have been delayed on average nearly four hours, officials say. There a snowstorm dropped 7.7 inches (19.5cm) of snow […] according to the National Weather Service. Gusting winds and reduced visibility added to the delays. The average delay for departures was nearly four hours according to a spokeswoman.

And – for our very last news item – a bit of gossip from Los Angeles. There, according to Rocketnews24, awkwardness broke out at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) when the members of up-and-coming K-Pop group Oh My Girl were detained on suspicion of being sex workers. According to a statement from the group’s label, WM Entertainment, US customs officials got the idea after searching through the girls’ costumes and props. It’s actually quite surprising since, according to several videos of Oh My Girl stage shows, they tend to be rather conservatively dressed compared to other K-Pop offerings, the article argued.

That’s all for this week, for 2015 and in regards for airport news reviews on LateDeparture.com – probably for ever. We’ll be back with other interesting posts in 2016 though. Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all our loyal readers and of course SAFE TRAVELS!

[Title photo “LAN Airlines Boeing 787-8 CC-BBE FRA 2014-06-09” by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt – http://www.airliners.net/photo/LAN-Airlines/Boeing-787-8-Dreamliner/2459220/L/. Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Commons.]