The briefing in brief: After a bad storm, Delta and its commuter carrier melt down in Atlanta. TSA checkpoint waiting times are getting out of hand. Another search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, missing for 12 years, comes up empty. A bomb threat empties Kansas City Airport. Two notable flight incidents this week. TAP Air Portugal will fly to Orlando from Lisbon.

DELTA'S 'PREMIUM' MELTDOWN IN ATLANTA
Delta Air Lines keeps telling anyone who listens that it is a "premium airline." That is a highly arguable assertion, but one place that the carrier is provably awful is service recovery. Need some proof? Delta melted down--again!--this weekend after a nasty, fast-moving storm on Friday evening played havoc with its Atlanta/Hartfield super hub. Nobody says the storm wasn't bad--there was nickel-sized hail, ground lightning and enough wind to briefly force the evacuation of the air traffic control tower--but the airline has basically collapsed since then. As of 4pm (Sunday, March 8), Delta and its wholly owned Endeavor commuter carrier have cancelled more than 550 ATL flights. They've delayed around 45% of their remaining service since Friday, too. The worst part? Many flyers on Friday night and Saturday morning were held on the tarmac for up to six hours. There were no ramp workers to service aircraft and a notable lack of agents to help passengers stuck in terminals. Both O&D and connecting flyers were mostly left to their own devices while no flights arrived or departed and gates were clogged with dark aircraft. The carrier could face substantial fines--airlines are required to let you disembark after three hours--but Delta could use the "dangerous weather" excuse. Of course, it doesn't explain why delays and cancellations persist nearly 48 hours after the storm passed.

TSA SECURITY WAIT TIMES ARE GETTING OUT OF HAND
Airport checkpoint and other TSA agents haven't been paid since February 14 and, guess what? Lines are getting out of hand. Homeland Security, the parent agency of the TSA, said wait times today (March 8) reached 47 minutes in Charlotte, 50 minutes at Houston/InterContinental, an hour at Atlanta and New Orleans and a startling two hours and 45 minutes at Houston/Hobby. Rather than give advice or tell us how many TSA agents may have "called out," DHS spokespeople are violating the Hatch Act barring partisan political activity and commentary while on duty. Consider what DHS posted today on its official X account: After blaming delays on a "Democrat shutdown," it claimed "the chaos is a direct result of Democrats and their refusal to fund DHS." As everyone in America knows, virtually all of DHS is funded. The remaining bits (including TSA pay) are caught in the cross-fire as Democrats and Republicans argue about rules governing the behavior of ICE agents.
        Kansas City International closed for about two hours today (March 8) during a "potential security threat." The terminal was evacuated while police and K-9 units combed the terminal and concourses. Several inbound flights were permitted to land, but were held on the tarmacs. The FBI later said there was a bomb threat.
        LAX has another club lounge. Korean Air has reopened its 18,000-square-foot, two-level facility in the Tom Bradley International Terminal. SkyTeam Elite Plus members can also access the club.

ANOTHER SEARCH FOR MH370 COMES UP EMPTY
A dozen years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 mysteriously disappeared, another search of the south Indian Ocean has come up empty. Malaysian authorities say a 28-day search conducted over 10 months by a marine robotics firm has found no clues. “The search activities undertaken have not yielded any findings that confirm the location of the wreckage,” the government said. The company, Texas-based Ocean Infinity, only gets paid if it finds the wreckage or other clues. Its contract runs through June, but its vessel has been redeployed elsewhere and not likely to return to the search. As you may recall, MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) on March 8, 2014, and was bound for Beijing. There were 239 passengers aboard the Boeing 777.
        Singapore Airlines Flight 21, the 18-hour Newark-Singapore/Changi nonstop, was delayed on departure by nearly 6.5 hours on Tuesday (March 3). The reason? The Airbus A350-900 clipped wings with a Spirit Airlines aircraft. Shockingly, the flight only made up 18 minutes in the air on the 10,500-mile flight. It arrived in Singapore six hours and 10 minutes late.

BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW
A United Airlines departure from LAX returned to the airport shortly after takeoff. The reason? A fire in one of the Boeing 787's two engines. All 256 passengers and 12 crew members were evacuated via emergency slides. And, once again, social media video shows some passengers taking their carry-on luggage with them. That's a huge safety no-no, folks …
        Kristi Noem was abruptly replaced Thursday (March 5) as Homeland Security Secretary. The ouster comes after months of criticism of her publicity stunts, use of taxpayer dollars and a disastrous appearance on Tuesday before a Senate hearing. President Trump named Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) as her replacement. He requires Senate confirmation, of course.
        Orlando flyers take note: Another international flight is coming your way. Effective October 29, TAP Air Portugal will fly three times weekly to Lisbon. It'll use an Airbus A330-900 on the route.