New York  - The shareholders of Northwest Airlines on Thursday approved the planned merger with Delta Air Lines.

At an annual meeting held in New York, more than 98 per cent of Northwest's stockholders favoured the creation of the largest airline in the world in terms of passengers, Northwest said. Northwest is the fifth-largest airline in the United States.

Delta shareholders were expected to decide on the merger later Thursday. Delta is currently the third-largest airline in the United States.

Paris - European aerospace group EADS said Thursday that the first flight of its new A400M multi-purpose military transport plane has been postponed "because of the unavailability of the propulsion system."

The postponement is another blow for EADS, which has already lost billions of euros because of delays to its A380 superjumbo and A350XWB aircraft.

Barbara Kracht, a spokeswoman for EADS subsidiary Airbus, which is building the A400M, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that it was too early to speculate about how long the setback would delay delivery of the plane.

Islamabad, Sept 25 : After the UK, the US too has suspended its visa service in Pakistan for an indefinite period, in the wake of Marriott hotel suicide attack in which 60 people lost their lives and more than 250 were injured.

Confirming this, US embassy spokesperson in Islamabad said that only those applicants who were called for interviews today would be entertained today, and this service will not be available tomorrow onwards, reported The News.

Rome - Italian government officials were set later Thursday to hold talks with labour unions on the fate of troubled national carrier Alitalia, amid what news reports said was optimism on an agreement over the carrier's takeover by a private consortium.

The late-morning meeting including the nine unions representing Alitalia employees was scheduled to be held at Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office in Rome.

The premier's close aide Gianni Letta was expected to chair it.

"I am hopeful, but to say that everything has been concluded is not correct," Transport Minister Altero Matteoli said ahead of the talks.

New Delhi, Sept 24 : The sharp rise in fuel prices has pushed global aviation industry in crisis with 5.2 billion dollar losses this year and forecast of 4.1 billion dollar next year, says International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Director General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IATA, Giovani Bisignani, while addressing an interactive session in New Delhi today, said that one dollar increase per barrel of oil costs 1.26 billion dollars to the aviation industry.

London, September 24 : In the wake of the recent exploding of an electric wheelchair shortly after a flight landed at Manchester, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has warned air passengers of the unlikely dangers their luggage may pose.

The incident occurred on September 7, when ground staff at the airport noticed blue sparks coming from the wheelchair, while they were unloading it from the hold of a Boeing 757.

The chair was removed from the aircraft, and immediately burst into flames.

“Thankfully no-one was injured as a result of the Manchester incident, but it does highlight the need for passengers to be extremely vigilant,” the Telegraph quoted Geoff Leach, manager of the CAA’s dangerous goods office, as saying.