Road Warrior: 3,391 firearms found in carry-on bags

Lie-flat seats at United

United Airlines has taken delivery of the first of 14 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and it has been christened The New Spirit of United. It has been kitted out with the new Polaris business class service. It will also have lie-flat seats and aisle access for all passengers. United is celebrating its best full-year on-time performance in the company's history. The New Spirit of United goes into service next month.

Trying to get guns on board

The haul of firearms for 2016 was 28 per cent higher than the previous year, according to the Transportation Security Administration. Security staff discovered 3,391 guns in carry-on bags. Scarier still is that 83 per cent were loaded. The top three airports for guns were Atlanta (198), Dallas Fort Worth (192) and Houston (128). In addition officers found a selection of weapons disguised as credit cards, sword canes, belt buckles and knives hidden in various places, as well as a selection of grenade type devices and throwing stars. See 10 of the most unusual items from last year on blog.tsa.com.

Presidential prices

Rooms in Washington for the night of Trump’s inauguration were selling for an extraordinary average of $2,071 (€1,943) last week. This is 927 per cent higher than the average January rate of a little more than $200, according to hotel price comparison website Trivago. However by Thursday that had fallen to $600-$1,200. With only 16 per cent of rooms available on Airbnb on Thursday, prices averaged $262 for a room. Airbnb said they have taken bookings for more than 15,100 guests, 50 per cent more than expected. The extra 200,000 people expected to take part in the Women’s March, anti-Trump rally on Saturday, are probably having an effect too.

Internet in the clouds

Seventy airlines now offer wi-fi in the sky, according to Routehappy. That is 11 more than last year and coverage will increase further this year. It is now available on 39 per cent of available seat miles (ASMs) globally and 83 per cent in the United States. Delta and Emirates offer the most wi-fi enabled aircraft ASMs. Virgin America is the only US carrier to have it on 100 per cent of flights. On flights longer than 2,800 miles, Emirates, United and Lufthansa have the most expansive wi-fi.