Aviation News

In a move that comes in line with the company's rhetoric in recent years, it was announced on Friday, May 30, that Indian low-cost giant IndiGo would add ten new international destinations to its route network. The airline is looking to launch new long-haul flights operated by the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that will extend its reach into the European continent and beyond. The airline will be leasing six jets from Norse Atlantic Airways for these flights. These routes will make IndiGo one of the latest carriers to push into the long-haul, low-cost market.

In general, Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) has been in the news regarding air traffic control issues since April 28, when a faulty copper cable failed, silencing radios for 30 seconds and blanking radar scopes for 90 seconds, making air traffic control blind to aircraft movements at the airport. However, the offending cable has at last been replaced by a new fiber-optic one. The upgrade was reported by CNN US on May 28.

Lufthansa plans to retire its fleet of Airbus A340-600s at the start of 2026 as the airline introduces more efficient replacements, according to information from aero.de. This primarily concerns additional Boeing 787s, of which Lufthansa hopes to receive eight to 10 more by the end of this year.

Starting June 2025, Air India will introduce an unusual stopover in Kolkata on its routes from Mumbai and Bengaluru to San Francisco. Previously, some of these flights made stopovers in Europe, primarily in Vienna. The shift to Kolkata is likely due to Pakistan's airspace closure following the terrorist attack in Kashmir in April 2025.

A United States judge has deferred his decision on a request by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop its criminal case against Boeing regarding the 2018 and 2019 737 MAX crashes. This follows a non-prosecution agreement signed between the DOJ and the planemaker a few days ago.

Germany’s Condor Airlines is legally challenging the European Commission’s decision to approve Lufthansa Group’s takeover of Italy’s ITA Airways. According to Condor, the move aims to protect fair competition in European aviation.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby described the low-cost airline model as a “dead” and “crappy” business strategy that aims to “screw the customer.” His remarks came shortly after the announcement of a partnership between United and JetBlue Airways, a carrier widely regarded as a budget airline.

Boeing is planning to build a fourth 737 production line at its facility in Everett, Washington. The new line will be dedicated to production of the 737 MAX 10, the largest of Boeing's workhorse narrowbodies, which Boeing is hoping to have certified later this year. Everett has long been associated with iconic widebodies such as the 747 and 777, but this will be the first full narrowbody production line at the facility.

A Boeing 737-800, once used as a high-profile campaign jet for US Vice President JD Vance, is now being chartered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation flights across Central America. Registered as N917XA, the 22-year-old aircraft previously sported a red, white, and blue livery during the 2024 election trail.

Four years have passed since Breeze Airways' first commercial flight, on May 27, 2021. Since then, Breeze's fleet has grown to 53 aircraft: 40 Airbus A220-300s, 10 Embraer E190s, and three E195s. It has already started to phase out its E195s. The airline previously said it'd retire all its Embraers in 2026, but some may be retained and used for charter flights.

Nearly nine years have passed since the Airbus A220 (previously called CSeries) entered commercial service. The A220-100 (CS100) first flew passengers with launch customer SWISS in July 2016. The higher-capacity and more popular A220-300 (CS300), with much better economics, first flew with airBaltic in December 2016.

In a headline move that caught the world of commercial aviation by storm, United Airlines and JetBlue announced this week that they would be teaming up to expand connectivity primarily from the New York and Boston areas with a host of new interline agreements that bring the two airlines closer together than ever before. Not only will new flight slots be allocated to both carriers at their hubs in the New York Area, but passengers will be eligible to use United MileagePlus miles across both airlines.

Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, is in line to potentially receive a share options bonus worth over $110 million. As of May 29, the airline’s shares had remained above the defined threshold for the required period, meeting one of the two performance criteria set out in his long-term compensation agreement.

United Airlines has had a long and tumultuous history at New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), including an initial run of several decades before it returned to the airport for a year and a half in 2021.

While Global Airlines has divided opinion among avgeeks, there is little doubting the fact that it has been one of the biggest stories in the airline industry in recent years. Earlier this month, the company reached a milestone that many of its doubters would have thought impossible, when its Airbus A380 made its maiden transatlantic passenger flights, albeit operated by Hi Fly rather than Global Airlines itself.

While perhaps unsurprising, American Airlines has more long-haul flights from London Heathrow than anywhere else, including its US hubs. This is driven by its oneworld membership and, more importantly, its transatlantic joint venture with British Airways.

The chief executive officer of London Heathrow Airport (LHR), Thomas Woldbye, was reported to have been asleep with his phone on silent during the widespread outage at LHR that occurred more than two months ago.

Delta Air Lines is charging some passengers significantly more when booking a solo ticket on select routes. As reported by Thrifty Traveler, ticket prices can drop substantially when at least two travelers are included in the booking. In some cases, solo flyers are paying up to 70% more for the same seat.

About 240 airports globally have domestic flights on widebodyaircraft in June. Asia is critical, primarily, of course, because of Japan and China. This is why Tokyo Haneda is the world's leading airport for widebody services. While the US is the third-ranked nation for such activity, only one airport—Honolulu—has enough widebody services to make the top 10 list. Still, it is the first non-Asian airport on the list.

Boeing's financial picture has been undeniably volatile over the past few years. With crippling production delays, strikes and safety-related incidents grounding entire fleets of its aircraft, Boeing has had few victories to get investors excited about the company's prospects. One of the biggest things that the company could achieve that might give investors some newfound confidence in the manufacturer is the certification of the Boeing 737 MAX 7 and the Boeing 737 MAX 10.