Aviation News

With today being April 1st, companies around the world have taken the opportunity to spread a touch of light-hearted joy by spinning a few April Fools' Day stories that are just slightly too good to be true. Whether you were able to smell the rat straight away or briefly believed the unlikely tales, it has been a fun start to the month seeing the different things that companies across the globe have come up with.

SAS has announced a significant expansion of its summer schedule, with the airline adding 28 new routes from Copenhagen, Denmark, Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden, strengthening its role in connecting Northern Europe to the world.

An American Airlines flight from New York to Tokyo was forced to divert to Dallas/Fort Worth after it had already begun crossing the Pacific Ocean on its way to the Japanese capital.

Later this month, the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's second-tier club competition, will take place across the continent. Alongside Norwegian underdogs Bodø/Glimt's tie against Italian heavyweights Lazio, the remaining three quarter-finals each feature a British side, with Tottenham Hotspur taking on Eintracht Frankfurt, Manchester United facing Lyon, and Rangers squaring up against Athletic Bilbao. The latter of these draws has prompted a boom in flights.

French planemaker Airbus has announced that the A380 will return. While the manufacturer broke many hearts by canceling the program on Valentine's Day 2019, it appears that April Fools Day is the perfect day to bring the giant of the skies back!

Lufthansa, citing new aircraft delivery delays, has said that it will begin deploying its Airbus A350-900 aircraft from Frankfurt, including to two destinations in the United States, Denver and Seattle.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a new airworthiness directive (AD) for some Boeing 757 aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce engines. The AD was proposed because of instances of precooler failures in some engines resulting in head damage to some components.

At the 2025 Air & Space Forces Warfare Symposium, RTX Corporation - a key aircraft systems developer that works on everything from avionics to weapons - kindly gave an update on a key weapons program in StormBreaker and also their new Active Electrically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar in PhantomStrike as well as the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ).

On March 30, northern carriers, including Virgin Atlantic,switched to summer schedules based on IATA slot seasons. Hundreds of routes began or resumed around then, a handpicked selection of which will appear in my Weekly Routes article on April 1. See last week's edition here.

Airbus has announced that Taiwan’s China Airlines has finalized an order for ten A350-1000 aircraft, a deal that the airline disclosed in December 2024.

The onset of coronavirus had huge implications for airlines around the world, as the sudden and sharp drop in passenger demand hit carriers' finances hard. While the commercial aviation industry has been in a state of stability and even growth in recent years following life's return to post-pandemic normality, it has taken airlines a little while to catch up to where they were financially before the health crisis hit. Still, Virgin Atlantic has turned a major corner with its first post-COVID profit.

Hawaiian Airlines is undergoing a significant change in its operations and business structure. Having recently finalized a merger with Alaska Airlines, the carrier has also embarked on a fleet and network development program.

BOC Aviation, an aircraft lessor within the Bank of China (BOC) Group, has ordered 120 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing, splitting the order between 70 and 50 jets of their best-selling narrowbody families, respectively.

It was recently reported that two air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., got involved in a physical fight in the control tower. And it has now emerged that the Federal Aviation Administration has put a controller on administrative leave as it investigates the incident.

Canadian carrier WestJet recently announced an end to its all-cargo operations. The airline, which mainly focuses on passenger transport, was not able to create long-term viability for its cargo branch in a relatively small market and a cooling-off cargo industry. The carrier now must decide what to do with its converted freighter aircraft, which are not in high demand.

An Atlanta-bound Delta Air LinesBoeing 757-200 diverted to Phoenix on Sunday after the crew was alerted of a possible mechanical issue. The aircraft, which had departed from Orange Country, was about 45 minutes into its journey when the crew rerouted.

A couple of weeks ago, a fire at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) created a power outage, which had a multifaceted impact on the commercial aviation industry. With flights disrupted and passengers displaced for days, it is unsurprising that airlines were quick to indicate that there would be a negative financial impact resulting from the incident. While in the short term, the fire forced Heathrow to shut down for more than 24 hours, the long-term impacts of this incident have yet to be fully discussed.

Recently, Southwest Airlines announced that it would be ending its decades-old policy of offering passengers two free checked bags. This is one of many moves taken by the airline, which has for around six months been under the heavy influence of activist investment management firm Elliott Management, to help the carrier turn its streak of poor financial performance around. The airline has taken several steps in recent months to help reduce its operational cost footprint and improve its financial performance.

Linhas Aéreas de Angola, also known as TAAG Angola Airlines, has set its sights on launching a new US route between Angola and Houston, Texas, by 2027, according to a report by Ishrion Aviation. The news comes shortly after the airline welcomed the first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner into its fleet.

Just a few days ago, on Wednesday, March 26, an Embraer E195-E2 flown by Helvetic Airways on behalf of Swiss International Air Lines touched down at the small London city airport (LCY). This occasion marks the first commercial E195-E2 flight at the airport, but also makes it the largest jet to commercially operate there.