Aviation

The skies of Oklahoma City roared for six months in 1964 as military aircraft intentionally rattled the population below with a daily barrage of thunderous sonic booms. It was a controversial test — the consequences of which have lingered to this day.

Two approaches in the works could revolutionize air travel by making future supersonic passenger planes compliant with the FAA’s new noise rules: Colorado-based company Boom Supersonic, which is specifically mentioned in the FAA proposal, plans to use physics to prevent sonic booms from ever reaching the ground, regardless of plane design. NASA, on the other hand, is flying an experimental plane called X-59 that is specifically designed to reduce the intensity of the boom.

German authorities have confirmed that bomb disposal experts successfully defused a drone armed with explosives, which was found on the tarmac at Leipzig/Halle International Airport in the state of Saxony. The drone was found close to a massive Antonov aircraft, painted in the iconic yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag.

Lufthansa adds controversial new Business Class fees on A380s, charging up to €170 for window seats.

GE Aerospace has flown its modified Saab 340B megawatt-class hybrid-electric testbed at 30,000 ft., representing a milestone for an electric propulsion system operating at standard commercial airline altitudes.

The aircraft, which is on show at the Farnborough Airshow after being flown across the Atlantic from the U.S., incorporates a fully integrated megawatt-class hybrid-electric propulsion system in a modified nacelle in the No.2 right engine position, and retains the standard GE CT7 turboprop in the left position.

The first four streams were from Las Vegas (LAS/KLAS), Sint Maarten (SXM/TNCM), Lanzarote (ACE/GCRR), and New Orleans (MSY/KMSY), which were later joined by streams from Reno (RNO/KRNO) and New York-LaGuardia (LGA/KLGA).

Last year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed that sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) production represents only 0.6% of total jet fuel consumption, well below the 65% target by the global aviation industry to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. SAF currently costs two to five times more than conventional jet fuels, with the hefty price premium creating a significant economic barrier for airlines that operate on razor-thin margins. Additionally, there is not enough global refining capacity or raw materials such as cooking oil and animal fats to produce SAF at the scale required, with producers hesitant to invest without long-term supply agreements. However, a new report has revealed that the world could start sourcing cheap SAF from an unlikely source: a joint study by IECC at UC Berkeley and Energy Innovation has found that India is uniquely positioned to produce enough SAF to supply global markets at costs up to 40% below global benchmarks thanks to the country’s booming renewable energy sector.

Global air traffic growth in 2026 will be more than halved compared to earlier predictions because of the Iran war, Boeing says, though the company forecasts a faster‑than‑usual recovery that will return passenger traffic to its long‑term growth trajectory by the end of 2028.

“We were looking at 6% growth in February before the conflict in the Middle East began, and that reset the expectations for the rest of this year,” says Darren Hulst, vice president of commercial marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The company now expects year‑on‑year passenger growth, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, to be about 2.3% for 2026.

The most pessimistic of pessimists would whisper that the carrier gets broken up in parts and sold, the mentioned slots alone reportedly being valued at more than what at least Castlelake currently has bid for the company. Castlelake has remained coy on its plans, with Apollo on the other hand reportedly supporting the current strategy of easyJet. This further implies that it wouldn’t break up the company and sell it for parts.

Given that we after all are discussing private equity companies, a plausible scenario sees the new owner streamlining and carefully examining the operator for opportunities where cost-cutting measures can be implemented. Perhaps it even seeks to further increase competition with Ryanair, currently weighing in at roughly twice the size when it comes to strict fleet numbers?

In a note from COO Dan Janki in May, the airline indicated it was happy with its on-time performance, but “we need to improve controllable cancels and IROP recovery.” I’m not sure I agree. Oh sure, it does have a problem with cancellations and irregular operations, but on-time performance has suffered as well. While there are several issues that have led to this decline, one of the hot button topics is centered around pilot availability.

A letter from Ryan Gumm, SVP Flight Operations from April, explained that trips that needed coverage saw acceptance rates plummet from 37 percent to two percent. To me, this sounds like an effort to blame labor, so I spoke with Delta’s pilots union chair Eric Criswell to get his side. Eric said they don’t have access to the dataset that Delta referred to in that latter, but he wanted to point out that the number of trips made available has jumped significantly in the last year. You would expect acceptance rates to drop in a bigger pool. From the union’s perspective, staffing is a primary concern in this whole mess.

While BA2673 was blocking the runway at Gatwick, other flights bound for the airport were put into holding patterns. Because of the extended holds and the unknown amount of time needed to remove the aircraft from the runway, nine flights declared fuel emergencies in the course of diverting to alternate airports. Squawking 7700 is the internationally recognized transponder code for general emergency and alerts air traffic control to flights requiring priority assistance. A total of 14 flights diverted away from Gatwick to nearby airfields, including London-Stansted, London-Luton, London-Heathrow, Birmingham, and Bristol.

Now, the airline says the “message was poorly worded and not accurate.” That’s right, United isn’t denying the memo was shared with agents, or that anyone who read the message would think that passengers could rebook onto flights to alternative airports to deliberately avoid the DJT airport.

Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus plans to slash 500 jobs and axe a slew of routes, citing increased competition and rising costs, which have prevented the Dublin-based airline from securing additional investment from its parent company, IAG, which also owns British Airways, Iberia, and Vueling.

According to Aer Lingus, the job losses will include 70 pilots, 140 cabin crew, and 290 head office roles. The Fórsa trade union, which represents Aer Lingus cabin crew, has demanded the airline “engage constructively” to prevent compulsory job losses.

The decision to downsize its workforce came after Aer Lingus announced it was either axing or downgrading a slew of routes to seasonal destinations only. Starting in September, Aer Lingus will begin axing flights between Dublin and Denver, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, and Split.

As part of the partnership, IAG will work with Verve Motion to trial a new exosuit designed specifically for aviation, initially focusing on shoulder support for baggage handlers. The pilot will explore how wearable robotics can make repetitive lifting tasks easier and help improve performance across ground and cargo operations.

The Federal Aviation Administration wants aircraft operators to do more to preserve cockpit voice recorder (CVR) data following incidents and accidents. In a newly released Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO), the agency laid out steps flight crews and carriers should take to prevent critical audio evidence from being overwritten.

The guidance targets a longstanding problem investigators have flagged for years. When a CVR keeps running after an incident, older recordings get erased. That means by the time crash investigators or safety officials pull the device, the audio they need may already be gone.

Iberia flight IB-140 was flying northbound towards Europe at an altitude of around 36,000 feet above the Atlantic, while Air Europa flight UX-57 had also been reportedly cleared to fly at the same altitude, and on the same track as the Iberia, but in the opposite direction.

United Airlines is preparing for customers who may object to flying into an airport named for President Donald Trump, and reservation agents have been authorized to move those passengers to Fort Lauderdale or Miami without charging more.