American Airlines is canceling hundreds of flights through at least mid-July as the company strives to maintain service in the midst of massively increasing travel demand while the coronavirus pandemic continues to recede in the United States, according to a spokesperson from the airline. "The first few weeks of June have brought unprecedented weather to our largest hubs, heavily impacting our operation and causing delays, canceled flights and disruptions to crew member schedules and our customers' plans," said Shannon Gilson, a spokesperson for the airline. "That, combined with the labor shortages some of our vendors are contending with and the incredibly quick ramp up of customer demand, has led us to build in additional resilience and certainty to our operation by adjusting a fraction of our scheduled flying through mid-July." Still, the fraction of targeted cancelations adds up to hundreds of flights through mid-July. On Saturday, American had 120 cancellations, and the company is projecting 50 to 80 flight cancelations per day going forward, according to Gibson. Customers who had been booked through July 15 will be notified or have already received notifications if their flights have been canceled so they can make travel adjustments in advance, Gibson said. Gibson also said the cancelations will be spread throughout its system, to minimize impact in a single area, though there will be a bigger effect in Dallas-Fort Worth, an American Airlines hub.<br/>
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An investigation has been launched after the nose gear of a British Airways Boeing 787 collapsed at London's Heathrow Airport. The plane, which was being used for a cargo-only flight, was parked on the tarmac when the landing gear crumpled at the UK’s busiest airport. The incident happened while the plane was being loaded for a flight to Germany, having flown in from Russia two days before. Some flight crew were reportedly inside when the collapse happened, however, no one was seriously injured. According to one report, an engineer had “failed to lock out the landing gear properly”. An airline spokesperson said: “A freighter aircraft has been damaged while stationary on stand. As a freighter only aircraft there were no passengers on board. Safety is always our highest priority and we are investigating the matter.”<br/>
Cathay Pacific said Friday that losses in the first half are expected to be "somewhat" lower than last year, due to cost-saving measures and strong demand for cargo flights. Crew quarantine measures have eased since mid-April and that helped Cathay operate 24% more freighter flights and 18% more cargo-only passenger flights in May compared to April, the airline said. "Our losses in the first half of 2021, while still very substantial, are expected to be somewhat lower than the losses reported in both the first and second halves of 2020," the airline said. Cathay reported a first-half net loss of HK$9.87b ($1.27b) last year and a net loss of HK$11.78b in the second half. Cathay said it is "cautiously" adding more passenger flights and destinations, and plans to operate at around 30% of its pre-pandemic passenger capacity by Q4.<br/>
Japan Airlines operated its first commercial flight loaded with two different types of Japan-made sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on 17 June. This was conducted on flight JL515, from Tokyo Haneda international airport to Sapporo’s New Chitose airport, JAL says in a statement. It was part of a biojet fuels programme under a national research and development agency. The aircraft was loaded with 3,132 litres (827 USgal) of SAF blended with traditional jet fuel at 9.1% mixing ratio. There were two types of SAF, one made from wood chips, produced jointly by Mitsubishi Power, Toyo Engineering, and JERA, the other from algae, produced by IHI Corporation. JAL says: “It was the very first attempt to load two different types of SAF on the same flight.” This demonstrates that Japan-made SAF is successful and feasible for actual use, and this is a “first step [toward] the commercialisation of domestically-produced SAF around 2030”. JAL has pledged to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2050 and aims to replace 10% of its traditional jet fuel consumption with SAF to meet targets.<br/>