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United reduced its quarterly loss to $434m and posted surprisingly strong revenue as US vacation travel picked up. In reporting Q2 results Tuesday, the airline said it expects to earn a pretax profit in the remaining two quarters of the year. That would break a string of six-straight money-losing quarters since the pandemic began to crush air travel. “Our airline has reached a meaningful turning point: We’re expecting to be back to making a profit once again,” CEO Scott Kirby said. However, United is trailing key rivals as the airlines claw to get back to profitability. In April, Southwest was the first US airline to report a profit since the pandemic hit, and Delta followed last week — in both cases, profits were possible only because airlines have received $54b from taxpayers. United said it can become profitable this year without more government money. Wall Street expects losses in both the third and fourth quarters. More than 2m people a day have boarded planes in the US this month, nearly the double the number that were flying back in March. The recovery, however, is very fragile. Travel is still down 20% from pre-pandemic July 2019. High-fare corporate and international flyers, who contribute an oversized portion of United’s revenue, are still mostly absent, although United said both are improving faster than expected. United filled 83% of seats on domestic flights but only 53% on international ones.<br/>

United plans to suspend service out of Paine Field airport in Everett, Washington, beginning in early October. In a statement Monday, a United spokesperson said that the airline has “continued to evaluate and adapt its network” and that the decision is “based on demand trends.” The airline now operates one daily United Express flight between Denver International Airport and Paine Field, which will be discontinued beginning October 5, according to the statement. The Seattle Times reports United said it will continue to serve the region with nonstop service to Seattle from Denver, New York/Newark, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. John Gallagher, a spokesperson for Propeller Airports, which designed, built and operates the two-year-old terminal north of Seattle, said the move was not a surprise because “carriers are making post-pandemic adjustments to their schedules and markets.”<br/>

A "slip of the tongue" by an air traffic controller at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport saw two planes come within 300 feet of crashing into each other last July, according to a report released Tuesday. The incident on July 20, 2020, involved a United Airlines Boeing 787 arriving from Newark, New Jersey, and an EasyJet Airbus A320 preparing to take off en route to Malaga, Spain, according to the report from the French air safety investigation authority for civil aviation. At the time, planes were taking off from the 09R runway and landing on 09L, according to the report, but the controller told the United Airlines plane to land on 09R. The crew sought to confirm the change of runway using the words "understand" and "sidestep for 9 right," according to the report. However the controller did not check the readback from the crew and proceeded to tell the EasyJet plane to line up for takeoff from runway 09R. At this point the United Airlines plane was still lined up to land on 09L so the crew started the maneuver, but when they checked again the plane was coming into land on their runway. The EasyJet crew asked the controller why the United plane was coming down on 09R and warned of a potential collision. At this point the plane was flying at an altitude of 300 feet, 1,300 meters from the end of the runway. Both the EasyJet crew and the controller told the United crew to ascend once more, and the pilots aborted their landing. By the time the planes crossed paths they were separated by just 300 feet. The controller did not have a direct line of sight to the 09 runways because the equipment that faces in their direction appeared to be broken and she was working at a different screen, according to the report. Story has more.<br/>

Air Canada said Tuesday it has all the qualified pilots it needs to meet higher travel demand with the planned return of US tourists to the country. Canada on Monday said it would allow fully vaccinated US tourists to enter the country starting from Aug. 9, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented 16-month ban. A rapid return in traffic can create staffing headaches for carriers which cancelled thousands of flights during the COVID-19 pandemic when demand plummeted. Air Canada has 600, or around 15% of an estimated 4,000 pilots on furlough, according to the Air Canada Pilots Association. Air Canada said the carrier took steps during the pandemic to keep pilots in the air, such as by having three pilots instead of two on some flights. "We have all the fully qualified pilots we require as travel ramps back up," an Air Canada spokesperson said. Air Canada has 11 simulators and access to five more through aviation training specialist CAE. CAE has seen higher demand for its simulator services, with its pilot-training centers now operating at around 60% of capacity in the United States, a spokeswoman said.<br/>

Asiana Airlines’ shares resumed trading on 16 July, having been suspended on 26 May after two former executives were charged with embezzlement. The South Korean airline says in a 19 July statement that it has prepared and submitted a management improvement plan to reinforce its governance and financial structure in order to prevent a future suspension. “I bow my head and apologise for causing a lot of disappointment to shareholders and stakeholders due to the suspension of trading due to the listing qualification review,” CE Jung Sung-kwon states. “We will do our best to prevent recurrence through monitoring. In addition, we will do our best to restore market trust and enhance shareholder value by faithfully carrying out our main business.” Trading of the airline’s shares was suspended on 26 May, a minute before market close, ahead of a 27 May disclosure that two former executives had been charged with embezzlement. The carrier says it will establish a “transparent decision-making structure” and strengthen the independence of the board by separating the chairman of the board of directors and the representative director, “while establishing transparency in management and a stable governance structure by separating the company’s decision-making and business execution”.<br/>