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Two United Airlines flights departing from Houston Tuesday night reported bird strikes, prompting both flights to return to George Bush Intercontinental Airport, according to United. United Airlines flight 847 headed to Santiago, Chile, “reported an object struck the right wing around 8:50 p.m.,” CT Tuesday, the FAA said. And just 20 minutes later, on United Airlines Flight 2086, headed to Las Vegas, “the crew reported a possible bird strike around 9:10 p.m.,” the FAA said. “On Tuesday evening, April 25, two separate flights departing George Bush Intercontinental Airport returned to the airport due to bird strikes. Both flights landed safely, and we reaccommodated our customers on other aircraft,” United said in a statement. Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst, said Monday’s uptick of bird strikes in particular, “match” the uptick in “the bird population.” While there were 17,000 bird strikes last year, according to Schiavo, “Usually people don’t get hurt, and pilots know what to do, they put the engine out … and return to the airport.” This year alone there have already been about 2,000 bird strikes, and 85% of these strikes involve commercial airliners, according to FAA statistics. And while most bird strikes are waterfowl, occasionally birds like eagles will pop up.<br/>

Colombia's civil aviation authority has formally approved a merger between Avianca, the Andean country's flag carrier, and Viva Air, the regulator said in a statement on Wednesday. The merger is a lifeline for embattled Viva, which has struggled financially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and seen its situation worsen due to higher fuel prices in 2022 and the depreciation of Colombia's peso. The aviation authority has "confirmed the conditional approval of the integration operation," it said. The merger suffered repeated delays, with the civil aviation authority objecting to the deal last November, before annulling and reopening the process in January after citing procedural irregularities. Amid the limbo, Viva Air abruptly suspended operations in late February, leaving passengers stranded in airports across the country. The regulator conditionally approved the merger last month, under conditions Viva Air reimburse passengers affected by canceled flights and keep its low-cost model. Those conditions remain in force, it added on Wednesday.<br/>

Colombian airline Avianca has sharply criticized a decision by the country’s civil aviation regulator on it’s planned acquisition of now-defunct Viva Air. The Bogota-based carrier late on 26 April says the decision “does not allow a realistic transaction for the integration and rescue of Viva”, and calls the conditions the regulator set “unfeasible”. Avianca has been trying to acquire Viva for almost a year, and a series of decisions by Colombia’s Directorate of Air Transport and Aero-Commercial Affairs, also known as Aerocivil, have stymied that process. Aerocivil’s final approval, published on 25 April, reiterates a preliminary decision from March, which sets conditions that Avianca says it cannot fulfil, ”making the rescue of the airline Viva gradually less viable,” the airline says. Viva ceased operations on 27 February, blaming Aerocivil’s regulatory delay. “Every day that passes in the process is one day less for Viva, for its workers and for the entire value chain associated with its existence. There is an increasing risk that lessors will withdraw the airline’s few remaining aircraft, making its operation unviable,” Avianca adds. ”Today, undoubtedly, the speed of the authorities’ actions and the reconsideration of the unfeasible conditions imposed so far is essential to find a solution that will safeguard the existence of what remains of the low-cost pioneer in Colombia.” <br/>

Lufthansa Group has flight-tested a measurement probe system which is crucial to the adaptation of one of the operator’s Airbus A350-900s to a climate-research aircraft. The German flag-carrier disclosed two years ago that it would modify the twinjet (D-AIXJ) to serve as a flight laboratory. It says it aims to commence research flights on the Lufthansa network from next year, gathering information for the European IAGOS-CARIBIC project which uses in-service aircraft to obtain atmospheric data. “Our aim is to make a valuable contribution to climate research,” says Lufthansa Airlines chief Jens Ritter. “The data that our aircraft will collect worldwide in the future will help to improve today’s atmospheric and climate models and thus their informative value for the future climate on Earth.” Lufthansa Group personnel have fitted the measurement probe to the A350’s lower fuselage and carried out test flights over southern Germany. It claims the system is “the most complex of its kind” with sensors for precise, high-frequency measurement of temperature and pressure. The project also involves development of a laboratory system, weighing some 2t and featuring around 20 instruments, for installation in a cargo container.<br/>

Air New Zealand has lifted its expectation for annual profit as demand for travel remains strong and jet fuel prices fall. In a statement to the NZX on Thursday, the national airline said it expects profit before tax and one-time items of $510 million to $560m in the year to the end of June, up from its February 23 forecast of $450m to $530m and a turnaround from a pre-tax loss of $725m last year. “The airline has continued to experience strong levels of demand on both the domestic and international networks,” the company said. “US dollar jet fuel prices have also declined below those assumed in the earnings guidance provided in February 2023, although the New Zealand dollar has also weakened over this time, reducing the impact of these declines. The improvements in revenue and jet fuel price are expected to be partially offset by softer cargo revenues due to increased competitive capacity, particularly in Asia, impacting yields and load factors.” The airline is in recovery after being hard hit during the pandemic as international borders closed to travellers and it is expecting to return to profitability this year after three years of losses. In the first half of the year, it reported a net profit of $213m, compared with a $272m loss in the same period a year earlier.<br/>