KLM will need to defend its ad campaign promoting climate-friendly flying in court over greenwashing allegations after an Amsterdam judge paved the way for a full trial. The Dutch arm of Air France-KLM’s advertisements “breach EU consumer law standards by creating a false impression that its flights do not contribute to the worsening climate emergency,” environmental campaigners Fossielvrij and Reclame Fossielvrij, who sued the airline, said in a statement on Wednesday. The claim comes after the Dutch advertising watchdog ruled last year that a KLM promotion telling customers they could fly carbon-emission free was misleading. KLM was then sued by Dutch environmental pressure groups which allege its Fly Responsibly ad campaign amounts to greenwashing. Airlines have been buying carbon offsets, or offering customers the option pay extra for them, to convince travelers that their trips won’t contribute to global warming. These programs, which include tree planting and forest protection, have been criticized as insufficient, misleading or impossible to validate. “KLM is ambitious when it comes to its climate approach and would like to involve its customers in the subject,” a company spokesperson said. “We are learning more and more about communication on sustainability, and we keep looking at our communications to determine what can be improved and made even more transparent.”<br/>
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ITA Airways will upgrade its six Airbus A350-900s with new premium-economy classes, with retrofits to be completed by Airbus Services by mid-2024, the Toulouse-based airframer said at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg on 7 June. “We have selected Airbus Services thanks to its OEM expertise, expert engineering know-how, project management, and supply chain management,” says Alessio Leone, head of camo operations at ITA. “This project also underscores the importance to us of the Airbus A350 in our widebody fleet strategy and the harmonisation of these A350s with the brand new A330neos coming into our fleet.” In the future, both aircraft types will offer a four-class configuration: business, premium economy, comfort economy and economy. Airbus will provide all related service bulletins, including engineering drawings and kits required for the complete cabin and technical support. “As our airline customers see the increasing popularity of premium-economy amongst passengers, Airbus is pleased to be able to help ensure that their Airbus aircraft continue to meet these evolving customer expectations,” says Charbel Youzkatli, head of Europe commercial services at Airbus. The installations will replace a section of nine-abreast economy class seats with an eight-abreast premium economy section, which is “increasingly sought-after thanks to its yield management benefits for airlines, while reducing costs for business travellers”, Airbus says. <br/>
Kenya Airways continues to face the impact of aircraft remaining grounded for longer than planned during maintenance checks because of a global shortage of spare parts. The SkyTeam carrier had early this year flagged of the risk of services being disrupted because of the unexpected impact of ongoing supply chain challenges. “We have had one of our aircraft undergoing major checks since late last year,” Kenya Airways CE Allan Kilavuka tells FlightGlobal during an interview at the IATA AGM in Istanbul. “We were hoping we would be able to fly it by 1 June. We are not able to, and that is going to hurt us significantly because of the peak season. So there is a significant shortage of spares parts. “I think one of the mistakes the industry made was to assume Covid was never going to end, so everything came to a complete standstill. That kind of stoppage of activity is coming back to bite us.” Airline frustrations at ongoing aircraft maintenance and delivery challenges was one of the main topics to emerge during this week’s AGM. The issue is particularly acute for smaller airlines, as there is less flexibility to offset the unplanned loss of an aircraft. “Especially for those that have smaller fleets, like we do, the impact is much bigger,” Kilavuka notes. Aircraft availability is one of the challenges the carrier is facing as it strives for a return to profit against the backdrop of continued strong demand. “The yields are very strong, but obviously the costs are high,” Kilavuka says. “So that kind of cancels out. Demand is extremely strong, and I think that caught everyone by surprise. The demand is coming from premium leisure travel. Business travel is not back to where it was in 2019 but it will come back, I think it will maybe come back towards the end of the year or next year. But premium leisure traffic is extremely high. The problem is the costs. Last year it was fuel. Fuel is not so bad this year, but now it is the cost of spare parts – that’s inflation – and also the strength of the dollar.” <br/>
China Southern Airlines, one of the major passenger flight operators at the Beijing Daxing International Airport, launched a new direct air service from the airport to London, the United Kingdom, on Wednesday. With more than 200 passengers onboard, flight CZ673 departed from the airport on Wednesday, marking the launch of China Southern Airlines' ninth international and regional route at the Daxing airport. The new air service is operated by the A350 aircraft of Airbus, with seven round trips scheduled weekly between the Beijing Daxing International Airport and London Heathrow Airport, said the company. Currently, 16 airlines have launched their international and regional routes at the Daxing airport to 22 other airports around the globe, including those in popular tourist destinations like London, Doha, Seoul, Tokyo and the Maldives.<br/>