United Airlines CE Scott Kirby met on Tuesday with the acting head of the FAA, officials told Reuters, after he blasted its air traffic control performance last month. Kirby in a June 26 in a memo to employees expressed frustration "the FAA frankly failed us this weekend... We estimate that over 150,000 customers on United alone were impacted this weekend because of FAA staffing issues and their ability to manage traffic." Kirby met with Acting FAA Administrator Polly Trottenberg, who has been on the job since June 8, the sources said. In remarks at a Politico forum on Tuesday, Kirby struck a new tone, saying the FAA had been "particularly helpful, responsive and communicative" in the last two weeks. "It's been the best two weeks that we've ever had," he said. Kirby added the FAA responded well to thunderstorms on Sunday that forced cancellation of about 30% of New York-area airline flights, including at its Newark hub. "They deserve a lot of credit for what they have been doing the last few weeks because they're 54% staffed in New York and to have that event be managed and contained was some heroic efforts," Kirby said. Asked about Trottenberg's previously unreported meeting with Kirby, an FAA spokesperson declined to confirm or deny the meeting but said the agency "will always collaborate with anyone seriously willing to join us to solve a problem." United declined to comment on the meeting.<br/>
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EgyptAir will start a flight between Delhi and Cairo four days a week from August, the airline’s north and east India manager Amr Ali told Fe on Tuesday. Currently, the airline has a flight between Mumbai and Cairo for all seven days in a week. The airline plans to deploy an Airbus A320Neo aircraft on the Delhi-Cairo route which has a seating capacity of 16 in business class and 126 in economy. As per recent IATA figures, the annual bi-directional air traffic demand between Mumbai and Cairo is approximately more than 66,000 passengers. Similarly, the traffic between Delhi and Cairo is around 31,000 passengers. “This demand is expected to grow significantly over the coming years,” Ali said, adding that close bilateral relations between the two countries will further help in sustaining this growth momentum. EgyptAir also has a codeshare agreement with Air India as both are Star Alliance members.<br/>
ANA has firmed its agreement with shipping and logistics group NYK to acquire Boeing 747 freighter operator Nippon Cargo Airlines. The share transfer is due to take place at the start of October following approval of NCA’s shareholders and will see the cargo carrier become a wholly-owned subsidiary of ANA. The two companies signed a preliminary deal on the transaction in March this year. “ANA, in order to dramatically enhance its international air cargo network and products and services based in Japan and also with the aim of contributing to the development of global economic activities both in Japan and abroad, expressed its strong desire to add NCA to its business portfolio and integrate and reorganise NCA within the cargo business of the ANA group in the future,” ANA says, in a state exchange announcement. NYK says the cargo operator will be better positioned to grow further within an airline group, which would also in a better position to support NCA with emissions reduction requirements. “The continual introduction of new aircraft to expand the operation and maintenance system, as well as the continual training of personnel engaged in operation and maintenance required considerable expenditures,” NYK says. “In the highly volatile business environment of airfreight transportation, NCA has been facing challenges in expanding its business scale at a level that is commensurate with such costs.” <br/>
Boeing handed over 60 new aircraft last month, the most since March, as the manufacturer tries to ramp up production of some of its bestselling planes. So far this year, Boeing delivered 266 aircraft to customers, shy of the 316 rival Airbus has handed over. Both manufacturers have struggled to increase output fast enough to avoid delays to airline customers eager for more planes during a boom in air travel. Boeing said Tuesday it logged orders for 288 aircraft, net of cancellations and conversions, in June, most of them from the massive order Air India announced earlier this year and firmed up at the Paris Air Show last month. The 470-jet order was split between Boeing and Airbus. Boeing’s June tally included nearly 40 787 Dreamliners for new Saudi carrier Riyadh Air, part of a deal announced in March. Boeing’s total net orders for the month came in at 305 aircraft after it added some planes to its backlog. The company routinely removes or adds planes to its backlog for reasons including whether a customer is likely to have financing to buy the aircraft. Boeing is scheduled to report second-quarter results on July 26, when it will update investors on its plans to increase production of its 737 Max planes and 787 Dreamliners.<br/>