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A United Airlines jet headed to Rome turned around less than an hour into the flight and descended rapidly after what the airline termed an indication of possible loss of cabin pressure. The plane returned to Newark, New Jersey, and landed safely early Thursday morning, the airline said. United said there was no loss of pressure and passengers’ oxygen masks did not drop, but the pilots could not be certain. Data from tracking service FlightAware showed that the Boeing 777 descended from 37,000 feet to less than 9,000 feet in eight minutes. Pilots are trained to respond to a loss of cabin pressure by descending to an altitude that is low enough for people on board to breathe without oxygen masks. The shortened flight had 270 passengers and 14 crew members, according to the airline. United said it found another plane, which left Newark around 3:30 a.m. and reached Rome after 5 p.m. local time, about six hours later than the originally scheduled arrival time.<br/>

European Union quotas for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), seen as an expensive but essential key to greener air travel, are not achievable by today's standards, according to the CE of Germany's Lufthansa. The European Parliament on Wednesday adopted a deal to set binding targets for airlines in Europe to increase their use of SAFs, which have net-zero CO2 emissions or lower CO2 emissions than fossil fuel kerosene. "From today's point of view, it won't work to have even the availability of the quantities that are demanded of us, not to mention the high costs that in the end the passenger will have to bear," CEO Carsten Spohr said in a briefing with reporters on Thursday evening in Frankfurt. However, he added, shareholders were now demanding "that the industry get better at this." Worldwide, SAFs make up just 0.1% of airlines' fuel, versus 0.2% at Lufthansa. The EU targets foresee 2% by 2025, rising to 6% in 2030, 20% in 2035 and gradually to 70% in 2050. The CEO also said Lufthansa would participate in a consortium with German defence firm Rheinmetall to produce and maintain US F-35 fighter jets, confirming an earlier report from Business Insider.<br/>

Italy’s push for a quick sale of a stake in state-owned ITA Airways to Deutsche Lufthansa is at risk of clashing with the pace set by the EC. Officials in Brussels are taking a particularly close look at the deal amid concern about Lufthansa’s growing control in Europe, according to people familiar with the matter. As a result, they are seeking responses to a series of broad questions about its plans for ITA, said the people, declining to be named discussing private information. The transaction hasn’t yet been officially scrutinized by EU antitrust regulators, but could land on their desks as soon as next month, the people said. Lufthansa and Meloni are hoping for an early-stage approval, but the commission’s investigation is likely to be in depth, the people said. Earlier this week, Meloni criticized officials in Brussels for what she perceived as a too-slow process in the review of the ITA deal, saying that “the same European Commission that asked us for years to find a solution for ITA’s woe, when we find a solution it blocks it.” A spokesman for the commission said that the transaction has not been formally registered with its merger department. Officials at Lufthansa and the Italian government declined to comment. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to complete the sale of a 41% of ITA — agreed in May — as soon as possible to avoid keeping Italian taxpayers fully on the hook for any cash infusions that ITA may need during the slower winter months. The EU is scrutinizing consolidation in the airline industry, and is also gearing up to probe British Airways’ parent IAG SA acquisition of Air Europa. Approval would pave the way for further equity injections by Lufthansa if required. If successful, it would rid Meloni — who is struggling to keep public finances in check — of a major corporate headache as she looks to keep her election promise of cutting taxes on wages. ITA and Lufthansa expect eventual EU remedies to focus on the disposal of slots at Milan Linate airport, the people said. Traffic at the hub is dominated by ITA and the wider Lufthansa group, which includes regional carriers such as Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Austrian. <br/>

Asia-Pacific airlines have continued to add international capacity, with Thai Airways International hoping for an influx of Chinese tourists, and Singapore Airlines expanding its European network. Thai is banking on an increase of demand from China based on Bangkok’s plan to waive visa requirements for Chinese tourists from 25 September to the end of February 2024. From late October the Star Alliance carrier will boost frequencies from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport to the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kunming, and Chengdu. From the beginning of December, it will boost Chinese frequencies to 56 per week from 49. Given the popularity of Phuket among Chinese carriers, from 1 October Thai is also increasing capacity from Bangkok to the resort island, including through the addition of a daily widebody service to the resort island. Bangkok Airways, meanwhile, has signed an interline partnership with Air India, allowing passengers to connect seamlessly between the two carrier’s networks. Air India passengers can connect to the Bangkok Airways destinations of Chiang Mai, Lampang, Sukhothai, Koh Samui, Phuket, and Krabi. They can also connect to the international destinations of Luang Prabang, Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap. Passengers flying Air India to Hong Kong and Singapore can connect to Bangkok Airways services to Koh Samui. From 5 April 2024, Singapore Airlines will return to the Belgian capital of Brussels after a two decade absence from the route. The flight will operate four times a week using Airbus A350-900s. The addition of Brussels brings SIA’s European destinations to 13. Taiwan’s Starlux will add its second USA destination after Los Angeles, with the commencement of a three-times-weekly service on the Taipei-San Francisco service from 16 December. Batik Air Malaysia is also expanding internationally and will operate a Kuala Lumpur-Dubai service from 10 November. <br/>

Air New Zealand has cancelled 60 flights due to high winds. The national carrier said the flights were across its regional, domestic and international services yesterday and today, and warned disruptions to schedules will continue for at least a couple of days. Significant winds with “damaging gusts” struck parts of Aotearoa overnight, with weather warnings and watches across the country in place. Weather was reported to have improved on Monday morning, with flights resuming in Wellington, but delays were ongoing. An Air New Zealand spokesperson said customers who had their flights cancelled on Sunday due to strong winds were being re-booked on the next available service. "Our team are working hard to manage the evolving weather situation and get customers where they need to be as soon as possible. Due to the scale of the disruption and continued bad weather, this is expected take a couple of days." A Wellington airport spokesperson said 12 flights had been cancelled on Monday morning while others were delayed. "The wind has died right down this morning and flights can operate. However, there are flow-on disruptions with some flights this morning cancelled as they were unable to arrive last night. Airlines are working to help passengers, and people should check directly with their airlines for the status of their flight.” A number of flights from Hawke's Bay Airport had also been cancelled this morning due to high winds. Two flights scheduled to leave from Invercargill Airport for Christchurch this morning were delayed while a third was cancelled.<br/>

Air New Zealand has published a 'love letter' to New York to mark the first anniversary of launching a direct service between the city and Auckland. The ultra long-haul route had long been an ambition of the national carrier's and its start was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has become a "resounding success" as Air NZ's flagship route, the airline said. But the letter addresses early turbulence in the 'relationship'. When it launched with much fanfare in September 2022, Air NZ suffered some teething issues on the route, with luggage left behind on the very first NZ1 JFK-AKL flight and a few refuelling stopovers in Fiji making the direct service not so direct. "Ultra long-haul travel does come with its challenges and early in our operation on the service we contended with some unexpected weather patterns," Air NZ Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty said. "Like any route, when the weather doesn't play in our favour, we have contingency plans in place to ensure we get our customers where they need to be, safely. Fortunately, we have only had to use our contingency stopover three times since we launched our JFK service. Since February this year, we've provided a seamless service with all customers and their bags travelling on services as scheduled." <br/>