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United Airlines will not resume flights to Tel Aviv, Israel, from Newark, New Jersey, on Nov. 24, a company spokesperson said. A previous statement that flights were resuming was made in error by its public relations agency, the airline said.<br/>

United Airlines temporarily pauses the start of direct flights to Beijing and Shanghai from Newark. The airline was scheduled to commence daily direct services between Newark, Shanghai, and Beijing starting on January 9th, but these flights are now expected to begin in mid-February. In February, United Airlines plans almost to double the available seats, increasing from 124 flights to 317. This represents an additional 49,000 seats between the US and China.<br/>

EgyptAir is set to receive 18 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, adding more narrowbody jets to the state-owned airline’s fleet, according to people familiar with the matter. The North African airline will take on the aircraft as part of a leasing agreement with Air Lease Corp, said the people, who asked not to be identified ahead of a possible announcement at the Dubai Air Show. Taking on the 737 Max, which typically seats about 170 passengers, would tilt EgyptAir’s narrowbody fleet toward Boeing. The carrier’s single-aisle fleet is now fairly evenly split between Boeing and Airbus, with just under 30 units of each manufacturer in the airline’s lineup. The airline will take the aircraft between 2025 and 2026, one of the people said.<br/>

An Airbus spokesperson said on Monday the planemaker and Turkish Airlines had reached an agreement in principle for a "significant commercial aircraft order". The spokesperson said the agreement was being ratified and would be communicated in the "coming days". Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency earlier reported Turkish Airlines on Saturday had held talks with Airbus to discuss a potential order for 355 new jets. During the meeting, which took place in Istanbul, officials from Turkish Airlines discussed buying 75 wide-body A350-900 and 15 wide-body A350-1000 aircraft as well as 250 narrow-body A321neo aircraft and five A350F cargo aircraft, in addition to 10 A350-900s for which terms have already been agreed. <br/>

Air China, China's flag carrier, announced on Monday that it will resume flights between Beijing and Washington and increase the number of weekly flights between Beijing and Los Angeles, ahead of the meeting between the top leaders of the two countries and the 30th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting this week. Flights between Beijing Capital International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport in the US will resume on November 21, operating twice a week. The airline also plans to increase the number of flights between Beijing and Los Angeles to three a week from November 30. On the same day, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government is considering unveiling a commitment for Boeing's 737 jetliner during the APEC summit, as a signal of a recent thaw between the two nations, said people familiar with the matter who aren't authorized to speak publicly. Terms of a potential agreement are still under discussion, they said. Mao Ning, a spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, told the press conference on Monday that related information can be confirmed with the Chinese authorities. Zhang Monan, a deputy director of the Institute of American and European studies at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, told the Global Times on Monday that the recent disclosures of deals, exchanges and communications showed the great potential of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. "Such exchanges are good for both countries as the trade and economic relationships of the two countries are of a win-win nature," Zhang said.<br/>

Much to learn from SIA, says Cathay Pacific chief as competition hots up<br/>There is a lot that Cathay Pacific can learn from its “respected competitor” Singapore Airlines), said the carrier’s CE, as the Hong Kong-based airline continues to make up ground against its rivals after a late start to its Covid-19 recovery. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a summit for Asia-Pacific airlines in Singapore last Friday, Cathay Pacific chief Ronald Lam described the dynamic between the two flag carriers as “constructive, healthy competition that will drive improvement on both sides”. He said: “(SIA) is a world-class airline… and we believe we are one of those as well. We had our challenges before and during Covid-19, and now we are catching up.” One of the hardest-hit airlines during the pandemic, Cathay Pacific has since restored about 70% of its passenger flight capacity ahead of schedule following the lifting of travel curbs by the territory in December 2022. Lam said Singapore is an important city for the carrier, and Cathay Pacific now operates eight flights a day between Hong Kong and the Republic, which is close to pre-pandemic levels. The airline’s next target is a full recovery by the end of 2024, which is not far off SIA’s projection of returning to full capacity sometime between April 2024 and March 2025. SIA CE Goh Choon Phong said in a separate interview that even if some of its competitors in the region are slow in restoring capacity, the national carrier cannot take them for granted. “I think we have to take them very seriously as they recover,” he said. While competition between airlines in the region continues to hot up, airline chiefs at Friday’s meeting flagged other concerns. Lam said Cathay Pacific’s biggest bottleneck now is the training of pilots, cabin crew and ground staff, as it looks to hire another 5,000 workers across the airline group in 2024. “We have been working hard on that, including potentially doing some of the training with our partners in Singapore, for example,” he added. Meanwhile, ongoing supply chain snags that have hit aircraft and engine-makers, as well as spare parts manufacturers, are a “post-Covid-19 hangover” that the airline industry needs to address.<br/>

Air India has garnered global attention with foreign airlines expressing rising interest in partnering with the full-service carrier, as they expect it to establish an extensive network of non-stop long-haul flights from India, said a senior company executive. “Many airlines are seeking partnerships because they see the benefit in connecting with the carrier from which most of the source traffic is coming. At present, 37m people are there in the diaspora, but we don’t serve them particularly well. That is going to change," Air India’s chairman and managing director Campbell Wilson said at the 67th Association of Asia-Pacific airlines. Air India operates direct international flights to 38 destinations including the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, South-east Asia, Far East Asia, Africa, Gulf, the Middle East and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc). International departures for the airline have increased by 21% this year following its expansion to destinations like Copenhagen, Milan, Vienna, and London’s Gatwick Airport. While state-run Air India let the non-stop business be taken away by foreign carriers, the new Air India is preparing to get the direct business back, Wilson said. “Let us not forget the reason. Other airlines got so strong because Air India and Indian Airlines were weak. So, by providing a non-stop, quality, affordable, reliable, trustworthy, and non-stop safe service from India to key population centres pretty much anywhere in the world, we are pretty confident that we can drag a lot of that connecting business back to non-stop business," he said.<br/>