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This is set to be a record-breaking year for air travel. Some 4.7b people are expected to take to the skies in 2024, according to the IATA. That is 200mn more than the pre-pandemic high set in 2019. Recovery in business travel is underpinning demand. So is consumer desire to make up for missed trips. This should be good news for airlines. But problems at Boeing mean that not every carrier will benefit equally. Regulators have placed a cap on Boeing’s production capacity following the harrowing mid-air panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight in January. This in turn means delivery delays. Some airlines will not have enough planes to meet demand for the peak summer travel season. Delta Air Lines is the notable outlier. It is the top performing US airline stock over the past year. Among big US carriers, it appears to be the least affected by Boeing’s production and delivery issues. The Atlanta-based airline does not operate any Boeing 737 Max jets. Its order of new 737 Max 10 jets, originally slated to be delivered in 2025, is expected to be delayed by a year or two. But Delta says that deliveries from Airbus will fill the gap. By contrast, rival United Airlines is asking its pilots to take unpaid time off because of the plane shortage. For Delta, the result is record first-quarter revenues and forecasts for another strong showing for the second quarter. It plans to expand flying capacity by 6 to 7% this quarter as it reaps the benefit of a focus on international travel and the push to sell more premium-cabin seats.  Delta’s share price, up 38% over the past 12 months, has vastly outperformed its peers.<br/>

Delta Air Lines is in talks with regulators in hopes of securing a “less-punitive” ruling after the US Department of Transportation’s (DOT) tentative order that it end its joint venture with SkyTeam partner Aeromexico. In a preliminary decision at the end of January, the DOT cited concerns about how Mexican government actions are impacting US airlines at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International airport in ordering the two carriers to unwind their joint venture by October. ”That was a tentative view and our view is the DOT really struck out on that one,” said Delta executive vice-president Peter Carter during a first-quarter earnings call on 10 April. ”They are typically a great partner, but this… was an example of regulatory overreach, which is why we have challenged it. It’s bad for consumers. It’s bad for competition. It’s bad for the local economies those flights served.” He adds: ”We are currently engaged with the administration and discussing less-punitive solutions than the tentative order that was proposed. And we’ve had hundreds of… allies, with respect to the connection between Mexico and America, wade in, in support of this joint venture.” Last month, Delta submitted some 60 letters from various supporters – including businesses, trade groups, lawmakers and governors – in opposition to the DOT ruling. ”We think this is going to take some time before the DOT issues a final order, a number of months,” Carter says. ”But we are cautiously optimistic that they are going to come up with a better solution.”<br/>

Pilots of a KLM Boeing 787 aborted take-off in Toronto on 22 March after controllers realised the jet was accelerating toward a second 787 still on the runway. The event, reported by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) in a 10 April incident report, highlights a troubling runway incident at a time when safety experts, notably in the USA, are seeking to prevent such events. The incident at Toronto Pearson International airport happened at about 21:09 local time and involved two 787s coming within 5,400ft (1,646m) of each other, a distance the accelerating KLM jet could have closed quickly had controllers not ordered the pilots to abort take-off. The TSB says the KLM aircraft – a 787-10 with registration PH-BKC – was stopped near the end of Pearson’s runway 6L, awaiting departure clearance, when an arriving LOT Polish Airlines 787-9 (registration SP-LSB) landed on the same runway. Immediately after the LOT jet touched down, pilots of the KLM 787 taxied their aircraft onto the runway. The TSB says the LOT jet “was about the exit the runway at taxiway C5” when air traffic controllers cleared the KLM 787 to take-off. But as that jet accelerated, the LOT pilots decided instead to taxi further down the runway and exit at taxiway C7, which is near the runway’s end. Pearson’s control tower instructed the KLM pilots to abort take-off, at which time that jet was barrelling down the runway at about 110kt (240km/h). The pilots slowed the jet and taxied off the runway. <br/>