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United Airlines Friday canceled its daily flight from Newark, New Jersey to Tel Aviv in Israel through May 2 due to security concerns after Israel's apparent strike on Iran. The carrier said a scheduled second flight from Newark to Tel Aviv has also been canceled until May 18. Germany's Lufthansa also called off all flights to Tel Aviv and Erbil until Saturday and said it would fly around Iraqi airspace during the period. Israel launched an attack on Iran on Friday, according to sources. But Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation, a move that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war.<br/>United's move expands on its announcement from earlier this week, in which it canceled Monday's planned flight. Global airlines have already been facing disruptions to flights after Iran's missile and drone attacks on Israel further narrowed options for planes navigating between Europe and Asia. United was the first major carrier to resume its daily non-stop service between New York and Tel Aviv on March 2, while Delta Air Lines plans to resume flights to Tel Aviv on June 7.<br/>

The US FAA is investigating an incident where a passenger was apparently granted unauthorised access to the cockpit of a United Airlines charter flight travelling from Denver to Toronto. The moment, involving a man accompanying the Colorado Rockies baseball team on April 10, was caught on video that was posted online. Since the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, passengers have been strictly prohibited from entering the cockpit during flight. United Airlines said in a statement that it’s “deeply disturbed” by the video, which has since been deleted from the individual’s social media account but remains visible elsewhere online. The airline said it has grounded the pilots involved in the flight while it conducts an investigation, calling the incident “a clear violation of our safety and operational policies”. The US FAA is investigating an incident where a passenger was apparently granted unauthorised access to the cockpit of a United Airlines charter flight travelling from Denver to Toronto. The moment, involving a man accompanying the Colorado Rockies baseball team on April 10, was caught on video that was posted online. Since the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, passengers have been strictly prohibited from entering the cockpit during flight. United Airlines said in a statement that it’s “deeply disturbed” by the video, which has since been deleted from the individual’s social media account but remains visible elsewhere online. The airline said it has grounded the pilots involved in the flight while it conducts an investigation, calling the incident “a clear violation of our safety and operational policies”.<br/>

Lufthansa executives and lawyers will attend a day-long hearing in Brussels on Friday to try to convince EU antitrust regulators to clear the company's bid for a minority stake in Italian rival ITA Airways. Lufthansa last week submitted remedies to address the EU competition watchdog's concerns about its E325m bid for a 41% stake in state-owned ITA, the successor to Alitalia. So far, the remedies are little changed from an earlier package the Commission rejected as insufficient, although Lufthansa can add remedies following the hearing, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters. Apart from the Lufthansa executives, who arrived in Brussels early on Friday, the closed-door meeting will be attended by lawyers for IAG, Condor Airlines, pan-European consumer group BEUC and travel lobby group eu travel tech. Guillaume Loriot, the European Commission's deputy director general for mergers, and lawyers as well as officials from national competition agencies will also be there. The carrier disagrees with the watchdog's decision to discount budget airline Ryanair as a rival and its insistence that only direct long-haul flights and not indirect long-haul flights should be taken into consideration in the investigation.<br/>

Lufthansa Airlines' capacity on routes to and from China has returned to 70% of the levels before the COVID-19 pandemic and it is evaluating adding new routes to the country, CEO Jens Ritter said on Friday. However, Ritter told reporters in Shanghai that the company hoped to see stronger demand and needed to resolve delays in aircraft deliveries. "We are very confident about the economy of China," Ritter said during his first trip to Asia after becoming Lufthansa CEO in April 2022. "We are eager to increase our capacity towards China." The airline is seeing Chinese travelers make more individual trips, versus large group tours that were more common before the pandemic, and passengers are more willing to pay for the business class or premium economy for more comfort. Demand from business trips was also picking up, he added. The pilot-turned-executive said the German carrier is also considering opening new routes in China. "Besides the connection to Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, we are evaluating other parts of China," he said, naming cities such as Shenyang and Qingdao as potential locations. Ritter's trip is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the opening of the German airline's first route to Shanghai from Frankfurt. While domestic travel has rebounded strongly after China lifted COVID curbs in early 2022, international travel has not kept up because of difficulties in obtaining visas, high air ticket prices and low consumer confidence in China. The total number of international flights to China still lags behind the 2019 levels and remains about 70% of the pre-pandemic era, according to flight tracking app Flight Master.<br/>

Turkey’s aviation industry is booming as airlines and airports reap the rewards from years of investment and a bet that international travel would rebound from the pandemic more swiftly than rivals anticipated. The country’s main airlines — flag carrier Turkish Airlines and low-cost airline Pegasus Airlines — ferried 115mn passengers last year, up 10% from 2019, the year before the pandemic. This compares with global air passenger volumes, which are only likely to exceed pre-pandemic levels this year, according to trade group Airports Council International. Istanbul airport was the busiest in the region in terms of flight numbers last year, according to data firm OAG, while Turkish Airlines was the third-busiest airline, behind Ryanair and easyJet. The rapid expansion of Turkey’s aviation sector compared with rivals has led the country to become a dominant player in the European market. The growth comes as the country’s airlines and airports have invested in upgraded infrastructure and fleets, and were quick to bring back capacity following the pandemic. Turkey’s buoyant tourism industry has also provided a boost. “Turkish aviation was on the rise since before the pandemic . . . in terms of infrastructure and Turkish carriers [also] had the appetite to grow. And once we grew our capacity, we were getting the demand,” said Güliz Öztürk, chief executive of Istanbul-listed Pegasus Airlines. The rise of Turkish aviation stands in sharp contrast to the picture in western Europe, where parts of the industry are in retreat. The region’s big national airline groups, British Airways owner IAG, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, are still flying smaller schedules than in 2019, after cautiously rebuilding their businesses from the pandemic disruption.<br/>

Air India has announced it will begin scheduled international A350-900 flights from May 1, connecting Delhi International and Dubai International. The carrier started inducting the A350s earlier this year. Operating a fleet of three active A350s (Air India has one more under maintenance in Delhi at the moment and two still undelivered and stored in Toulouse Blagnac), it has deployed it exclusively on domestic routes, connecting Bengaluru International to Chennai, Delhi International, Hyderabad International, and Mumbai International, Delhi to Mumbai, and Hyderabad to Chennai and Mumbai, according to the ch-aviation schedules module. Air India’s A350s feature 28 business seats, 24 premium economy seats and 264 economy seats. The company has 14 more A350-900s on order (for a final tally of 20), and twenty A350-1000s. No further international routes onboard Air India’s A350 fleet were announced at this point. The Airbus next-gen widebody fleet is part of a massive fleet upgrade underway at Air India. Including the undelivered A350s, the carrier has 446 new jets on order. The expectation was to take, on average, one new aircraft every six days this year, according to CEO Campbell Wilson.<br/>

EVA Air and Evergreen Airline Services Corp. (EGAS) both earned certification once again from the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA’s) Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma). This certification verifies the highest standards in EVA’s and EGAS’s cold chain air and ground service operations at Taoyuan International Airport (TPE). It also distinguishes EVA as the only Taiwan-based airline and one of the few airlines in the world to have obtained certification for air and ground handling operations simultaneously, strengthening its position as one of the leading global one-stop cold chain pharmaceutical product carriers. IATA provides consistency and standardisation of global pharmaceutical transportation needs, standardises and assists the air transportation supply chain to establish safe and reliable logistics standards. CEIV Pharma (Center of Excellence for Independent Validators) certification is regarded as the highest standard in the cold chain transportation industry, re-certification is required every three years. The companies not only have to put in a tremendous amount of funding to upgrade existing or build new cold chain facilities, but also arrange for employees to receive professional training and establish a complete quality control system in accordance with CEIV certification requirements to comply with international standards for transportation and storage.<br/>

Air New Zealand trimmed its full-year earnings forecast for a second time, as it flags increased competition on its North American network and softening domestic travel demand. For the year ending 30 June, the carrier now expects to post a pre-tax profit of between NZ$190 and NZ$230m ($113 to $136m), down from previous estimates of NZ$200-240m. In a filing dated 22 April, the carrier says it has “continued to see softening in revenue conditions” since its earlier profit guidance issued in February. The Star Alliance carrier says domestic travel demand has continued to soften, amid “challenging” economic conditions. It also notes that domestic corporate and government demand “remains subdued” in the near term. In its international network, it has been impacted by a ramp-up in capacity on North American routes by US carriers, which it says has led to “competitive pricing pressures”. Recent new entrants include Delta Air Lines, which launched direct flights between Los Angeles and Auckland. Air New Zealand’s Auckland base is also served by other North American carriers like American Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, as well as fellow Star Alliance members Air Canada and United Airlines. It is not the first time Air New Zealand has flagged increased competition on the North American market. In February, when it released its half-year results, airline chair Therese Walsh blamed the pressure on yields on the capacity ramp-up from US carriers. <br/>

Air New Zealand will recommence flights between Auckland and Hobart in October after they were paused from this month due to engine maintenance issues. The three-times-weekly route will operate between October and March in the summer months — the same schedule that will be applied to another restarted service to Seoul. It comes after Australian Aviation reported in November that the Tasmanian service would be temporarily cancelled due to changes in the maintenance plan for Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engines used on its A320neo and A321neos. The problems involved a “rare condition” on the powder metal used for certain parts that were thought to affect up to 700 GTF engines over the next three years. “While this maintenance issue does not present a safety issue, it has caused Air New Zealand to revise its flight schedule as a result of adjustments made to the engine maintenance plan,” CEO Greg Foran said last year. Despite the good news, Air New Zealand also revealed it would extend a pause on flights to Chicago due to a separate issue affecting the availability of serviceable Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines powering its 787-9s.<br/>