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United Airlines Holdings Inc. is taking delivery of six Boeing Co. 737 Max 9 jets per month as it revamps its fleet plans to account for the manufacturer’s much-delayed larger model, the carrier’s CEO said Monday. Speaking on the sidelines of the IATA conference in Dubai, United CEO Scott Kirby said those deliveries will reduce the carrier’s order for Boeing’s larger 737 Max 10 variant. Kirby didn’t specify how many fewer Max 10s the airline would ultimately take. United had originally ordered 277 Max 10s, with options to buy 200 more, and was supposed to receive 80 this year. “Basically every airplane that Boeing should be making for us would be a Max 10 now,” Kirby said. Like other airlines, United has been forced to curb growth and fleet replacement plans as Boeing and Airbus struggle to return their factories to pre-pandemic levels of output. <br/>

More than 200 passengers aboard a United Airlines transatlantic flight have spent the afternoon unexpectedly at Dublin airport – due to a disruptive passenger, as well as a passenger with a medical condition that caused concern. UA998 departed normally from Brussels, destination New York Newark, at 11.15am local time on Monday morning. The Boeing 787 flew normally over the Channel, southern England and the Irish Sea, beginning its planned oceanic journey over Ilfracombe in North Devon. But 20 minutes later, while south of Cork, the aircraft diverted to Dublin, where it landed at 12.37pm local time. The plane was directed to a remote stand away from other aircraft, while police and ambulance officers attended. The airport posted on Twitter/X: “Flight UA998 from Brussels to New York’s Newark Airport diverted to Dublin Airport this afternoon due to reports of two separate incidents – a disruptive passenger and a suspected medical issue – on board. “Appropriate protocols were put in place by Dublin Airport Operations and Airport Police for the arrival of the aircraft and Gardai, National Ambulance Service and HSE [Health Service Executive] personnel met the aircraft on arrival.” The presence of HSE staff is believed to indicate that there was concern about a possible case of an infectious disease on board.<br/>

Air Canada says it is ramping up flights to India this year including new non-stop service from Toronto to Mumbai. The airline says the flights between Toronto and Mumbai will run four times a week starting Oct. 27. At the same time, Air Canada says it will boost service from Montreal to Delhi to daily flights, up from last year when it operated up to five weekly flights on the route. For those travelling from Western Canada, the airline says it will offer daily seasonal flights from Calgary to Delhi, via London, also starting on Oct. 27. Flights from Vancouver to London will also connect to flights to Delhi this winter. In total, Air Canada says it will operate 25 weekly flights to India this winter, up from 19 weekly flights last winter.<br/>

The U.S. Transportation Department (USDOT) said on Monday it has imposed $2.5m in civil penalties in total against Lufthansa, Air France unit KLM Royal Dutch Airways and South African Airways. The civil penalties, the department said, are for significant delays in providing more than $900m in refunds owed to passengers due to flights disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and after thousands of airline customers were forced to wait months. Of the $1.1m penalties imposed on KLM and Lufthansa, each carrier was credited $550,000 for refunds for non-refundable tickets on U.S. flights. In 2022, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the U.S. government had completed 10 airline investigations into delayed pandemic passenger refunds and that 10 more were pending. In 2020, thousands of refund requests from Lufthansa passengers on US flights took longer than 100 days to process. Lufthansa said it has made all required refunds and the "delay in payment sanctioned by the USDOT is solely due to the historically unprecedented level of refunds during the COVID pandemic." KLM and South African Airways did not immediately comment. Lufthansa told USDOT that due to unforeseeable COVID effects, it was forced to cancel thousands of flights and inundated with refund requests, putting it at risk of insolvency. It said it was getting "equivalent to the workload of two-and-a-half months coming in every day" of refund requests. The German carrier said between March 2020 and September 2022, it provided $5.3b in refunds, including $802mi to U.S. customers.<br/>

Lufthansa Group CE Carsten Spohr expects to get an indication this week from the European Commission on its decision regarding the group’s planned move to acquire a stake in ITA Airways. While a final decision from the European Commission is formally due on 4 July, Spohr suggests the direction of the decision is likely to come ahead of European Parliament elections in Italy on 8 June. “With the Italian government rightly expecting a fast decision, I would hope to get an indication this week on which direction this will go,” said Spohr, speaking during a press briefing at the IATA AGM in Dubai today. “And since we are in a constructive phase of the dialogue and, I would consider the final phase of constructive dialogue, I think it is realistic to come to a solution this week.” The group had originally hoped to secure approval for its 41% acquisition of ITA by the end of last year, but the Commission flagged competition concerns over the deal. In March, it outlined some short-haul routes to central Europe, long-haul routes to North America and Japan, and ITA’s strong position at Milan Linate airport as key areas of competition concerns.<br/>

Korean Air Chairman and CEO Walter Cho said Sunday that he expects US approval of the planned merger with Asiana Airlines to come by the end of October. “We expect full approval by the end of October this year,” Cho said in an interview with Bloomberg in Dubai, Sunday. He stressed “no further concessions,” saying “We have done everything the US and EU have requested us to do.” His comments come as the US is the last of 14 jurisdictions in which Korean Air needs to secure approval for the merger with its smaller rival. This year, Korean Air received approvals from competition authorities in the EU and Japan in February and January, respectively, leaving the US the only country yet to respond to Korean Air’s three years of efforts to obtain regulatory approval overseas. Korean Air Chairman and CEO Walter Cho said Sunday that he expects US approval of the planned merger with Asiana Airlines to come by the end of October. “We expect full approval by the end of October this year,” Cho said in an interview with Bloomberg in Dubai, Sunday. He stressed “no further concessions,” saying “We have done everything the US and EU have requested us to do.” His comments come as the US is the last of 14 jurisdictions in which Korean Air needs to secure approval for the merger with its smaller rival. This year, Korean Air received approvals from competition authorities in the EU and Japan in February and January, respectively, leaving the US the only country yet to respond to Korean Air’s three years of efforts to obtain regulatory approval overseas.<br/>

All Nippon Airways is evaluating new wide-body and single-aisle jet orders as it doubles down on international expansion. “International flights will be at the core of our strategy and we will need aircraft resources to accommodate this growth,” CEO Shinichi Inoue told Bloomberg News during the IATA annual meeting of global airlines in Dubai. Japan’s biggest carrier is assessing and weighing future decisions on its aircraft needs, Inoue said, with driving factors including runway slot constraints at Tokyo’s Haneda airport, which ranks among the world’s busiest. Planemakers are also running out of slots to build aircraft into the end of the decade, driving ANA to eye further purchases of large aircraft, Inoue said. ANA still has 18 777-9s yet to be delivered on top of 14 787 Dreamliners. The carrier also has 20 737 Max single-aisle jets on its books. <br/>

The number of turbulence incidents reported by airlines has increased, although severe turbulence remains rare, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said at its annual meeting on June 3. Speaking at a media briefing, Iata’s senior vice-president for operations, safety and security Nick Careen said the Flight SQ321 turbulence incident – which killed one passenger and injured dozens – has led to more airlines reviewing their standard operating procedures (SOPs) on safety, but no “wholesale changes” have been made in its wake. Singapore Airlines (SIA) had updated its safety measures shortly after the severe turbulence incident involving SQ321 on May 21 – meal service must now be completely paused, and cabin crew members have to buckle up when the seat-belt sign is turned on.Twelve people were injured when Qatar Airways Flight QR017 struck severe turbulence a few days later. Asked if other airlines have changed their protocols, Mr Careen said: “Airlines have had pretty solid standard operating procedures when it comes to seat belts and adherence to seat-belt signs. The (SQ321) incident heightened awareness of that and perhaps made airlines reinforce and train their crew.” He noted that the last inflight death caused by turbulence was in 1997, on a United Airlines flight from Narita to Honolulu. “Fortunately, it doesn’t happen that often, but when it happens, airlines will review SOPs and see if they need to be changed. We’ve not seen any indication that there have been wholesale changes other than increased awareness,” he said.<br/>