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American Airlines has agreed to a provisional deal for 100 hydrogen-electric engines from aviation startup ZeroAvia, the carrier said on Tuesday, to power aircraft used in its regional routes. The airline also increased its investment in the Hollister, California-based company as part of its Series C financing round, but did not disclose the details. American first invested and signed a memorandum of understanding with ZeroAvia, which is flight testing a prototype for a 20-seat plane, in 2022. The company is also designing an engine for larger aircraft such as the Bombardier CRJ700, used by American on some of its regional routes. ZeroAvia's hydrogen-electric engines has the potential for close to zero inflight emissions and use hydrogen in fuel cells to power electric motors to turn an aircraft's propellers. "Advancing the transition of commercial aviation to a low-carbon future requires investments in promising technologies, including alternate forms of propulsion," American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said in a statement.<br/>

British Airways and Iberia parent IAG is pursuing another share buy-back programme intended to support its proposed acquisition of Spanish operator Air Europa. IAG states that it will acquire a maximum of just over 27m shares, and has allocated E70m ($75m) to the programme. The company is undertaking the share purchase in order to hedge its requirement to provide shares to Air Europa owner Globalia as part of IAG’s consideration for purchasing the carrier. Financial firm Goldman Sachs Bank Europe will make the share purchases on IAG’s behalf, with the programme running from 1 July to 2 August. IAG holds 20% of Air Europa, following conversion of a E100m loan, and is looking to take the remaining 80%. It embarked on a similar buy-back last year under which it acquired 27m shares for the purpose of pursuing Air Europa deal. The shares are being held in treasury while IAG awaits regulatory clearance to progress with the acquisition.<br/>

British Airways passengers were forced to endure an 11-hour “flight to nowhere” when a Boeing 777-200 aircraft developed a “technical issue” on Sunday morning. Flight BA31 from London to Hong Kong was over four hours into the 12h 45m journey when the decision was made to return to its departure airport. Data from tracking site FlightRadar24 shows that the service was flying at 35,000ft over Turkmenistan when the 23-year-old Boeing 777-200 was turned around by the crew. The flight departed for Hong Kong International from Heathrow Airport on Saturday evening (29 June) at 8.55pm. Upon returning to the London runway 11 hours later – only two hours less than the original entire flight time – the Hong Kong service was cancelled. London Heathrow is British Airways’ home base with an onsite maintenance team established to make repairs. The airline said in a statement: “The flight returned to London Heathrow as a precaution due to a minor technical issue. It landed safely and customers disembarked as normal. We’ve apologised to our customers for the disruption to their journey.”<br/>

Qatar Airways Chief Commercial Officer Thierry Antinori said the carrier is experiencing some pressure on airfares as rivals particularly in southeast Asia and Australia pump more capacity into the market and the post-pandemic travel rebound begins to moderate. “The seat factor has stayed high, so we’re able to generate traffic in line with our seat growth, but we have pressure on yields because we have more capacity in the market, and maybe a bit less of a catch-up effect in general,” Antinori said in an interview in Hamburg, a day after the airline began its daily direct service to the northern German city from its hub in Doha. Antinori said the pressure points are most noticeable in business that’s eastbound from Doha, while operations into the western hemisphere are “quite stable.” Business is also steady into Africa, where Qatar Airways has opened several new routes, including to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo last month. Part of the yield pressure is down to some major carriers in southeast Asia showing growth of as much as 40% that’s adding capacity at a time when the post-Covid pent up demand for travel is “normalizing,” Antinori said. Still, capacity is partly being kept in check as airlines are not getting new aircraft at the rate that they’ve ordered, he said, because jet manufacturers Airbus SE and Boeing Co. are struggling to ramp up output. The company continues to do very well in its cargo operations, Antinori said. Business into markets like Paris has remained strong, Antinori said, with close-to-full occupancy on the four daily flights the airline operates into the French capital.<br/>

Qatar Airways posted a 39% jump in annual net profit to a record 6.1b Qatari riyals ($1.67b) on Tuesday. Revenue grew by 6% to 81b riyals in the year ended March 31, the government-owned airline said. It carried more than 40m passengers and recorded a load factor of 83%. "Our continued focus on profitability, efficiency and customer experience have been underpinned by a strategic programme of network growth and fleet expansion, resulting in the highest revenues and profit margins in the history of the airline", CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer was quoted as saying in a statement from the airline. Demand for air travel has rebounded since the pandemic, but airlines have been constrained as planemakers struggle to get back to previous production levels due to disrupted supply chains and a safety crisis at Boeing. In May, Al-Meer said aircraft manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing needed to put more pressure on their suppliers to reduce delivery delays. The airline last month announced it was in talks with the two planemakers regarding a major wide-body order.<br/>