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More than 1,500 US flights have been canceled for the third day straight, as airlines struggle to recover from a global tech outage that left thousands of passengers stranded at airports. Around 1,600 flights into, within or out of the United States were canceled by Sunday evening, while more than 8,500 US flights were delayed, according to the tracking website FlightAware.com. More than 1,000 of those cancelations were from Delta Air Lines, the website shows. The airline is continuing its recovery efforts following “an outside vendor technology issue” resulting in delays and cancelations, Delta said Sunday. The airline is communicating directly with some impacted customers, offering travel vouchers, waivers and SkyMiles Program miles, it said. In an update to Delta customers Sunday afternoon, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the airline’s teams are still working to recover their system and restore operations. “Canceling a flight is always a last resort, and something we don’t take lightly,” Bastian said. On Saturday, 2,136 flights among multiple carriers were canceled, and more than 21,300 flights were delayed, according to FlightAware. The issue extended beyond airports, with businesses, government agencies, health and emergency services, banks, schools and universities around the world grinding to a halt or seeing services disrupted due to a flawed software update for Microsoft Windows operating systems issued by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, experts told CNN. The outage affected an estimated 8.5m Windows devices, according to Microsoft.<br/>

US and European airlines have embarked on a record-breaking summer of transatlantic flying, in a test of demand for travel on some of the world’s most lucrative routes. There are nearly 418,000 flights scheduled between the US and Europe from April to October, 7% higher than the record set last year, according to aviation data consultancy OAG. Airlines bosses have reported particularly strong demand from US travellers visiting Europe, buoyed by the strong dollar. “A lot of Americans are walking the streets of London, as they are in many other great destinations across Europe,” said Ed Bastian, chief executive of US carrier Delta. European tourists are also travelling the other way in significant numbers, and capacity along transatlantic routes has boomed. The sheer numbers of flights laid on this summer will test the operational resilience of airlines, which have seen disruptions from IT problems and air traffic control staff shortages. On Friday, airlines were among the companies hit by the world-wide IT outage blamed on a software update which caused a problem with Microsoft’s Windows. Capacity along transatlantic routes exceeds where it was in July 2019, while it has shrunk on routes to Asia, from either the US or Europe. United Airlines scheduled the most seats in July — more than 722,000, up 3% from July 2023 — while British Airways has planned more than 419,000 seats, slightly more than one year earlier. Meanwhile, Air France boosted its seating capacity by more than 15%to 279,000 seats, the largest increase among transatlantic carriers, according to aviation data provider Cirium. Virgin Atlantic recorded its highest ever revenue for passengers travelling from the US to the UK last month, while in the other direction, flagged particular interest from UK travellers flying to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Florida. The booming demand for travel across the Atlantic comes amid signs of a wobble in the US domestic market, with some investors asking if capacity oversupply could bleed into the US-Europe routes.<br/>

Airlines made progress toward containing the fallout from a tech outage that disrupted global travel on Friday, though some flight delays and cancellations extended into Saturday. In all, about 3,400 flights to, from and within the United States were canceled on Friday, according to FlightAware, a company that tracks flight information. That made it the worst day of the year for flight cancellations, beating Jan. 15 when airlines besieged by bad winter storms canceled nearly 3,200 flights in the United States. Delays and cancellations on Saturday appeared on track to be much lower than on Friday. Airlines had canceled about 1,600 flights as of midafternoon, with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines among the hardest hit, according to FlightAware. “Delta teams in airports, on board flights, on the phones and in messaging are working tirelessly to care for customers as the airline works to put flight crews and aircraft back in position following the disruption,” the airline said in a statement. Most of the flight cancellations on Saturday were concentrated in the morning and early afternoon, Delta said. In a statement, United said, “Most of our technology systems have been restored and our reliability is improving, although we will continue to see cancellations and delays this weekend.” It added, “Our customer service teams in call centers and airports are working significant overtime” to help passengers, including offering “hotel and food vouchers when needed.” Several carriers said they would waive fees and fare differences or offer refunds for affected passengers. The Transportation Department said that carriers may also have to compensate some travelers for food, lodging and transport. In a statement on Saturday, American Airlines said it had fully recovered from the outage, with cancellations totaling “less than 1% of our total operation.” The outage on Friday was caused when CrowdStrike, a widely used cybersecurity provider, issued a flawed software update to Microsoft devices. Soon after, airlines and many other businesses and institutions began suffering technical failures. For airlines, a wide range of systems were affected, including those that calculate aircraft weight, check in customers, issue boarding passes and manage call center phone lines. The problems for airlines peaked early on Friday morning, with most major U.S. airlines having resumed flying by the start of the workday. But the early disruption continued to reverberate throughout the day.<br/>

Global cyber security watchdogs have raised the alarm over malicious websites claiming to fix glitches in the wake of one of the world’s biggest IT outages that was still causing disruption over the weekend. US, UK and Australian cyber defence agencies all issued separate warnings over the weekend against increased phishing activity exploiting the incident, as aftershocks continued to be felt from an unprecedented IT outage triggered by a faulty CrowdStrike software update. Airlines and healthcare services were among those still grappling with the consequences. “A number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being released claiming to help entities recover from the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident,” said the Australian Cyber Security Centre, a government agency. The US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency said that hackers were trying to “leverage” the outage to conduct malicious activity, including the distribution of a ZIP archive file that appeared to be targeting CrowdStrike users based in Latin America. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre said that “an increase in phishing referencing this outage has already been observed [ . . . ] aimed at both organisations and individuals”. CrowdStrike, the cyber security group whose software patch caused problems for an estimated 8.5mn Microsoft PCs and servers, recommended on Sunday that “organisations verify they are communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels”. The Texas-based company said that it has issued a fix for the defect and that a “significant number” of the devices affected were back online and operational. But the worst-affected industries, from global travel to healthcare, look set to feel the effects into next week — and potentially beyond. The worldwide aviation sector was largely returning to normal on Sunday, although some carriers were still struggling to get their operations back on track. In the US alone there were about 1,200 cancellations and 3,800 delays on Sunday, according to tracker FlightAware; down from nearly 3,400 cancellations and 13,000 delays on Friday.<br/>

Aircraft delivery delays by Airbus and Boeing are forcing airlines to fly older, less fuel-efficient planes for longer, slowing the industry’s progress on curbing harmful carbon emissions. Increased fuel efficiency from new aircraft is among the measures being pursued by the aviation industry as it seeks to meet its pledge to reach net zero by 2050. But more than two years since the return of air travel following the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions and labour shortages continue to hamper production of planes. With both Airbus and Boeing expected to announce a flurry of new airline orders at this week’s Farnborough air show, concerns are rising that the gap between demand and supply could slow the industry’s progress on reducing emissions through to the end of the decade. “The cumulative deficit of deliveries is going to stay through to 2028 at least,” said Rob Morris, head of Cirium’s consultancy business Ascend. This “does mean that airlines are keeping planes flying for longer, with mid-life and older aircraft [staying] in service”, he added. Flying accounts for about 2% of global energy-related emissions. Air traffic has returned close to pre-pandemic levels by the end of last year. The industry believes it can reach net zero by 2050 while still growing, and has outlined a range of measures to cut its net emissions, including switching to sustainable aviation fuel, newer aircraft and carbon offsets. Under the European industry’s net zero road map, new but still conventionally powered aircraft are responsible for nearly a fifth of the sector’s emissions reductions by 2050. Planes with new generation engines, such as the A320neo, burn about 15% less fuel and emit 15% less carbon dioxide than the prior generation of aircraft.  Even when there is a “significant delay of new deliveries, airlines’ growth plans don’t change”, said Nikhil Sachdeva, global lead for sustainable aviation at consultants Roland Berger. Instead, airlines end up with a “double whammy of delayed retirements and older leased aircraft” as they try to keep their growth commitments, he added.  Both Airbus and Boeing will deliver fewer aircraft than originally planned this year. The European plane maker said last month it would deliver “around 770” commercial aircraft this year, down from a previous target of 800. <br/>

The residents of Farnborough, Hampshire, are constantly disturbed by flights to and from the UK’s busiest airport for private jets. But for one week in July every two years, the whine of commercial aircraft is replaced by the bone-juddering roar of fighter planes. The occasion is the Farnborough international airshow, a gathering of top executives from airlines, aircraft makers and arms manufacturers hoping to sell their wares and press flesh. Two years ago, the aerospace and defence industry was starting to emerge from the turmoil of the pandemic. For many of the attendees this week, the question will be less about whether there is demand for their products and more about whether they are able to make them fast enough. “The supply chain was supposed to be acute in 2022 and better by now,” says Nick Cunningham, an aerospace and defence equity analyst at Agency Partners. But that has not panned out as expected. The International Civil Aviation Organization forecasts that global air travel could triple by 2050. Without technological improvements, that would mean carbon dioxide emissions rising from about 500m tonnes to more than 1.5bn tonnes. The question of how to eliminate those carbon emissions is always the shadow hanging over airshows (particularly in 2022 during a record English heatwave), but that has not stopped Europe’s Airbus and America’s Boeing from racing to pile up orders from airlines.<br/>

Boeing expects delayed suppliers to catch up on parts that have slowed production of its 787 jets to below a rate of five a month, as the U.S. planemaker works to restore output of two key commercial programs by the year’s end. Boeing and its European rival Airbus are struggling to meet strong airline demand for jets as they wrestle with problems within their supply chains and factories. Such concerns are set to cast a shadow at the Farnborough Airshow from July 22 to 26, despite strong travel demand. Earlier this year, Boeing lowered 787 output to allow “suppliers to catch up with us,” a company executive told reporters during a June visit to its sprawling 777 widebody factory in Everett, Washington State. “Our plan is to return to five a month later this year again as we see that incoming supply of parts comes back to where it needs to be,” said Scott Stocker, vice president and general manager of the 787 program in South Carolina. Boeing executives told reporters the company is taking similar steps to increase employee feedback and production quality on its widebody jets which fly long international routes as its single-aisle 737 MAX. The planemaker is under heightened legal and regulatory scrutiny following the January mid-air blowout of a door plug on a near new 737 MAX 9 blamed on missing bolts. Boeing has said it would restore 737 output to around 38 by the year’s end after production of its strongest-selling jet plummeted. While the planemaker scored a boost for its widebodies by starting certification flight testing this month of its long-delayed 777-9, delays in the supply of seats and heat exchangers have created separate challenges for the 787.<br/>

Boeing’s output of 737 Max planes is showing signs of improvement, the new head of its commercial unit said ahead of a major air show on Sunday, while admitting that the manufacturer has “disappointed” customers with delayed planes. Boeing is trying to get past several safety and manufacturing crises, including the midair door plug blow out in January, which have slowed deliveries of planes to airlines and prompted the FAA to increase its oversight of the storied manufacturer. Stephanie Pope, in her first press conference since taking over the key role at the troubled aircraft manufacturer in March, reiterated that Boeing has committed to increasing production of the Max to 38 a month. Production slipped into the mid-20s per month in the first half of the year, analysts have said. Pope said Boeing is on the right path to improving its manufacturing quality, safety and predictability of deliveries, a “transformational change” that she said will take years. “It still doesn’t take away the reality that we’ve disappointed” our customers, she said at a press conference before the Farnborough Airshow, outside of London. “We’ve impacted their business and we haven’t met the commitments and lived up to being the partner that they expect and they need us to be.” Boeing has unveiled a host of goals aimed at getting it back on the right path, like improving worker training and manufacturing processes, among others. In the spring it delivered an improvement plan to the FAA that the agency ordered after the blowout in January. “This plan is not a three month plan,” said Pope. “I call it transformational because some of these actions will take years.” As part of the leadership shakeup that promoted Pope to head the commercial unit, Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun said he would step down by year’s end.<br/>

Boeing Co. expects the number of jets flying commercially will double over the next two decades, with almost 44,000 aircraft entering the market as the aviation industry weathers factory bottlenecks and other short-term disruptions. The US planemaker’s annual study shows that the total number of aircraft needed is 3.2% higher than last year’s forecast as air travel surged past pre-pandemic levels. Single-aisle jets are expected to account for about three-quarters of the new deliveries. But the planes won’t necessarily sport the familiar tube-and-turbofan design that has defined the jet age, particularly those entering the market later in its’ 20-year forecast. With investment flowing into greener fuels like hydrogen and open-fan engines, and pressure building to cut aviation emissions, Boeing has been studying various product scenarios, said Darren Hulst, a Boeing vice president of commercial marketing. The company expects the current generation of Boeing and Airbus SE jets to dominate for at least another decade, however. “I don’t think we see a massive change in technology, but the door would be opened to seeing new products in the network,” Hulst told reporters earlier this week.<br/>

Boeing is seeing a significant improvement in production flow at its 737 MAX factory, its new commercial planes chief said on Sunday, as the U.S. planemaker battles to overcome a safety crisis. Speaking to reporters in London ahead of this week's Farnborough Airshow, Stephanie Pope said the changes Boeing was making to the Seattle-area factory were significant. "This isn't minor change. This is transformational change," she said in her first remarks to media since being appointed earlier this year. "We are a stable company," she added. Boeing is mired in crisis after a cabin panel on a 737 MAX 9 jets blew off midair in January, prompting a slowdown in production of its top-selling plane as well as heightened regulatory and legal scrutiny. Boeing has also agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge over a probe related to two earlier fatal 737 MAX crashes, the Justice Department has said in court filings. Pope declined to comment on a plea deal. The company is seeing a "significant improvement in the flow of our 737 factory," Pope said, while acknowledging that Boeing has disappointed airline customers. She said Boeing would need to be more predictable on deliveries after production slumped. The FAA in January took the unprecedented step of barring Boeing from increasing production beyond 38 MAX planes per month until it is satisfied with the planemaker's quality and manufacturing improvements.<br/>

Boeing's commercial airplane chief said the planemaker has settled on the design to address an engine anti-ice system that has significantly delayed certification of the 737 MAX 7 and suggested a fix could be completed by next year. The issue with the anti-ice system could lead to it overheating and potentially causing an engine failure. "We're progressing on the engineering," Stephanie Pope said in a meeting with reporters. Asked if the planemaker will conduct a flight test later this year and complete the fix around early to mid-2025, Pope did not offer a formal prediction but said she thought it would be around that time.<br/>Boeing, under scrutiny over its safety record after the mid-air blowout of a cabin panel on a new Alaska Airlines MAX 9, in January withdrew a request it filed with the FAA last year seeking an exemption from a safety standard for the MAX 7 over the issue, which pushed potential certification into 2025 or later. Senator Tammy Duckworth in January urged Boeing to abandon the exemption request, saying the issue could "cause the engine nacelle to break apart and fall off. This could generate fuselage-penetrating debris, which could endanger passengers in window seats behind the wing." The FAA, which has repeatedly declined to put any timetable on approval, has said it "will thoroughly review any design Boeing submits."<br/>

At this year’s Farnborough Air Show, Airbus SE is chasing orders for its A330neo airliner, positioning the widebody model as an attractive alternative to more advanced jets because of its favorable economics and availability. Among the possible buyers of the jet, a more advanced version of an aircraft that first entered service in the mid 1990s, are Saudi Arabia’s Flynas and Flyadeal, as well as Vietnam’s Vietjet Aviation JSC, according to people familiar with the discussions. Carriers studying orders are either still negotiating possible contracts or have completed agreements that they plan to announce at the expo kicking off on Monday, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. A large order haul would shore up the backlog for the A330neo, which has more fuel-efficient engines and a redesigned wing. Airbus has been particularly successful over the past year with the more advanced A350 airliner, its other widebody aircraft, though slots are scarce for any new buyers. Boeing Co. is also working to build momentum for its 777X model, whose sales have flagged amid certification delays that have pushed the jet’s market entry back by at least five years from its original date. Korean Air Lines Co. said in June that it’s in the market for as many as 30 new jets from the US planemaker and is evaluating the smaller 787 Dreamliner model. The airline also said at the time that it’s planning to order new freighters and is looking at Boeing’s 777X for that. With the A321neo sold out until well into the next decade, and both Airbus and Boeing struggling to ramp up production, conversations with airline customers have circled around supply chains and delayed airplanes. Still, the annual trade show that alternates between Farnborough and Paris is still expected to produce hundreds of commercial jet orders in a mix of new deals, commitments and already booked orders.<br/>

Airbus has won European certification for the latest addition to its single-aisle family of jets, the long-distance A321XLR, a spokesperson said on Friday. The head of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) handed over the approval on Friday, covering a version of the plane using engines from CFM. Certification of a version powered by Pratt & Whitney is due later this year. Launched in 2019 to steal a march on Boeing’s plans at the time to build a new jet in the middle of the market, the A321XLR targets a gap left by the out-of-production Boeing 757, where the A321 is already outselling the largest version of the 737 MAX. The plane is designed to carry out missions previously reserved for wide-body jets, allowing airlines to fly deeper into Europe from the United States for example, without the commercial risk of having to fill a larger plane. Its design called for a novel type of rear central fuel tank, molded into the contours of the fuselage, to eke out more space for fuel and extend the range. But the design raised concerns among regulators about the risk of fire and evacuation times in the event of an accident, prompting changes before it could be certified. The resulting modifications added more weight and eroded the plane’s official 4,700 nautical mile range but Airbus officials said this would be gradually recouped as it matures in service. The first A321XLR is scheduled to be delivered in Q3, following cumulative delays of about a year.<br/>

China's plane maker Comac is a "serious competitor" to the industry's duopoly of Airbus and Boeing, but the state-owned company has yet to differentiate its narrow-body jets from the current offerings in the market, a senior Airbus executive said. There is enough sustained demand for aircraft, particularly in China, to offer ample opportunities for all the plane makers currently operating in the market, Christian Scherer, Airbus's chief of the commercial planes unit, said in London on Sunday before the Farnborough airshow. "We do take Comac as a serious competitor," Scherer said. "It's not when or if. They are a competitor. So far they are very much influential in the PRC (People's Republic of China) and perhaps in surrounding areas or countries. There is significant sustained demand, not just in China, but in particular within China, for that cake to grow and to be split up and still offer vast opportunities to all contenders, Airbus included." State-owned Comac also has succeeded in bringing its airplanes to market and they are flying, albeit at small volumes to start with, he said. But the Shanghai-based company has yet to offer a product other than the narrow-body aircraft already available in the market, such as the Airbus A320 or A321 family of jets. "Comac has not really brought anything new of differentiating substance to the market," Scherer said, comparing the C919 narrow-body with its own existing single-aisle jets. "When Airbus started with the same legitimacy of trying to establish technological sovereignty here in Europe for commercial aviation, Airbus did not imitate a product that was at that time delivered exclusively by the US. We brought something new to the market and that has helped us accelerate our market penetration."<br/>

Electric aircraft maker Eve has showcased for the first time the full-scale prototype of its "flying taxi," achieving a milestone as the company aims to obtain certification and enter service in 2026. Eve, controlled by Embraer, rolled out its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft prototype at an event with investors and clients at the Brazilian planemaker's Gaviao Peixoto plant on July 3. The company is one of a bevy of startups worldwide developing battery-powered aircraft that can take off and land vertically to ferry travelers on short city trips, allowing them to beat traffic. Eve expects to fly the prototype by the end of this year or early 2025, CEO Johann Bordais told Reuters at the event, after starting ground tests in July. The first non-conforming prototype is equipped with electric engines but does not have a cabin or pilot. The final aircraft will seat four passengers and a pilot. "This prototype is completely remote so we can test aerodynamics, start flying and then make what we call transition flight from vertical to horizontal flight," Bordais said. He said having the full-scale prototype ready for tests is another step toward certifying the aircraft, which Eve expects to achieve by 2026. Eve applied for certification in 2022 to Brazil's civil aviation regulator. Eve will have five conforming prototypes ready next year and a pre-series eVTOL by 2026 as part of the certification process, Bordais said.<br/>