Qatar Airways has named Hamad Ali Al-Khater as its new group chief executive. Al-Khater, who replaces Badr Mohammed Al‑Meer in the role, joins the group from Hamad International airport, where he served as chief operating officer and vice president of business development, his LinkedIn profile indicates. He has been at the airport since April 2024, having previously spent nearly a decade at QatarEnergy, mostly as business opportunity manager. "With this leadership transition, Qatar Airways Group reaffirms its commitment to delivering world-class experiences, reliability and innovation to travellers around the globe," states the carrier's board chair Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi. Al-Meer, who likewise previously served as Hamad's operations chief, has led Qatar Airways for just over two years. He replaced Akbar Al Baker, who led the company for 27 years before departing in November 2023. Reporting results for its financial year to end-March, Qatar Airways declared it the "best year commercially" in its history. Operating profit was up 9% to QR14.7 million ($4 billion) after an 8% rise in passenger numbers, to 43.1 million.

Jetstar will start flying from Melbourne to Sri Lankan capital Colombo from August 2026, using Boeing 787-8s that have been refurbished to facilitate longer-haul flying. The Australian carrier will from 25 August operate a thrice-weekly service on the route – facing competition from Sri Lankan Airlines. "This new route out of our home base of Melbourne is part of a huge growth phase for Jetstar," states chief executive Stephanie Tully. "We've added new destinations [and] more aircraft, and we’re continuing to expand our international network to give travellers even more choice and opportunities to take off for less." Melbourne-Colombo is the first new long-haul route announced by Jetstar that will be facilitated by its reconfigured 787-8s, which are being retrofitted with a crew rest area and a larger business-class cabin, allowing them to operate flights of up to 16h duration. Jetstar adds that the first of the 11 jets to undergo the refit will touch down at its Melbourne base in late March.

Qantas's tenth and final Airbus A380 will shortly re-enter service after more than five years in storage and heavy maintenance. The Oneworld carrier says that the aircraft, registered VH-OQC (MSN 022), is scheduled to arrive at its Sydney base on 5 December following a major cabin refresh and engineering check. Cirium fleets data shows that the A380 is just over 17 years of age and was stored at Victorville, California in July 2020 before being ferried to Abu Dhabi for further storage in June 2021. "Bringing an A380 back into service after nearly six years in storage is no small feat," says Qantas International chief executive Cam Wallace. "Teams of engineers around the globe came together to complete more than 100,000 hours of work to prepare the aircraft for flying again, from extensive checks to heavy maintenance, landing gear replacement, a full cabin refresh and assessment flying, with parts shipped by land, sea and sky." The A380 will act as an operational spare during the Christmas peak period, and from 1 January will start flying on the international network, allowing the Sydney to Dallas-Ft Worth route to return to daily A380 operations. At its peak Qantas operated 12 A380s, but sent the fleet into storage at Victorville, California with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The airline subsequently retired two of the jets, MSNs 027 and 029, in 2022.