Lufthansa is temporarily deploying six Airbus A350-900s on long-haul routes from its Frankfurt hub, to plug the gap caused by delayed aircraft deliveries. The German airline group states that four of its A350-900s began operating flights from Frankfurt to Seoul and Shanghai on 30 March. Two additional A350-900s will be stationed at Frankfurt from 1 May and 1 July for services to Denver and Seattle, respectively. "With the temporary deployment of A350 aircraft from Frankfurt, we are closing a gap caused by delayed aircraft deliveries," says Lufthansa chief executive Jens Ritter, adding that the A350s will "offer an improved travel experience from Frankfurt until new long-haul aircraft are delivered". Lufthansa is awaiting deliveries of 20 Boeing 777-9s, which were supposed to have begun in 2020 but are now not expected to take place until 2026. Lufthansa, which is the launch operator of the aircraft, is in the process of renewing its widebody fleet. In addition to the 20 777-9s on order, Lufthansa has orders for 15 A350-1000s and 19 A350-900s, with 14 of the latter expected to be delivered by 2029. The carrier already operates 30 A350-900s which had been exclusively operating from Munich. Its widebody fleet also includes five in-service 787-9s, with a further 29 on order; 19 747-8Is; eight 747-400s; seven A380s; eight A340-600s; 16 A340-300s; and eight A330-300s. "Over the next 36 months, Lufthansa is expecting the largest fleet renewal in its history," states Ritter. "By the end of 2027, 61 new aircraft are scheduled to be added to the fleet. This means an average of one new aircraft every two weeks."

Southwest Airlines has appointed Ryan Martinez as principal accounting officer (PAO), assuming responsibilities that had been held by Tammy Romo through 31 March. The US carrier disclosed in January that finance chief Romo would be retiring in April after serving in that role since 2012. In February, Southwest appointed former Breeze Airways president Tom Doxey to succeed Romo as chief financial officer, effective 10 March. Martinez serves as Southwest's senior vice-president of finance and controller. Previously, he was vice-president of investor relations from 2021 to 2023, and managing director of investor relations from 2017 to 2021. Southwest tells Cirium that Romo was controller before moving to her CFO role and kept the PAO designation upon taking the finance chief position. "Now we're reverting [the PAO designation] to the controller's seat," it says. The carrier notes that the US Securities and Exchange Commission requires all publicly traded companies to have a principal accounting officer and principal financial officer. "Those roles can be held by one person, but there's no SEC requirement they must be," Southwest says. "When they're separate, the PAO role typically defaults to the controller, which for us is Ryan Martinez. Tom Doxey is our CFO and principal financial officer."

United Airlines has received a supplemental type certificate from the US Federal Aviation Administration for its Starlink-equipped Embraer 175 aircraft. The US major expects that its first commercial flight with Starlink's wi-fi service will be operated in May with a United Express E175. It will add the service to around 40 regional jets per month. "The entire two-cabin regional fleet – more than 300 planes – will be completed by end of year," United says. The Chicago-based carrier in September 2024 signed an agreement with SpaceX to bring Starlink's wi-fi service to its mainline and regional fleets. It intends to work with Starlink to secure STCs to install Starlink across 16 aircraft types. Starlink is operated by Starlink Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX, which was founded by Elon Musk.