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.

Lao Airlines has received its first Comac C909 which is expected to serve on its domestic routes initially. The aircraft, bearing registration RDPL-34229, was handed over at Comac’s delivery centre on 30 March and ferried to Vientiane from Shanghai Pudong the next day, states the carrier. The 90-seat all-economy configured aircraft is on lease to the carrier and “will enter into route operation after a series of preparatory work is completed in Laos,” adds Comac in a separate announcement. Lao’s civil aviation authority issued on 18 March an Aircraft Type Acceptance Certificate for C909, Comac reveals, "indicating that the aircraft has met the basic conditions for commercial operation in Laos". At the same time, the Chinese airframer has set up a “special team to assist Lao Airlines with preparatory tasks” and has dispatched a “support team of professionals from the flight, cabin crew, operation control, maintenance, and other areas to fully ensure the safe and efficient operation of the C909 aircraft in Laos”. “At present, Lao Airlines is expanding its capacity and renewing its fleet. Leasing the C909 aircraft will help the airline supplement its capacity and upgrade its fleet to meet the growing development needs of the air travel market in Laos,” states Comac. Lao Airlines has a fleet of four Airbus A320ceos, seven ATR 72s, a Russian Helicopters Mi-8 and a Mi-17.