Turkish Airlines has reported a sharply lower operating profit for 2024, as higher revenues failed to offset increases in a range of costs. Personnel expenses rose 45% to reach $4.71 billion, equating to 23% of the airline’s total expenses. Meanwhile, aircraft ownership costs rose 15% to $2.57 billion and groundhandling costs by a fifth to $1.49 billion. There were also steep rises in costs relating to airport and air navigation, passenger services, and catering and maintenance. Fuel was the only major area of expense in which there was a fall – of 1.1%, to $6.16 billion – but this was overwhelmed by other rises. Total expenses increased 14% to $20.7 billion. On a unit basis, costs per ASK rose 5%. Excluding fuel, they were up 12%. Turkish says this was driven by "wages, GTF groundings and growing cargo operations". The impact of the groundings, necessitated by enhanced maintenance checks on the Pratt & Whitney GTF engines that power some of the carrier's A320neo-family aircraft, was to add around 1.5 percentage points to ex-fuel CASK. Revenue rose 8.2% to $22.7 billion, but EBIT fell 18% to $2.86 billion. Margins have been affected by "cost pressures and intensifying passenger competition", says the airline. It expects further modest declines in 2025. Across the year, the Star Alliance carrier intends to carry 91 million passengers – up from 85.2 million in 2024 – and that its fleet will total 515-525 aircraft by year-end. That compares with 492 jets at end-2024. Turkish adds that its strategic priorities include targeting organic growth, investing in efficiency and sustaining its competitive cost base, while preserving its balance-sheet strength and providing shareholder returns.

Loganair plans to open its 10th base at Southampton airport, operated by two ATR 72-600s. The UK regional carrier says that the first aircraft will arrive in October. The base will increase the number of seats available by over 140,000 per year, it adds. On 26 October, Loganair plans to launch flights from Southampton to Manchester and from Manchester to Exeter. "We are delighted to be announcing a new base in Southampton, which is a logical and important strategic step for the UK's largest regional airline," states Loganair chief executive Luke Farajallah. "Loganair is very familiar with operations to and from the South Coast, and we feel confident the local market will respond well to our more permanent presence and new routes through the basing of two aircraft later this year."

IATA will be forced to revisit its target of achieving net zero by 2050 because of the insufficient progress in developing key technologies to reach that goal, the airline association's director general Willie Walsh has warned. Speaking onstage at the ISTAT Americas conference in Phoenix on 3 March, Walsh said: "I think we're going to have to revisit it [the 2050 target] because we're not making as strong and fast progress on things like sustainable aviation fuel [SAF} as we had hoped." He adds: "When you look at the journey to net zero 2050, the most significant contribution to that will be through sustainable aviation fuel, because we're not going to see a major technological change between now and 2050 that will address the challenge." Walsh has previously defended the sector's 2050 target, emphasising SAF as a key driver for airlines to reach it, but he now foresees that there will be a "re-evaluation, certainly". There will, he suspects, be airlines who say "We don't think we do this", which could lead the sector to becoming "a bit more fragmented". Airlines that committed to getting to 10% SAF usage by 2030 "probably regret making that commitment", he posits. He says he was "pleased" to hear that Airbus was postponing the service entry of its proposed hydrogen-powered zero-emissions aircraft beyond a 2035 target, because keeping to that timeframe was "never going to happen", in his view. The sector will "probably have to acknowledge" that having a hydrogen-powered commercial narrowbody in service by 2035 is "not going to happen" either, he adds. The change of administration in the USA will likely "slow down" the drive for sustainability, Walsh observes, adding that the country had been leading the way in terms of investment in biofuels and SAF. Walsh also highlights concerns over the transition cost to net zero, and suggests that European politicians have portrayed the transition as coming at "no cost to the consumer". "Which is a lie," he adds. "It's a massive cost to the consumer... The consumer is going to have to pay. Now, the question is how much of the bill gets paid by the consumer and how much is going to be borne by the government."