Turboprop manufacturer ATR is reopening a second final assembly line at its Toulouse headquarters in an effort to increase production after deliveries last year declined to 32 aircraft amid continued supply-chain bottlenecks, from 35 in 2024. The additional final assembly line, dubbed FAL North, is located next to ATR's active production line (FAL South) in the St Martin area, on the southwest side of Toulouse airport. FAL North had been dormant since the pandemic. During a results briefing on 18 February, ATR senior vice-president of operations and procurement Marion Smeyers said that the European airframer would move components for the first post-Covid aircraft to be assembled in FAL North to the site on 19 February. The first aircraft's assembly will be used to test production processes that have changed since FAL North's closure amid the Covid crisis, Smeyers says. Routine operations, in parallel with FAL South, are scheduled to begin in May. The project's objective is to gradually increase ATR's output. "I'm not going to double the [production] rate right now," says Smeyers. "It creates some surge capacity and gives me more resilience to cope with a certain amount of perturbations." Smeyers describes 2025 as a "challenging year with a lot of disruption, particularly in the supply chain". Last year's delivery of 32 aircraft "clearly is not satisfying for customers [and] for us", she says, adding: "This is not what we want to have as an ambition for ATR, but it is also very much the max[imum] of what we could do with the constraints we had." She cites landing gear, engines, and sub-tier supplies for major aerostructure components as areas of concern during the early part of last year. "High levels" of missing parts and unfinished components resulted in "huge increases" of the time required to complete aircraft assembly. Smeyers says that aircraft assembly times had reached levels that were "simply not sustainable". ATR has since worked with suppliers to improve the situation. The volume of missing parts on the assembly line has been reduced by two-thirds since January 2025, while the level of unfinished aerostructure assemblies has been cut by 90%, the airframer says. Smeyers highlights that the time required for aircraft assembly has been cut by 20% since last summer and that the company wants to further reduce it by 20%. "Those figures are giving us confidence that it is the right time to reopen the FAL North [and] what we are doing with your supply chain is paying off and will continue to pay off." ATR targets a 20% year-on-year increase in deliveries to 38 aircraft in 2026 and wants to reach an annual production of 60 aircraft by 2030, it says. The company previously had a target to reach 60 aircraft a year in the 2028-29 period. During the results briefing, however, chief executive Nathalie Tarnaud Laude insisted that ATR had not delayed its ramp-up plan. The 2030 target is a "horizon", Tarnaud Laude says. "It's not a firm date, and we plan to be at 60 [aircraft] before 2030 actually. So, we have not changed our plan." One objective of the ramp-up plan is to reduce production lead times for aircraft orders. Delivery slots for new orders are not available before 2028, ATR says. Last year, the airframer booked 60 gross orders from nine customers, which translated to 50 net orders and a total backlog of more than 160 aircraft. Its revenue in 2025 reached $1.2 billion, including $538 million for services and support.

Canada's Porter Airlines is adding year-round flights to Austin from 21 May and shifting its Chicago services to O'Hare International airport in September. Five-times weekly flights on Embraer 195-E2s between Toronto Pearson and Austin-Bergstrom International airport begin 21 May. Cirium Diio schedules data shows that will put it in competition with Air Canada's daily services on the route. From 1 September, Porter will shift its Toronto City-Chicago Midway services to O'Hare and increase frequency from 13 times weekly to thrice daily using De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400s. That will see it compete with Air Canada's twice-daily services on the route. American Airlines operates a major hub at O'Hare, and last September it entered into a codeshare arrangement with Porter. In Canada, Porter will start a new seasonal service between Ottawa and Deer Lake using E195-E2s from 10 June, which it says complements existing flights from Pearson and Halifax.

Air India will over the coming months add frequencies to several long-haul destinations and upgauge from Boeing 787s to 777-300ERs on some routes. From 1 March, its Delhi-Toronto frequencies will be stepped up from daily to 10 per week, while from 9 March it will increase its services linking the Indian capital with Seoul Incheon, from five to six per week, and Shanghai, from four to five per week. Further changes will follow on 1 July when Air India will deploy its 777-300ERs on its Delhi-Melbourne route, while 787-9s and -8s with upgraded interiors will be used to operate all its Mumbai-London Heathrow services in place of the 777s. Air India will also deploy the 777s on services to the UK city of Birmingham from Amritsar and Delhi, and to London Gatwick from Ahmedabad and Amritsar in place of 787-8s from 1 August. In addition, Air India on 14 February started deploying its three-class 787-9s on its Delhi-Tokyo Haneda route, adding 2,408 seats per month to the route. The airline expects to take delivery of three new 787-9s and two Airbus A350-1000s this year. Cirium fleets data shows that the carrier has 20 777-300ERs, 24 787-8s and seven -9s in service, as well as five A350-900s.