Wizz Air is facing heightened air traffic control problems in eastern Europe which are seriously hampering the airline's summer operations, chief executive Jozsef Varadi has warned. Presenting the airlines results for its fiscal first quarter, Varadi commented that Wizz's slot restrictions were "through the roof" given reduced ATC capacity in central and eastern Europe. That region represents the "backbone" of Wizz's network – particularly Romania and Hungary, where the carrier is based. A large proportion of its traffic passes through an air corridor that traverses the two countries, especially given that Ukrainian airspace is currently closed. Yet despite capacity in those two countries having recovered to above pre-Covid levels, they are "not even at pre-Covid cap levels in terms of ATC", Varadi observes. The result is that slot restrictions through the three months to end-June were twice the level of last year, resulting in delay and extra costs. "It's bad," he tells investors, echoing similar complaints from the wider sector about ATC preparedness in Europe. Such issues have a knock-on impact on Wizz in terms of EU261 compensation, crewing and customer satisfaction, notes Varadi, adding: "There is lots of consequential damage." Wizz Air achieved a 67.6% on-time performance through the quarter, up 7.1 percentage points on last year.

Cathay Pacific parent company Cathay Group has repaid a HK$19.5 billion ($2.5 billion) investment from the Hong Kong government after redeeming its remaining preference shares and paying the final dividends. The group states that it has bought back the remaining 50% of shares issued to the government as part of its 2020 recapitalisation, having purchased the previous half in December 2023. It also paid a HK$2.44 billion in dividends over the time the government held the shares. Cathay group chief executive Ronald Lam says that the repayment was an important milestone for the airline. "Our journey to rebuild Cathay for Hong Kong has been progressing well and this has enabled us to fully redeem the preference shares only 18 months after Hong Kong reopened," he says. In addition to the preference shares, the Hong Kong government also provided a HK$7.8 billion bridge loan facility that Cathay opted not to draw down. That facility expired in June 2023. The final part of the recapitalisation was an HK$11.7 billion rights issue to existing shareholders.

Virgin Atlantic will impose a carbon surcharge on all UK-departing flights from the start of next year, as it seeks to recoup some of the costs imposed by new environmental regulations. Customers booking from 1 January 2025 will pay £8 ($10) in economy, £12 in premium and £24 in 'upper', equivalent to 1% of the carrier's average fare, it says. This is a reaction to measures such as the SAF mandates and CORSIA offset costs, adds the airline, which has, in line with much of the industry, set itself a goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The move follows Lufthansa Group’s decision, announced last month, to impose a similar surcharge applying to its European services. That charge, also coming into force from 1 January, will vary from €1 to €72 depending on the route. Core to airlines’ thinking is a need to cover some of the extra costs for SAF. The EU and UK are imposing 2% SAF mandates from next year, rising to 5% by 2030 in the EU and 10% in the UK. "As we take action to decarbonise long-haul aviation, we're committed to transparency and accountability in our efforts to achieve Net Zero 2050," states Virgin Atlantic's commercial chief Juha Jarvinen. "The introduction of a carbon surcharge reflects increasing regulatory and compliance costs and we want to be open and clear with our customers, while doing everything we can to keep these costs as low as possible. "But we can’t do this alone: we need government, investors and oil majors to do more to ensure we can scale the supply of SAF needed at a cost of production that does not penalise UK aviation and UK consumers." Virgin Atlantic warns that production of SAF in the UK is "lagging behind" the USA and EU, and will require a scaling up of up to 30x its current level to achieve the 2030 mandate.