Aer Lingus has ceased the sale of tickets from Manchester to Barbados, New York and Orlando after March, as the Irish carrier mulls a potential closure of its base in the UK city. The action follows a series of staff consultations in November and December on the future of the operation. Aer Lingus today told its Manchester employees that "the process will now enter a phase of consultation for the purpose of mitigating job losses which would occur in the event of a base closure", it states. Passengers who have already booked onto flights past March will be offered refunds. The carrier's operations between Manchester and Ireland are unaffected. The Unite union says that Aer Lingus has acknowledged that the routes are profitable, but that they have underperformed its routes from Ireland. Data shows that Aer Lingus operates Airbus A330s on the connections, with a total of 13 weekly return flights scheduled through March.

Turkish Technic and Rolls-Royce have formally begun construction of an engine overhaul facility they will jointly operate at Istanbul airport. Disclosed in May last year, the plan for the site envisions repair and overhaul capabilities for Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84 and -97 engines – used on Airbus A350-900s and -1000s, respectively – and on A330neo-powering Trent 7000s. It is set to become operational by the end of 2027 and to have capacity for 200 engines a year. Rolls-Royce's president civil aerospace Rob Watson describes the launch of construction as a milestone in its efforts to effect a significant increase in MRO capacity by 2030. Fleet data shows that Turkish Airlines has 33 A350-900s in service, and another 57 on order along with 15 A350-1000s and five A350 Freighters. The Star Alliance carrier's fleet of 405 aircraft includes 61 A330ceos but no A330neos. Turkish Technic executive chair Ahmet Bolat states that the new engine shop "represents a major expansion of our technical capabilities and service capacity to continue providing the highest-quality services for our customers all around the world".

The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing an airworthiness directive (AD) to address "fluctuations with aircraft pitch due to excessive looseness of the horizontal stabiliser" on certain Boeing 737NGs. The AD would affect the -600, -700, -700C, -800, -900 and -900ER aircraft, the FAA advised. "It would require operators to measure movements of the left and right horizontal stabiliser pivot hinges and jackscrew and perform repairs as necessary," the FAA adds. Operators must comply before 42,500 total flight hours or within eight years since new, the agency says. This AD would affect 1,987 US-registered aircraft and 6,528 aircraft worldwide, according to the FAA.