Supply-chain problems mean that Lufthansa Group currently has around 100 aircraft – more than 13% of its fleet – out of service, chief executive Carsten Spohr has revealed. "All of the key suppliers of the industry are having issues," he told journalists on 3 June, at IATA's AGM in Dubai. "There's shortage of airframes, shortage of engines, and even when you have an airframe with a matching engine, you [potentially] cannot fly the engine when it is a Pratt & Whitney engine," he adds, alluding to the ongoing inspection programme affecting PW1100G powerplants. This means that "out of 750 aircraft [in Lufthansa Group's fleet], currently 100 are not operating for various reasons", he says. Those reasons can include lack of crew or engines. Airlines always have a certain proportion of their fleets on the ground to serve as reserves and for maintenance reasons, but the current level is greater than usual, Spohr observes. He believes other large carriers have similar ratios of aircraft out of operation. In his view, given the problems at OEMs across the industry, "this will take a long time to balance out again", he warns. However, it also means the wider industry will not again fall into the "trap" of increasing supply leading to overcapacity. This is "obviously not because we have become any smarter", he acknowledges, but because supply-chain problems mean "we can't".

US airlines consumed 5.4% more aviation fuel in April for scheduled commercial flights than they burned in pre-pandemic April 2019, data from the US Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows. Fuel consumption for domestic flights in April was up 5.2% versus the same month in 2019. "Increased fuel consumption reflects an increase in airline passenger travel over the same period," the bureau says. The cost per gallon of aviation fuel in April ($2.75) was down 0.6% compared with March 2024, and up 33.8% versus April 2019, it adds.

Europe should reform its sustainable aviation fuel mandate model when the policy comes up for review later this decade, Lufthansa Group chief executive Carsten Spohr believes. Speaking to journalists at the IATA AGM in Dubai on 3 June, Spohr comments that “if a mandate is undoable, it has to be changed.” The Lufthansa chief argues that if the only way the mandate can be met is by importing SAF from elsewhere in the world via ship, “the environment is not benefitting”. The EU has stipulated that fuel provided at EU airports must contain 2% SAF from 2025, rising gradually each year to 6% by 2030, 20% by 2035 and 70% by 2050. Airlines have long complained that such a system does not incentivise producers to drive down the cost of SAF or the price that carriers have to pay. They prefer an incentive system for SAF production and use, such as has been enacted in the USA under the Inflation Reduction Act. IATA estimates that SAF currently accounts for only around 0.5% of fuel use, a figure which needs to increase by a thousand times if the industry is to hit its long-term climate ambitions. Spohr believes a better balance needs to be found between mandates, the availability of SAF and the affordability of the fuel type, with the risk being that SAF will drive up the cost of flying in Europe, leading customers to “bypass” Europe’s hubs in response to higher prices. “The new Commission needs to take a look,” he comments, referencing European elections which are about to take place and that will result in new leadership of the EU's executive body. He adds that the SAF mandate policy is up for review in 2026, “and I think we will need [the review] as an industry and the EU commission will need it.”