British Airways will launch its winter flights to Tromso, Norway from London Heathrow on 1 December. The carrier says it will fly on the route twice a week until 27 March 2025. British Airways will use Airbus A320neos on the route. The carrier joins SAS in operating flights on the route this northern winter.

Hong Kong Airlines on 24 May inaugurated its first Airbus A321 with flights to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, strengthening its network capacity on medium and short-haul routes across Asia and allowing it to introduce new routes. This aircraft is configured with an all-economy cabin of 220 seats, increasing passenger capacity compared to the existing A320 models, it says. Fleets data shows that the 14-year-old aircraft, MSN 4315, is leased from AerCap and is powered by International Aero Engines V2533 engines. Hong Kong Airlines operates a fleet of 21 aircraft, including A330s, A320s, and the single A321, with plans to expand the fleet to 28 aircraft by the end of this year.

Boeing has reported a doubling over the past year in the number of engagements between its in-house flight-operations experts and airline customers' pilots to improve safety and the efficiency of its aircraft. The US airframer highlights this growth trend within its latest annual safety report, which the company has been publishing since 2022. The new report, Boeing notes, includes changes made in response to an expert panel the US Federal Aviation Administration initiated with US Congress authorisation to review safety measures at the airframer. Boeing's flight-operations representatives include pilots and other experts whose job it is to advise air crews at customer airlines on how to increase safety and efficiency within their operations. More than 170 international airlines are involved in the effort, Boeing says. It adds that five additional airlines have opted for its competency-based training and assessment programmes, which combine technical knowledge with teamwork, communications and workload management skills. Including the additional airlines, nine airlines have subscribed to the programme. As part of efforts to improve safety and quality in its own operations, Boeing says it established a business unit named "safety management system boards" to identify, track and mitigate risks across the company. The manufacturer has "expanded use of external safety data sources" and worked with the FAA "to develop machine-leaning algorithms to identify hazards and safety trends", it says. A "pathfinding effort to share additional operational data with engineering teams on how Boeing products are operating in the field" has been initiated. This, Boeing says, will enable its design engineers to "validate that designs are working as intended". Since the mid-air door-plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 in January, Boeing says it has redoubled its efforts to encourage employees to raise concerns about safety, quality and compliance. This has led to a more than sixfold increase in submissions via the company's "Speak Up" confidential reporting channels in early 2024 compared with the same period last year, Boeing says. It notes the introduction in 2023 of "Just Culture Guiding Principles" aimed at creating an "environment where employees feel safe and empowered to report errors". The principles followed the implementation in 2021 of leadership training named "Just Culture Essentials". Boeing chief aerospace safety officer Mike Delaney states that the company's aim is to "ensure safety, compliance and conformance of our products and services, without compromise". "Our commitment is to never forget our responsibility to make sure every action and decision bring lasting improvements to the safety and quality of our products and services."