Qantas will suspend its Sydney-Shanghai route, increase frequencies to Singapore and Bangalore, and launch a new Brisbane-Manila route as it adjusts its Asia network. The five-times weekly Sydney-Shanghai service restarted last October after it was paused during the pandemic, however Qantas says demand has not been as strong as anticipated, and so will suspend it from July 28. "In some months, our flights to and from Shanghai have been operating around half full," comments Qantas International chief executive Cam Wallace. It is the only route that Qantas operates to mainland China, and Wallace adds that the airline will "continue to maintain a presence in China through our partners and our existing flights to Hong Kong and look to return to Shanghai in the future". Schedules show that China Eastern Airlines is the only other carrier that flies between Sydney and Shanghai, operating 11 weekly flights using Boeing 787-9s and Airbus A350-900s. The two carriers were long-time joint venture partners but unwound that arrangement in late 2023 after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission proposed to deny an application to extend it. From 28 October the carrier will start four weekly flights between Brisbane and Manila using Airbus A330s, marking the first time it has flown between the two cities in more than 10 years. The flights add to Qantas' existing daily service from Sydney and will add more than 100,000 seats between Australia and the Philippines each year. Schedules show that it will compete against Philippine Airlines on the route, which operates four weekly services using A330-300s and A321s. Qantas will also increase flying to Singapore by around 10% with flights from Sydney to increase from 14 to 17 return flights per week from 11 December. Brisbane-Singapore frequencies will also increase from seven to nine return flights per week from 27 October, while flights from Sydney to Bengaluru will grow from five per week to daily between mid-December 2024 and late March 2025.

IAG has the option to step back from its proposed takeover of Spanish carrier Air Europa if competition concerns prompt regulators to impose remedies that are too stringent, the group's chief executive Luis Gallego has warned. During a first-quarter results call, Gallego said IAG was "working with different options" to address the competition concerns of the European Commission, which is seeking several remedies. IAG "can have the option to walk away if the remedies are above [what] we think makes sense for the group", he says. However, he adds, the group is "still in the middle of the process", which is "progressing well" – though "until July we are not going to know anything new". The European Commission opened an in-depth investigation into the transaction in January, commenting as part of a "statement of objections" last month that it was worried that the tie-up could hurt competition in Spain and lead to higher prices. "The Commission is concerned that, absent suitable remedies, the removal of Air Europa as an independent airline may have negative effects on competition" on routes to the Spanish islands and some long-haul services, it said. IAG is now in the process of presenting remedies to the Commission ahead of a 15 July deadline for a final decision. The group announced in February that it had agreed to pay €400 million ($423 million) for the 80% of Air Europa it did not already own, as part of a move to cement its position in the South Atlantic.

Emirates plans to restart flights between Dubai and Edinburgh on 4 November. The UAE carrier says it will operate the route daily using the Airbus A350-900. This will complement Emirates' A380 service to Glasgow, offering passengers a total of 14 weekly flights to Scotland, it adds. It notes that the service will also boost cargo capacity and that Emirates SkyCargo will have be able to uplift 16 tonnes of freight per flight. Emirates' first of 65 on-order A350-900s is scheduled to enter service in September. It will use the type to serve nine destinations across the Middle East, GCC, west Asia and Europe. The Middle Eastern operator first launched flights to Edinburgh in 2018 using a Boeing 777-300ER.