Upcoming military exercises scheduled to take place in Germany are “causing considerable aviation concern” given their potential impact on slots and schedules, according to IATA. The Air Defender exercises that are due to take place on 12-22 June will “very likely” require take-off and landing slots to be retimed as the exercises require the closure of sections of airspace, the association said in a report at its AGM taking place in Istanbul. Carriers have been working with the European Commission and network managers to develop mitigation plans for the exercises and are seeking “flexibility” from regulators. “Unfortunately, in some instances, this flexibility may not be enough, or not be granted at all,” IATA says. Part of this is the request for extended airport operating hours, especially at curfew airports. IATA is also asking the European Commission to call on national authorities to “align their approaches” over whether the delays will constitute an “extraordinary circumstance”, which would mean that passengers are eligible to claim compensation for delays under EU 261. “We do not want different authorities to take decisions and enforce penalties for delays resulting from this exercise. And it’s vital we avoid the precedent that airspace closures are not considered an extraordinary event,” it states.

IATA director general Willie Walsh is confident that airports and airlines around the world have largely completed their efforts to staff up from the pandemic and should not represent a capacity crunch point this summer. Walsh told the association's AGM in Istanbul that few airlines now complained that they lacked staff, a view shared by airports. "Speaking to airline chief executives, I have to say there are very few expressing any concern about the levels of resources they have available," he says. This stands in stark contrast to 2022, when a shortage of staff caused massive disruption to the industry that had "underestimated the pace of recovery". Earlier this year, several industry figures identified a wave of strikes hitting airlines and airports as threatening disruption this summer, but so far this appears not to have materialised. "The system continues to function," Walsh declares. He is far more concerned about air traffic control constraints, particularly in France, where industrial action has routinely impacted services to and from the country and across the wider European airspace. Airlines should "prepare for the disruption being forced upon them" by these capacity issues, adds Walsh. "I don't think its fair to be critical of airports and airlines this year when the cause of their problems they encounter is completely outside their control."

American Airlines intends to file an appeal of a US district court judge's ruling on 19 May that the US major and JetBlue Airways must terminate their "Northeast Alliance" (NEA). "We've got a legal system that allows for an appeal, and we're going to do that," American's chief executive Robert Isom said on 31 May during the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York. "The judge said the NEA has to wind down… In the meantime, we're going to work with the DOJ and JetBlue." Isom adds that the NEA was launched to provide benefits for consumers and more competition in the New York region. "We entered into it for all the right reasons," he says. Judge Leo Sorokin of the Massachusetts district court permanently enjoined American and JetBlue from continuing, and restrained from further implementing, the NEA codeshare, effective 30 days from the 19 May court order. The US Department of Justice's lawsuit, filed in September 2021, accused the airlines of reinforcing consolidation in Boston and New York City because American is the world's largest commercial carrier by fleet size and because it will diminish "JetBlue's incentive to compete with American elsewhere".