Rolls-Royce has reported an underlying operating profit of £1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) for the first half, up from £673 million in the same period of 2023. Revenue grew 18% to £8.18 billion, while pre-tax profit almost doubled to £1 billion from £524 million a year earlier, the UK engine manufacturer says. It adds that the largest improvement was in the civil aerospace division, which delivered an operating margin of 18% versus 12% in the same period of 2023, driven by higher aftermarket profit from large-engine long-term service agreements and time and materials, and stronger business-aviation performance in both original equipment and aftermarket, along with net contractual margin improvements. "Our strong first-half results reflect the continued delivery of our strategic initiatives and a relentless focus on commercial optimisation and cost efficiencies across the group," states Rolls-Royce chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic. "These results and our increased financial resilience give us the confidence to raise our 2024 guidance and reinstate shareholder distributions in respect of the full year 2024 results." The manufacturer has raised its full-year guidance and now expects underlying operating profit of £2.1-2.3 billion.

Wizz Air is facing heightened air traffic control problems in eastern Europe which are seriously hampering the airline's summer operations, chief executive Jozsef Varadi has warned. Presenting the airlines results for its fiscal first quarter, Varadi commented that Wizz's slot restrictions were "through the roof" given reduced ATC capacity in central and eastern Europe. That region represents the "backbone" of Wizz's network – particularly Romania and Hungary, where the carrier is based. A large proportion of its traffic passes through an air corridor that traverses the two countries, especially given that Ukrainian airspace is currently closed. Yet despite capacity in those two countries having recovered to above pre-Covid levels, they are "not even at pre-Covid cap levels in terms of ATC", Varadi observes. The result is that slot restrictions through the three months to end-June were twice the level of last year, resulting in delay and extra costs. "It's bad," he tells investors, echoing similar complaints from the wider sector about ATC preparedness in Europe. Such issues have a knock-on impact on Wizz in terms of EU261 compensation, crewing and customer satisfaction, notes Varadi, adding: "There is lots of consequential damage." Wizz Air achieved a 67.6% on-time performance through the quarter, up 7.1 percentage points on last year.

Cathay Pacific parent company Cathay Group has repaid a HK$19.5 billion ($2.5 billion) investment from the Hong Kong government after redeeming its remaining preference shares and paying the final dividends. The group states that it has bought back the remaining 50% of shares issued to the government as part of its 2020 recapitalisation, having purchased the previous half in December 2023. It also paid a HK$2.44 billion in dividends over the time the government held the shares. Cathay group chief executive Ronald Lam says that the repayment was an important milestone for the airline. "Our journey to rebuild Cathay for Hong Kong has been progressing well and this has enabled us to fully redeem the preference shares only 18 months after Hong Kong reopened," he says. In addition to the preference shares, the Hong Kong government also provided a HK$7.8 billion bridge loan facility that Cathay opted not to draw down. That facility expired in June 2023. The final part of the recapitalisation was an HK$11.7 billion rights issue to existing shareholders.