British Airways will acquire Boeing's hangar facility and MRO business at London Gatwick airport. The IAG-owned carrier says it is establishing a new wholly owned engineering subsidiary named British Airways Engineering Gatwick (BAEG) to join its existing UK engineering operations in South Wales and Glasgow. The staff employed by Boeing at the facility will be transferred to the new subsidiary, subject to consultation, in the second quarter of this year, adds BA. It aims to recruit additional employees and grow this new facility at Gatwick in the longer term. Taking over the Boeing facility will enable it to continue to carry out minor maintenance on Boeing 777s at the airport, says BA. This increased capacity will allow the airline to in-source some scheduled heavy-maintenance work on its Airbus A320 and A321 fleet. Additionally, it will boost its capacity to carry out unscheduled repair work, as well as, BA foresees, providing additional maintenance resilience and relieving capacity challenges at other locations across its network. Carrying out more 777 and A320 and A321 maintenance at Gatwick will reduce the need to ferry these aircraft to other operational bases, supporting sustainability goals, adds BA.

Eurocontrol data shows that four of the top five busiest air routes that touched Europe last year were to or from London, underlining the UK capital's importance to the continent's air flows. Across the air traffic manager's coverage region, which stretches from Georgia in the east to Iceland in the North Atlantic, the Dublin-London route was the busiest one, with an average of 91 daily flights through 2024. The route between the Irish and UK capitals was the 27th busiest route globally. In the European ranking, it was followed by London-Amsterdam (84), Antalya-Istanbul (69), and London-New York and London-Edinburgh (both on 65). Eurocontrol notes that Amsterdam-London was the 37the busiest route globally, but its average of 84 daily flights is down from 105 in 2019, when it was the busiest European route. The air traffic manager attributes this to improved rail links between the two cities. Globally, Asia dominates the busiest city pairs, with 45 of the 100 busiest routes, led by Jeju-Seoul in South Korea with an average of 226 daily flights. This is followed by Melbourne-Sydney (157), Rio-Sao Paulo (152), Sapporo-Tokyo (147) and Fukuoka-Tokyo (137), the same top five as in 2023. New York featured in the highest number of top 100 city pairs (13), followed by Tokyo (eight) and London (seven). Separately, Eurocontrol says that across the week of 3-9 February traffic in Europe by number of flights was up 5% on last year, at nearly 25,000. Overall, year-to-date network air traffic is at 95% of 2019 levels.

Aviation Capital Group has delivered one Boeing 737 Max 8 to Italian carrier Neos. This marks ACG's first aircraft delivery to Neos, the first of three 737 Max 8 jets scheduled to be delivered to the carrier from ACG's Boeing orderbook, the US lessor says. "These advanced, fuel-efficient aircraft will enable Neos to further strengthen its position as one of Europe's premier charter airlines, enhancing their operational capabilities while supporting their commitment to sustainability and fleet modernisation," states ACG's executive vice-president Carter White.