Delta Air Lines chief executive, Ed Bastian, has offered his full support to a proposal by Virgin Atlantic, to split up London Heathrow airport, in a bid to foster competition. "Speaking for us as Delta, we fully support what Shai Weiss, chief executive at Virgin Atlantic and the team are proposing," he said in response to a question over whether Heathrow's terminals could be hived off to separate owners. Heathrow, Bastian continues, is "maybe the most important airport in the world", he said during a press briefing at IATA’s AGM event in Delhi but is the "toughest to gain access to and the toughest and most expensive to navigate". This was acting as a drain on the facility’s benefit to the UK economy, he adds. Weiss has previously called Heathrow a "de facto monopolistic" airport whose dominant position benefits shareholders at the expense of UK consumers. Taking inspiration from regulations elsewhere, he has proposed that terminals within the airport be owned and operated by different companies at the insistence of regulators. "Why not consider competition in the campus itself?" he asked in November 2022. That was in response to a bid by Heathrow, later partly rebuffed by the Civil Aviation Authority, to increase fees. Airlines have long complained that the facility has the highest airline expenses in the world, pushing up ticket prices. Sitting alongside Bastian, Pieter Elbers, chief executive of IndiGo, notes that there is an "imbalance" in capacity between Europe and India more generally, which means that the majority – around 65% - of seats between the two blocs are on European carriers, partly due to a lack of slots. Breaking up Heathrow could help to remedy the situation, he believes. Meanwhile Ben Smith, who leads Air France-KLM, said his priority regarding Heathrow is to ensure the same quality of services between terminals, "and today that’s not the case". Also speaking in Delhi, Virgin Atlantic's Weiss appeared to rebuke Heathrow boss Thomas Woldbye over his handling of a recent power outage at the facility which forced it to close for several hours. A report commissioned by Heathrow and published on 28 May detailed that Woldbye was asleep with his phone on silent for the first few hours of the issue, leaving a deputy to make the decision to close the airport down. "The last time I put my phone on silent running an airline was never," said Weiss. "I think all my colleagues [on the panel today] would share that observation." He adds that the airline was continuing to push for compensation for the disruption, with airlines and the airport first waiting for the results of several reports that have been commissioned into the outage. Estimates of the cost of the outage run into the hundreds of millions of pounds, with IAG estimating it alone took a hit of €50 million ($57 million). "We expect [Heathrow] to do the right thing," says Weiss, adding that "once the dust settles, our bill is coming."

IATA has cautioned that passenger markets in North America are showing signs of a sudden downturn in consumer sentiment which is filtering through to airlines. As part of an update on data for April, director general Willie Walsh highlights "some signs of fragility" from consumers and businesses in the US domestic market, plus a "sharp fall" in North American premium-class bookings. Amid a global expansion in air passenger demand by RPKs of 8% in the year to April, North America grew by just 1.6%, easily the weakest of any region. Meanwhile, growth in international demand to and from North America lagged at just 5.4%, far behind the next-weakest, Europe, on 9.4%. Likewise, domestic US traffic declined 0.5% in April, making it the only region to register a decline – and this was its third consecutive month of decline. Load factor for flights within the USA came in at 80.6%, down 3.1 percentage points year on year. The only other major nation to show a fall in load factors was India, down 0.9 percentage points at 85.7%. Signs of a faltering US market contrast with data showing generally buoyant air passenger markets across the rest of the world. Growth in demand was led by Africa at 14.2%, followed by the Middle East at 11.3%, Latin America at 10.9%, Asia-Pacific at 10.6% and Europe by 8.3%. Globally, international demand was up by 10.8% and domestic demand by 3.3%. Capacity, as measured by ASKs, was lifted 6.5% year on year, and load factor reached 83.6%, up 1.1 percentage points versus April 2024. "April was a positive month for travel," states Walsh. "Growth strengthened, especially for international demand which saw record load factors for the month. The return of the transatlantic market to growth is particularly encouraging." Ahead of IATA's AGM, which will take place in Delhi on 1-3 June, Walsh declares that the growth of India's air connectivity in recent years "has been nothing short of phenomenal, making this year's gathering a timely and powerful reminder for all on how aviation connectivity drives growth and development".

US carriers United Airlines and JetBlue Airways have launched what they term a "collaboration" which will encompass an interline agreement and additional slots for United at New York JFK if it receives regulatory approval. The newly disclosed "Blue Sky" scheme would establish an interline arrangement for JetBlue flights departing New York and Boston, and for United's international flights, and would link the airlines' loyalty programmes. United and JetBlue would also offer each other's flights on their respective websites and booking apps. Under terms of the deal, New York-based JetBlue will provide to United access to JFK slots for up to seven daily round-trip flights beginning in 2027. Additionally, JetBlue and United will exchange eight flight timings at the Chicago-based carrier's Newark Liberty International hub. United stopped JFK operations after October 2015, reviving them temporarily amid the Covid crisis. The US major last operated JFK flights in October 2022. "Our employees are really excited about United's return to JFK for the longer term, and we're all looking forward to starting up flights very soon," United chief executive Scott Kirby states. JetBlue counterpart Joanna Geraghty adds: "United's global reach perfectly complements JetBlue's East Coast leisure network and significantly expands the options and benefits for TrueBlue [loyalty programme] members, no matter where in the world they are travelling." The two carriers will continue to manage and price their networks independently, including the launch of new routes, frequencies and promotions, they say, adding that some aspects of Blue Sky may start this autumn, depending on the timing of regulatory approval. During a 29 April earnings call, JetBlue president Marty St George said the carrier had been talking to multiple airlines about domestic partnerships. "We're getting very close to making an announcement," St George said at the time. He noted that the partnership under consideration would be with "a domestic airline with a larger network" than JetBlue's. A US district court judge in May 2023 had ordered JetBlue and American Airlines to terminate their "Northeast Alliance" (NEA), ruling in favour of the US Department of Justice in its lawsuit alleging a loss of competition in the northeast of the USA. Sales of NEA codeshare flights by American and JetBlue ceased in July 2023. United in May eliminated 35 round-trip flights per day from its Newark Liberty schedule in response to what Kirby labelled "failed" air traffic control technology and a "chronically understaffed" ATC workforce at that airport.