The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has advised that it will further delay announcing the preliminary outcome of its review into Qantas’s planned acquisition of Alliance Airlines until 20 April. Alliance confirmed the delay in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange on 20 March, the same date that the ACCC was planning to release its findings. Qantas already holds a 19.9% stake in Brisbane-based charter specialist Alliance, and in May 2022 reached an agreement to acquire the remainder of the carrier. That triggered an informal review by the ACCC, which subsequently expressed concern that the acquisition would lessen competition among providers of charter services in Australia, especially for resource industry fly-in, fly-out operations. It has subsequently delayed a decision from September 2022 several times to allow the parties to provide more information. Alliance competes in the charter market with Qantas’s Network Aviation subsidiary and other carriers such as National Jet Express, which was recently acquired by a joint venture led by Rex Airlines. Despite the competition with Qantas, Alliance also provides wet-lease capacity to the Oneworld carrier, which was recently extended and expanded to potentially cover up to 30 Embraer E190s. Further complicating matters, Alliance has a charter alliance agreement with Virgin Australia Regional Airlines under which both carriers jointly bid and contract with corporate customers. The ACCC first authorised the charter agreement in 2017, which was recently extended through an interim order, however the regulator has indicated that it is likely to block further extensions.

LATAM Airlines Group carried around 5.22 million passengers across its network in February, up 19% compared with the same month last year. Capacity, as measured in available seat-kilometres, increased by 25% year on year, while revenue passenger-kilometres grew by 29%, the Chile-based group says. Passenger load factor gained 2.1 percentage points year on year to 82%. Cargo capacity, as measured in available freight tonne-kilometres, was up by 19% year on year, while revenue freight tonne-kilometres increased by 2%. Cargo load factor fell by 8.7 percentage points to 53%. The group plans to start daily flights from Sao Paulo Guarulhos to Passo Fundo in Brazil and from Bogota to Riohacha in Colombia on 28 March. Meanwhile, LATAM's cargo unit has taken delivery of its 17th aircraft, a Boeing 767-300 converted freighter.

Air France has outlined plans to return to 2019 levels of summer capacity, citing indications of "strong customer demand".
The carrier plans to operate to 191 destinations across 89 countries, launching new routes to Dar Es Salaam and Ottawa from Paris, and Belem in Brazil from Cayenne in French Guiana. It is also continuing its rollout of new long-haul cabins which form the "cornerstone of the airline’s new travel experience", it says. The new product is being installed on 12 Boeing 777-300s and is already available on routes to New York, Dakar and Rio de Janeiro. Johannesburg joins the list later in March. "Strong travel demand combined with the lifting of the last remaining travel restrictions means the airline will be operating at 2019 levels," it says. "The summer season of 2023 will mark a turning point in Air France's long-haul flight schedule." Following the reopening of China, Air France will return to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, gradually increasing its operations through the spring to reach one daily flight per destination by 1 July. The carrier will also bolster services to Tokyo, offering up to 11 weekly flights to the city. It will also grow services to North America "in response to dynamic demand in the region", operating up to 180 flights a week to 14 US destinations plus 50 to five Canadian cities. This includes a resumption of services to Quebec City on 2 May and Ottawa flights from 27 May. "Air France will be the only airline operating direct flights between Ottawa and Europe, and this summer will become the leading European air carrier in terms of capacity connecting Europe and Canada," it notes. In short and medium-haul markets, the carrier will fly up to 650 times a day to 106 French and European destinations. Low-cost affiliate Transavia France, will operate close to 200 short- and medium-haul routes to 120 destinations. "This will make it the top low-cost airline operating out of Paris' airports," adds Air France.