Lao Airlines has received its first Comac C909 which is expected to serve on its domestic routes initially. The aircraft, bearing registration RDPL-34229, was handed over at Comac’s delivery centre on 30 March and ferried to Vientiane from Shanghai Pudong the next day, states the carrier. The 90-seat all-economy configured aircraft is on lease to the carrier and “will enter into route operation after a series of preparatory work is completed in Laos,” adds Comac in a separate announcement. Lao’s civil aviation authority issued on 18 March an Aircraft Type Acceptance Certificate for C909, Comac reveals, "indicating that the aircraft has met the basic conditions for commercial operation in Laos". At the same time, the Chinese airframer has set up a “special team to assist Lao Airlines with preparatory tasks” and has dispatched a “support team of professionals from the flight, cabin crew, operation control, maintenance, and other areas to fully ensure the safe and efficient operation of the C909 aircraft in Laos”. “At present, Lao Airlines is expanding its capacity and renewing its fleet. Leasing the C909 aircraft will help the airline supplement its capacity and upgrade its fleet to meet the growing development needs of the air travel market in Laos,” states Comac. Lao Airlines has a fleet of four Airbus A320ceos, seven ATR 72s, a Russian Helicopters Mi-8 and a Mi-17.

Iberia has entered a codesharing arrangement with Aerolineas Argentinas. The IAG-owned Spanish carrier says the partnerships will enable customers to connect their transatlantic flights with more than 37 destinations within Argentina and 29 within Spain. "From now on, the more than 2,000 people we transport daily in the three daily operations we have between Buenos Aires and Madrid will have at their disposal a complete domestic connectivity network to move comfortably and efficiently through the wonderful country that is Argentina," states Iberia chief executive Marco Sansavini.

Airlines will not likely be able to meet the EU's 6% sustainable aviation fuel mandate by 2030 because of a lack of SAF production capacity and recent shift by oil producers away from renewable energy activities, lobby group Airlines for Europe (A4E) has warned. Speaking at the A4E Aviation Summit in Brussels on 27 March, IAG chief executive Luis Gallego complained of what he sees as the slow progress of growing SAF production capacity. Noting previous discussions about the role of SAF in decarbonising aviation, he says: "The challenge then and today is the same: we don't have enough SAF, and the SAF that we have is too expensive. "We are committed to reducing emissions. But we also need to continue being a business, affordable and accessible for everyone.” Gallego cites a new Boston Consulting Group study which predicts that SAF supply will fall 30% short of the 2030 target, while sustainably refined synthetic fuels, or eSAF, will fall 45% short of its target. This, Gallego asserts, "is in line with what oil producers are saying". He notes that later this year the EU Commission is due to release a sustainable transport investment plan which is likely to include measures aimed at increasing SAF production. But he adds that airlines will need from the commission extensions of SAF allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System beyond 2030 "to provide long-term certainty". "Unless we have new measures in place, there will not be enough SAF by 2030 and the [EU] mandate will have to be delayed." Ryanair Group chief Michael O'Leary, also speaking at the A4E summit, highlights that major oil companies are the only feasible suppliers of meaningful SAF volumes. But with the shift in approach by the US administration of Donald Trump, he adds, most oil companies have moved their focus back to fossil fuel production. "This is the way the industry is moving for certainly the next four years," O’Leary opines. He asserts that airlines are still committed to the net-zero emission target by 2050 and "would like to meet" the EU’s 6% SAF mandate by 2030. "But if the supply isn't there," he adds, "it's not a cost issue, it's a supply issue." O'Leary warns that the EU's objective of growing SAF production will be increasingly challenged over the next three of four years as governments need to boost economic performance while having to rapidly grow defence spending. Lufthansa Group chief Carsten Spohr, another A4E participant, argues that slow progress on decarbonising aviation is a logical result of the sector's particular circumstances. "Decarbonising aviation is one of the most expensive ways to decarbonise," he says. "It's so much less expensive to decarbonise concrete production, heating of buildings [and] ground transport. So, with limited funds – now money [moves] towards defence [and] investments – I think we will see increased openness, I call it honesty of discussion, why these targets are probably not realistic targets. But nobody dares to say it."