The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing a $165,000 civil penalty against Alaska Airlines for "allegedly allowing intoxicated passengers to board flights", the FAA says. FAA regulations prohibit airlines from allowing anyone who appears to be intoxicated to board an aircraft, the agency notes. The alleged incidents occurred on 11 flights between February 2024 and February 2025. Alaska Airlines has 30 days after receiving the FAA's enforcement letter to respond to the agency. "We take seriously our responsibility to provide a safe and secure environment for our guests and employees," Alaska Airlines tells Cirium. "We participated fully with the FAA's audit of our policies and practices as it relates to intoxicated guests on board our aircraft. Since the FAA shared these concerns with us over a year ago, we made meaningful changes to ensure compliance with the FAA's expectations – including enhanced training for all flight attendants and customer service agents. "We respect the results of the FAA's audit and are confident in the changes that have been in place for the last year to ensure our shared standards are being met."

Airbus has blamed supply chain issues for a further delay in delivery of the first 'Project Sunrise'-configured A350-1000ULR to Qantas to April 2027. The airframer states that the first aircraft has entered the paint shop in Toulouse and will be progressively painted in Qantas livery over two weeks before progressing to interior and engine installation. It adds however that the aircraft will not join Qantas's fleet until April, around three months later than the late 2026 plan previously disclosed by the carrier. "The adjustment to the schedule is largely due to the impact of supply chain issues," Airbus adds. Despite that, the airframer states that preparations for the first flight of the A350-1000ULR are "at an advanced stage" and is expected to take place within the coming weeks. "This will mark the start of a two-month flight test programme focused primarily on the modified fuel system, which will enable non-stop flights of up to 22 hours," it adds. Cirium fleets data shows that Qantas has 12 of the ultra-long-range variants on order, as well as 12 standard -1000s. The ULR is designed to allow the carrier to operate nonstop flights from Australia's east coast to Europe and the US east coast in a four-class layout with 238 seats. Qantas selected the A350-1000 to meet its Project Sunrise requirement in 2022 after a competition that included the Boeing 777-8X.

Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, has voted to reverse an increase in the country's air traffic tax that came into force in May 2024. The measure, which was confirmed in November 2025 as part of the government's coalition agreement, will reverse the air traffic tax to its previous stance on 1 July. This means reductions in the per-passenger charge from €15.53 ($18) to €13.03 for short-haul flights, from €39.34 to €33.01 for medium-haul, and from €70.83 to €59.43 for long-haul. This will cost around €330 million through 2027, the government anticipates. German airlines have long complained that the country's tax system discourages air travel, with a related knock-on impact on economic competitiveness. This has been cited by several carriers as a reason to pull back capacity from the German market, which has seen one of the slowest recoveries from the pandemic in Europe. Last month, Lufthansa Group announced 20,000 cancellations from its hubs at Frankfurt and Munich, which it said was designed to save 40,000t of fuel. However, it correspondingly increased services to and from countries outside Germany. That came on top of previous heavy cuts to the carrier's domestic services announced last year. Lufthansa estimates that the cost of operating in the country had broadly doubled since 2019. "We welcome the reversal of the recent increase in air passenger duty as a commitment to Germany as an aviation hub. This is an important signal, because Germany is among the top countries in Europe in terms of the burden of government-imposed location costs," says Jens Bischof, president of German aviation association BDL. However, the industry body believes the decision must be followed by further relief measures, estimating that reversing the tax increases reduces the burden by around €2.50 per passenger. "To make Germany a competitive aviation hub in Europe again, we need relief of €15 per passenger," says the BDL.