Air France and Airbus intend to establish a jointly owned subsidiary to provide component maintenance for A350 operators, which is scheduled to begin services during the first half of 2024 The 50:50 partnership will facilitate equipment repairs, supply chain management and an international component pool, the two companies say, noting that both shareholders will transfer components to the pool. "We will be able to better respond to the needs of the market, and to guarantee the satisfaction of our customers over the long term, with support solutions that are always responsive, of high quality and at the right price," states Air France-KLM executive vice-president engineering and maintenance Anne Brachet. Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance jointly operate with Boeing component services for 737s and 777s. Airbus has delivered around 550 aircraft of its order book of more than 1,000 A350s, Air France-KLM and Airbus note. Establishment of the planned aftermarket joint venture is subject to regulatory approval.

Turkish Airlines has agreed to purchase a total of 10 Airbus A350-900s, in line with its growth targets. The aircraft are expected to be delivered annually between 2025 and 2027, the carrier states a public disclosure. Fleets data shows Turkish Airlines has an in-service and stored fleet of 378 aircraft, including 14 A350-900s. It already has order for another 12 examples and five on option.

Ryanair Group has revealed that it was forced to axe 350 services to or from the UK on 28 and 29 August because of an air traffic control outage, which affected 63,000 passengers. The disruption to the UK’s NATS, which the airspace manager blames on a faulty data point submitted by an airline which crashed the system, “has still not been explained,” comments Ryanair. In late August Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said that the outage was “not acceptable” and criticised the inability of the organisation’s backup system to take over the running of UK airspace. Ryanair also revealed that passenger numbers in August were up 11% to 18.9 million, making it the busiest month in the airline’s history. Load factor was unchanged on last year at 96%. Rolling 12-month passenger figures stand at 177.4 million passengers through August, up by a fifth on 2022.