Air China has cited growing competition in the domestic market and “heightened uncertainties” in the international market among the factors that will drive it to report an operating loss for the year ended December 2024. The airline says in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange disclosure that its "operating quality and efficiency continued to improve", achieving a "significant reduction in losses year-on-year". "However, amid an increasingly complex and volatile operating environment, intensified competition in the domestic market, heightened uncertainties in the international market and price fluctuations in factors such as oil and exchange rates, the company remained in an operating loss position in 2024," it adds. While the operating loss was not quantified, it expects to report a net loss attributable to shareholders of approximately CNY160 million ($21.9 million) to CNY240 million for 2024, narrowing from a loss of CNY1.05 billion in 2023. The carrier anticipates net loss attributable to shareholders after deducting non-recurring profit or loss to be between CNY1.9 billion and CNY2.7 billion as compared to a loss of CNY3.18 billion in 2023.

South African Airways has added two Airbus A320s on lease from AerCap to its fleet, taking the number of its aircraft to 20 jets. Arrival of the single-aisles comes alongside a flurry of new services from the carrier as it seeks to rebuild its fleet and network after suffering from years of financial turmoil, including a long period in business rescue, a form of bankruptcy protection. These services include a new daily connection between Johannesburg and Dar es Salaam, East Africa's largest city, as well as increased frequencies to Harare and Lusaka to 12 flights per week, up from 10 and seven, respectively. Meanwhile flights to Lagos and Accra have risen from three to four times a week, and to Kinshasa five times a week. SAA launched services to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining hub Lubumbashi in November 2024. “These additional aircraft will enable SAA to continue fulfilling our promise to add seat capacity in both the domestic and regional market and thereby contributing to the affordability of passenger air travel,” says chief executive John Lamola. SAA adds that the deal with AerCap “is one proof of the recovery of the airline’s credit status with major international aviation finance institutions”. Beside A320s, SAA’s fleet comprises A330s and A340s, which it uses for relaunched intercontinental routes from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo and Perth, and from Cape Town to Sao Paulo. SAA intends to add five more aircraft to its fleet this year. “SAA’s fleet growth comes as the airline enters a phase of consolidation, increasing the frequency of flights to service an existing route network, to ensure South African leisure and business travellers enjoy more direct access to major African cities. In addition, SAA Cargo facilitates trade links between economic hubs across the continent and beyond,” Lamola says. As recently as three years ago, SAA was operating just six aircraft on a handful of routes as it sought to stem losses and fashion itself into a profitable business. In 2020 and 2021, the airline shut down operations entirely for nearly a year, only reopening having secured a government bailout, later returning to a slim operating profit of R252 million ($13.9 million) in its 2022/23 financial year.

Icelandair and Southwest Airlines have signed a strategic partnership agreement, the next step in an alliance that began in September 2024 with a memorandum of understanding. The MoU had established connections between the two airlines' networks, with Baltimore-Washington International as the first connecting airport launching in February 2025. The newly signed partnership agreement expands their co-operation by adding Nashville and Denver as connecting points. Customers will be able to travel via Baltimore, Nashville and Denver onward to Iceland and Europe, and from Iceland on Southwest's network via the three gateways.