Cathay Pacific plans to exercise purchase rights for 32 additional Airbus A321neos and A320neos that were part of an order placed in September 2017. The Oneworld carrier states in a Hong Kong stock exchange disclosure that it intends to exercise the options "on or before 30th September 2023". No details on the breakdown between the two variants Speaking during the airline's earnings call on 9 August, Cathay's chairman Patrick Healy added that the aircraft are "expected to be delivered by 2029 and will join the fleet of Cathay Pacific and HK Express". During the same call, chief operations and service delivery officer Alex McGowan clarified that deliveries of the additional aircraft would commence after mid-2025, which is when the last of its current firm orders will enter service. Chief executive Ronald Lam also confirmed that the airline has "not considered leasing" more narrowbody aircraft in the short-term, contrary to some recent media reports. Fleets data shows that Cathay has 12 A321neos in service and four more on order, while HK Express has one A321neo in service and 15 more on order. The budget carrier also has nine A320neos in service and one in storage. All of the group's A320neos and A321neos are powered by CFM International Leap-1A engines.

China will lift an outbound group travel ban to over 70 countries including Japan, South Korea, Australia, the US and the UK starting 10 August, giving a much-needed boost to the global travel industry. Travel agencies and online tour operators can immediately resume tour services for Chinese citizens, states China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The list also includes India, Turkey and Myanmar in Asia; Germany, Netherlands and Sweden in Europe; and Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela in South America. This is the third batch of countries China is relaxing group travel restrictions for, on top of the 60 countries and territories that had previously been given the green light for outbound tour groups. The country only opened its borders in January this year after three years of zero-Covid policy, before progressively lifting the ban on tour groups starting with 20 countries in February, and 40 more in March. Prior to the pandemic, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the US were among top destinations for Chinese travelers. However, these countries were ostensibly missing from previous batches of destinations pegged for the resumption of group travel amid geopolitical tensions. Meanwhile, aviation recovery in the world's second-largest economy has been uneven, with the domestic sector almost back to pre-Covid levels, as international flights lag behind. China’s international ASKs for its top three carriers in July were still down more than 50% from before the pandemic,

Australia's Alliance Aviation Services reported a 25% lift in underlying profit before tax to A$56.9 million ($37.2 million) for the year ended 30 June as it boosted the wet-lease operations of its Embraer 190-E1 fleet. Revenue for the year increased 40% compared to the 2022 fiscal year to A$517 million, mostly driven by a near-tripling of wet-lease revenue. Contract charter revenue was also higher, while ad hoc charter and scheduled services registered declines. Net profit after tax came in at A$36.5 million, reversing a A$5.2 million loss from the prior period. Alliance ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of A$22.3 million, up from A$20.9 million at the start of the year. “During the second half of the 2023 financial year we started to realise substantial financial return from the multi-year investment in the E190 fleet and related additional resources," says managing director Scott McMillan. Fleets data shows that Alliance operates 28 E190s, 23 Fokker 100s and 11 F70s, while it has two more E190s and three F70s in storage. The other E190s have been leased to Air North. In February the carrier announced it was purchasing 30 more E190s from AerCap that will be delivered between September 2023 and March 2026, up to 11 of which will be disassembled for parts. It also subsequently announced a deal to buy four more E190s from Azorra Aviation that will enter service between November 2023 and March 2024. McMillan says that the company is placing a greater focus on wet-leases, with a move away from ad hoc charters to a "contracted revenue model" of wet-leasing. Most of the airline's wet-lease work is conducted for Qantas, for which it has deployed 22 of its E190s. The Oneworld carrier has options to increase this to up to 30 aircraft. Alliance is also eyeing further organic growth from its contract charter work in the resources industry, with the addition of two new clients during the second half and "margin increases on contracts renewed during the year".