Airlines will "inevitably" have to reflect increased jet fuel costs in their ticket prices, but continued strong demand for air travel gives rise to a "positive outlook for the industry at the moment", in the view of IATA director general Willie Walsh.
During an online media briefing on 7 September, as IATA released global passenger and cargo figures for July, Walsh said the crack spread between the price of jet fuel and the price of crude oil was "at levels I don't ever recall seeing before". Jet fuel prices remain "very elevated", and this "ultimately gets reflected in ticket prices", he notes. However, airlines are continuing to see strong forward bookings, with many "generating good cash balances as we go through this period". IATA's forecast for global passenger traffic to return to 2019 levels in 2024 remains unchanged, with the USA predicted to reach pre-pandemic numbers in 2023 and China not until 2025. In July, global passenger traffic was up 59% compared with the same month in 2021, IATA figures show. It has now reached almost 75% of pre-crisis levels. Domestic traffic was up 4.1% year-on-year in July while international traffic rose by more than 150%. "Domestic markets are steadying and international markets are accelerating," says Walsh, adding that he expects this to continue into August and September. Global air-cargo demand in July was down 9.7% compared with July 2021, and was 3.5% lower than the same month in 2019. Cargo capacity was 3.6% above July 2021 and 7.8% below July 2019 levels. There was a strong domestic recovery in China and a "very strong performance" in Latin America, says Walsh, but the ongoing war in Ukraine "has taken lots of capacity out of the European market". Cargo capacity in the belly of passenger flights is "coming back", he notes, and will "probably get back to normal in late 2023", as the supply of widebodies starts to normalise. Walsh says dedicated freighters from OEMs "make a lot of sense", but he expresses "a little bit of doubt" on the passenger-to-freighter conversion market because he says these aircraft offer less capacity. "There's an important market for freighters but it's not a market every passenger airline will want to dip its toe into," says Walsh. For instance, he "can't see British Airways looking at dedicated freighters again". On the passenger side, the operational challenges seen at airports during the summer are "coming under control", and the situation is set to improve throughout the rest of this year as staffing levels improve, Walsh believes. However, he singles out London Heathrow and says the UK airport is continuing to struggle. "While Heathrow blames airlines, clearly the problem lies with Heathrow," says Walsh, describing passenger security lines at the airport in July as "abysmal". "More honesty is required before we can fix the problem," he adds.

Budget carriers Ryanair and Wizz Air have rapidly moved to grab market share in Romania following the sudden suspension of services by local operator Blue Air. The carrier cancelled all services for a week from 6 September, local media outlets have reported, after its accounts were seized by the environment ministry for non-payment of a fine. Ryanair promptly announced it would launch "rescue fares" to the country, on routes from Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Sibiu, Suceava and Timisoara in Romania and from Turin in Italy. Eastern Europe-focused Wizz Air announced a "major expansion" in Romania alongside its own rescue fares for Blue Air passengers, basing five more Airbus A321s in Bucharest and offering additional services to Bacau, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi and Sibiu. "As part of this growth, the airline will also launch new routes from Bucharest to Athens, Prague and Larnaca, and will increase frequencies on over 30 existing routes," says Wizz. The new aircraft will join its Romanian fleet from the start of October, bringing its Bucharest-based fleet to 17 and delivering an additional 2.6 million seats. It will also, the carrier asserts, make Wizz the largest operator from the city, as well as from several other Romanian cities. The Romanian government says the suspension of Blue Air's services leaves around 3,000 travellers unable to return to the country, and has instructed local carrier Tarom to operate repatriation flights. Data shows that Blue Air leases 12 of its 18 Boeing 737s from Air Lease Corporation and one from Pearl Aircraft Corporation. The fleet includes five Max 8s, and the carrier has another four on order. All are being leased from ALC.

Globus, a subsidiary of S7 Group, has secured approval from the Russian government to return two Boeing 737 Max jets to their lessors. A government order published on 27 August gives Globus permission to export the two aircraft to Turkey by 31 December. One of the aircraft (MSN 43302) is leased from Air Lease Corporation and the other (MSN 44297) from another US lessor, Aviation Capital Group, data shows. Both jets were operated by S7 Airlines and are now in an unconfirmed location in Turkey, the data indicates. They were the only two Max jets operated by S7.