Loganair plans to open its 10th base at Southampton airport, operated by two ATR 72-600s. The UK regional carrier says that the first aircraft will arrive in October. The base will increase the number of seats available by over 140,000 per year, it adds. On 26 October, Loganair plans to launch flights from Southampton to Manchester and from Manchester to Exeter. "We are delighted to be announcing a new base in Southampton, which is a logical and important strategic step for the UK's largest regional airline," states Loganair chief executive Luke Farajallah. "Loganair is very familiar with operations to and from the South Coast, and we feel confident the local market will respond well to our more permanent presence and new routes through the basing of two aircraft later this year."

IATA will be forced to revisit its target of achieving net zero by 2050 because of the insufficient progress in developing key technologies to reach that goal, the airline association's director general Willie Walsh has warned. Speaking onstage at the ISTAT Americas conference in Phoenix on 3 March, Walsh said: "I think we're going to have to revisit it [the 2050 target] because we're not making as strong and fast progress on things like sustainable aviation fuel [SAF} as we had hoped." He adds: "When you look at the journey to net zero 2050, the most significant contribution to that will be through sustainable aviation fuel, because we're not going to see a major technological change between now and 2050 that will address the challenge." Walsh has previously defended the sector's 2050 target, emphasising SAF as a key driver for airlines to reach it, but he now foresees that there will be a "re-evaluation, certainly". There will, he suspects, be airlines who say "We don't think we do this", which could lead the sector to becoming "a bit more fragmented". Airlines that committed to getting to 10% SAF usage by 2030 "probably regret making that commitment", he posits. He says he was "pleased" to hear that Airbus was postponing the service entry of its proposed hydrogen-powered zero-emissions aircraft beyond a 2035 target, because keeping to that timeframe was "never going to happen", in his view. The sector will "probably have to acknowledge" that having a hydrogen-powered commercial narrowbody in service by 2035 is "not going to happen" either, he adds. The change of administration in the USA will likely "slow down" the drive for sustainability, Walsh observes, adding that the country had been leading the way in terms of investment in biofuels and SAF. Walsh also highlights concerns over the transition cost to net zero, and suggests that European politicians have portrayed the transition as coming at "no cost to the consumer". "Which is a lie," he adds. "It's a massive cost to the consumer... The consumer is going to have to pay. Now, the question is how much of the bill gets paid by the consumer and how much is going to be borne by the government."

AELF has acquired an Airbus A330-300 on lease from South African Airways (SAA). In a LinkedIn post, the lessor announced the deal to buy the widebody (MSN 1754) at the ISTAT Americas conference and says it was arranged by Arena Aviation Capital. Fleets data shows that the jet, which is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 772 engines, was previously managed by Aergo Capital. The 2016-build aircraft was originally operated by SAA, but was returned in 2020 and briefly operated between February 2022 and August 2023 with Airhub Airlines before returning to operations with the South African carrier in February 2024.