Freight airline DHL Express has agreed to buy 668 million litres of SAF using sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc) over seven years from US-based producer World Energy. The SAFc contract will enable DHL Express to offer customers the option to buy SAF via their Go Green Plus service without the need for the physical product to be used on their flights, which saves the expensive and carbon-intensive task of shipping it around. It allows corporate buyers to pay the premium for SAF, enabling them to claim the Scope 3 carbon reductions on emissions connected to their supply chains, while DHL Express can also count it as an absolute reduction of their CO2 output from core operations – a Scope 1 saving. “This helps make SAFc the most efficient way to decarbonise aviation,” says World Fuels. The physically-produced SAF will be supplied to airports in the Los Angeles area, close to World Energy’s California production facility. DHL Express and World Fuels describe the deal as the one of the longest and largest SAFc agreements in the aviation industry to date, that is expected to save around 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 over the aviation fuel cycle. That is the equivalent of DHL Express’s 77,000 annual aircraft movements in the Americas for a year.

Hyundai Motor Group's advanced air mobility unit Supernal has partnered with Korean Air to accelerate the development of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in Korea. The deal was signed on 16 October at the Seoul ADEX aerospace and defence exposition, and will see the two companies exchange technical data, participate in workshops, and jointly test Supernal's infrastructure networks. KAL will provide input on market requirements and aircraft specifications. The partnership is significant due to Korea's plans to leverage 5G and LTE mobile communication capabilities to share information among pilots, as well as creating dedicated AAM corridors that will separate those vehicles from other low-level airspace users like helicopters. Supernal says it plans to develop a comprehensive global AAM ecosystem that includes aftermarket products and services supporting eVTOL vehicles after purchase. US-based Supernal aims to begin flights with an eVTOL demonstrator in 2024 and to certificate its eVTOL in time to launch revenue passenger flights in the USA by 2028.

Air France has disclosed that is withdrawing from Paris Orly airport following a “structural fall” in demand within the carrier's domestic point-to-point network. The airline's Orly operations will be switched to Paris Charles de Gaulle by summer 2026, with the exception of a public service obligation (PSO) connection to Corsica which will continue to be operated from Orly. Transavia, Air France-KLM's low-cost unit, will step up operations to become the group's "reference operator" at Orly, adding Toulouse, Marseille and Nice to its network from summer 2026, destinations currently served by Air France from the Parisian gateway. It is unclear whether Transavia will directly take over Air France's vacated slots. "Transavia would stay the course of its development, namely thanks to its growing fleet of new Airbus A320neo-family aircraft," says Air France. The airline attributes its pullback from Orly to a rise in videoconferencing, a fall in domestic business travel, and a shift towards greater rail use. Between 2019 and 2023, domestic traffic out of Orly fell 40%, rising to a 60% decline for day return trips. "The initiative as a whole would help Air France maintain a strong brand presence in all the markets it serves, and be more responsive to rapidly changing travel demand," adds the carrier. "It would optimise the use of each airline's resources, make the offer clearer for customers and improve Air France's competitiveness." As the changes are introduced, Air France will increase its services from CDG to Toulouse, Marseille, Nice, Pointe-a-Pitre, Fort-de-France and Saint-Denis de La Reunion, bolstering its international connections and improving its links to France's regions and overseas territories. Once complete, Air France-KLM's capacity between Paris and Toulouse, Marseille and Nice will stand at 90% of its current level, and at 100% for routes between Paris and France's overseas territories. The carrier is talking with unions about the plans, which it says will have a limited impact on staff, with no forced dismissals. Data shows that Air France currently serves 14 destinations from Orly, seven of them domestic, four African and three Latin American. The airline accounts for 11% of the airport's seats and ASKs this month. Transavia France operates to 105 destinations from Orly, accounting to 34% of Orly's seats and 27% of its available seat-kilometres. Earlier this year, France enacted a domestic flight ban on routes of 2.5h or less where a viable rail or bus option exists. However, analysis by IATA indicated that this applied to only three routes – all from Orly – amounting to 0.3% of the country's airline emissions.