Emirates plans to continue its scheduled operations to London Heathrow despite being ordered to cut its services as part of the airport's plans to limit capacity over the summer. The Middle Eastern carrier currently operates six daily A380 services to Heathrow, but was informed by the airport on 12 July that it would have to slash this in order to comply with a 100,000-passenger limit. It says that as well as being given just 36h to comply, it was told which specific services to cancel and warned of legal action in the event of non-compliance. Emirates also complains that the passenger limit appears to be "plucked from thin air". "This is entirely unreasonable and unacceptable, and we reject these demands," states Emirates. In an open letter to passengers published on 12 July, Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye sought to justify the cap by saying new employees were "not yet up to full speed" and the airport was "still significantly under-resourced" in certain critical areas, particularly ground handling. This led to "periods when service drops to a level that is not acceptable", wrote Holland-Kaye. In a bid to reduce queues, delays and last-minute cancellations, Heathrow announced a capacity cap of 100,000 departing passengers a day from 12 July until 11 September – 4,000 fewer than the forecast daily average over the summer and a more-than-50% cut against pre-pandemic levels. Emirates asserts that its ground handling and catering unit Dnata is fully capable of handling the carrier's capacity, meaning that any delivery problems would sit with Heathrow itself. The airline adds that, having operated its current schedule since October, "our operational requirements cannot be a surprise to the airport". Compliance with Heathrow's demands would cause huge disruption for passengers, Emirates argues, given the impossibility of placing them on alternative services amid high load factors, including at alternative airlines and airports. Moreover, the airline is unable to move its operations to other London airports at such short notice. Heathrow's management team is accused by the airline of being "cavalier about travellers and their airline customers". It adds: "All the signals of a strong travel rebound were there, and for months, Emirates has been publicly vocal about the matter... LHR chose not to act, not to plan, not invest. "Now faced with an 'airmageddon' situation due to their incompetence and non-action, they are pushing entire burden – of costs and the scramble to sort the mess – to airlines and travellers." Emirates says it welcomes the action of the UK's Department of Transport and Civil Aviation Authority to seek information from Heathrow on its response plans and systems resilience, and the rationale for its 100,000 cap. "Until further notice, Emirates plans to operate as scheduled to and from LHR," adds the airline. Heathrow has been approached for comment.

The US Department of Transportation has issued a show-cause order that tentatively allocates thrice-weekly frequencies both to Delta Air Lines for its proposed service between Atlanta and Cape Town and to United Airlines for a route from Washington DC to the South African city. Delta is seeking to operate its Cape Town service using 306-seat Airbus A350-900s, the DOT order indicates, while United will use 257-seat Boeing 787-9s. The DOT had previously intended to allocate four US-South Africa frequencies between Delta and United. The two US majors filed supplements to their applications and further responsive pleadings, arguing that thrice-weekly proposals would better serve the public interest, and the DOT asked South African regulators for two additional frequencies to accommodate increased demand. South African regulators on 22 June told the DOT that the two extra frequencies would be granted upon certain conditions being met. The two frequencies would be added to a total of 21 in the current bilateral agreement. The DOT says it is "separately addressing" South African regulators' concerns, and that it has "received assurances from the government of South Africa that two extra frequencies shall be considered as espoused in [their current] agreement". United's president Brett Hart states: "We extend our sincere gratitude to the Department of Transportation, as well as the numerous government and community leaders, airports, customers and employees who supported this application, for recognising the tremendous benefits to tourism, commerce and diplomacy that a direct link between Cape Town and Washington DC provides. These new direct flights will promote competition and provide affordable and consistent service to Africa for US travellers." Data dating back to August 2003 shows no airlines operating a nonstop DC-Cape Town route in that period. South African Airways operated a nonstop Atlanta-Cape Town route for eight months beginning in October 2003. United currently flies between Newark and Johannesburg. Delta serves the same South African city from Atlanta.

American Airlines has received a Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation-certified (CORSIA) batch of sustainable aviation fuel at San Francisco International airport. Finnish energy firm Neste delivered the batch of MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel as part of a pilot programme to certify SAF as a CORSIA-eligible fuel that can be used by an airline to meet its emissions obligation under CORSIA, the carrier says. ICAO's CORSIA is a carbon-offset and carbon-reduction scheme to lower CO2 emissions for international flights, helping to curb the aviation impact on climate change. Until now, no airline in the world has taken delivery of CORSIA-certified SAF, according to American Airlines. Compliance with the CORSIA sustainability criteria requires an independent attestation by an ICAO-approved Sustainability Certification Scheme (SCS), it adds.