US airlines have asked the Federal Aviation Administration to extend through 28 October its limited waiver of minimum slot-usage requirements at the New York area's JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports and at Washington National. The FAA issued the notice on 22 March in order to give carriers "the ability to reduce operations during the peak summer travel period, which are likely to be exacerbated by the effects of air traffic controller (ATC) staffing shortfalls". The waiver is set to end 15 September. United Airlines, which operates a hub at Newark, cut back its schedule of flights connecting with New York area airports during the summer to ease the burden on understaffed ATC systems. The Chicago-based carrier also reduced summer frequencies at Washington National. US carriers have made the request for an extension via their trade group Airlines for America (A4A), which on 7 August sent a letter to the FAA. "The FAA's 'staffing related relief' notice acknowledged that the relief was granted based on post-pandemic effects of air traffic controller staffing at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility (N90) being 54% staffed," A4A writes in the letter. "The FAA has observed that unless carriers reduced their flight schedules, this staffing challenge would likely cause operational disruption until responsibility for the Newark airspace sector was moved to the Philadelphia TRACON." A4A notes in the letter that since the issuance of the waiver in March, responsibility for the Newark airspace sector has not been transferred to Philadelphia, and that staffing levels at N90 have not been meaningful improved. "Accordingly, in order to maintain operational integrity as FAA staffing shortages persist, we request that the FAA extend the notice through the end of the full Summer IATA Season [28 October]." A4A member airlines include United, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Atlas Air, FedEx Express, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and UPS.

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,