Virgin Atlantic intends to refurbish Boeing 787s in its fleet but has yet to devise a new cabin configuration for the long-haul jets, its chief executive has disclosed. Speaking at the Airlines 2024 summit in London on 25 November, Shai Weiss said that once the UK carrier has received its remaining on-order Airbus A330neos, under a delivery schedule by 2028, "the big decision will be then what do we do with the 787 [fleet]?" Sources indicate that Virgin has 17 787-9s, 12 A350-1000s, seven A330-900s, and eight A330-300s. In July, the airline said it would receive a total of 19 A330neos and reduce its 787 fleet to 14 jets. Virgin has yet to decide whether the 787's refurbishment will bring the aircraft in line with the carrier's A350s or A330neos, Weiss says. Its A330neos are fitted with 32 Thomson Aero Seating Vantage XL business, 46 Collins Aerospace MiQ premium economy, and 184 Recaro CL3710 coach seats. The A350-1000 fleet features two layouts – one with 44 Safran-made Cirrus business seats, 56 MiQ premium economy, and 235 CL3710 coach seats on seven aircraft, and the other with 16 business, 56 premium economy, and 325 coach seats on five aircraft. Virgin's 787-9s have 31 Contour Premium business, 35 Reynard Aviation Reverb premium-economy, and 192 Recaro CL3620 coach seats. The airline opted to install on its A350s and A330neos a social space, dubbed the Loft, for customers travelling in business, rather than a bar that is available on its 787s and remaining A330ceos.

UK authorities have banned an online advert from Wizz Air that labelled the airline as one of the "greenest choices" for air travel. The Advertising Standards Agency deems this to give a "misleading impression" of the airline's environmental impact, "because the ad didn't make the basis of the comparative claim clear or provide consumers with sufficient information to be able to verify comparisons with competitors". The advert was identified by AI technology deployed by the ASA to search for publications breaking its rules, as part of a project specifically looking into environmental claims by airlines. Wizz had argued that the slogan reflected its young fleet of fuel-efficient Airbus A320-family aircraft and its investment of significant sums into sustainable aviation fuel, but this was rejected by the ASA. "The ad must not appear again in the form investigated," warns the agency. "We told Wizz Air to ensure the basis of future comparative environmental claims was made clear and did not give a misleading impression of their flights' environmental impact." The ASA has previously censured Etihad, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic for similar claims.

The UK's new transport secretary has vowed to “fix the barriers” to the expansion of the country's aviation industry, promising support for sustainable aviation fuel production, airspace reform and airport expansion. Speaking at the Airlines UK conference in London on 25 November, Louise Haigh repeatedly linked the health of the UK’s airlines to the government’s oft-stated ambition of driving economic growth, particularly in the north of the country. Coming amid preparation for a new national industrial strategy, the government believes airlines are key to facilitating exports, but Haigh also notes the importance of connectivity to the UK’s dominant service sector. She identifies the opportunity for the country to take a lead in the scaled production of SAF, which could provide vast economic change through to the middle of the century as the sector decarbonises. Airline industry body IATA estimates the transition to net zero by 2050 will cost between $3.8-$8.1 trillion. Policies to encourage SAF adoption include a mandate from next year and a coming revenue certainty mechanism for producers. “There's a very live debate around [the policy] at the moment, so we want to make sure that it's absolutely the right mechanism, that it's set at the right strike price to encourage investment here,” she says, referencing the level set for the pricing of low-carbon fuels. Echoing some of the industry speakers onstage, she states that, in her view, SAF would be indispensable for decarbonising long-haul flights, but that hydrogen could take a more prominent role for flights over shorter distances. Reaching net-zero “would not mean flying less, but flying differently”, she says. The previous government’s Jet Zero Council, which was designed to guide policy towards low-carbon flying, has been rebranded as the Jet Zero Taskforce, with a new membership and structure that will look at “very practical and solution focussed” ways to reduce carbon, meeting for the first time next week. The previous council had become “quite a large talking shop”, Haigh says, with little to show for it. Haigh also promised to “always” back the expansion of the UK’s airports, providing projects drive economic growth and are consistent with net-zero targets, a sentiment that received a boost later in the day when Thomas Woldbye, the chief executive of Heathrow airport, who disclosed that the facility was taking a renewed look at a third runway and he hoped a decision would be made by the end of 2025. Gatwick's chief executive Stewart Wingate also discussed the facility's plans to bring a second runway into everyday use, increasing capacity at the gateway. Likewise with airspace reform, Haigh noted that the UK hadn’t “seen a major upgrade since the 1950s”. A new UK airspace design service is being launched which will be “a single mind focused on delivering change”, that would not only drive decarbonisation but boosting economic growth, dovetailing with the government’s wider ambitions for the country. "Growing aviation to grow Britain, that is this government's vision," she says, continuing that: “Nobody should be under any illusion that aviation isn’t incredibly important to this department, but also to this government, because it underpins so many of our national missions.”