Lufthansa Group carrier ITA Airways will become part of its parent's joint venture with All Nippon Airways from the autumn of 2026. The enlarged co-operation will include ITA's daily flights to Tokyo Haneda from Rome Fiumicino, its domestic network and services to the Maghreb region, Lufthansa says. ITA currently flies to Algiers and Tunis and plans to start flights to Tripoli in September, its website indicates. Lufthansa notes that the partnership will complement ITA's existing joint venture with ANA for the Japanese carrier's flights between Haneda and Milan Malpensa. Customers of ANA, Lufthansa and its group siblings Austrian Airlines and Swiss will be able to book ITA's service on the Rome-Tokyo route and combine it with the other carriers' flights. A joint offer will roll out sequentially from autumn 2026 onward, Lufthansa says. The airlines have signed an agreement about the joint venture's enlargement at IATA's AGM in Rio de Janeiro. ANA and Lufthansa's joint venture was established in 2012. Austrian and Swiss subsequently joined the partnership. Lufthansa intends to grow its shareholding in ITA Airways to 90%, from 41% previously owned. The German airline expects the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of 2027.

All Nippon Airways is taking supply-chain issues in its stride and remains confident in the ability of the major OEMs to deliver the aircraft it needs to fulfil its growth strategy. The Japanese airline's president Juichi Hirasawa projects confidence that, given its large orderbook with Airbus, Boeing and Embraer, it has enough capacity to deliver its plan to grow international capacity 30% by the end of the 2030 fiscal year, even if some of those new aircraft are not delivered on time. "If there is a delay from Boeing or any other [manufacturer], we will delay the retirement of the current fleet so that it will not impact our operational plans," he said through a translator during a 7 June briefing at the IATA annual general meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Fleets data shows that ANA has 117 aircraft on order, including 16 Boeing 777-9s, 15 Embraer E190-E2s and 17 Airbus A321neos. More immediately, Hirasawa says the airline has still been navigating supply-chain and MRO issues, but the situation has been improving with fewer AOGs (aircraft on the ground) in its system. "There are AOGs on certain engines, but it is definitely getting better. So, we are having less AOGs at the moment, so that's one thing," he says. "If, in future, we continue to have an AOG, we have enough aircraft that can actually fly for that AOG aircraft, so we don't think that the supply chain or the AOG or engines will affect our operational plans." The carrier has in storage four A321neos powered by Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines, along with three 787s. Hirasawa says passenger demand on both international and domestic networks "is very strong for us, and we expect this to continue, and although the fuel prices are going up, so our fuel surcharge is actually going up", adding: "We don't expect this to have an impact on the demand for both domestic and international routes." He reaffirms ANA's view that fuel costs will start coming down during the second half of its fiscal year, which runs from October to March.

Airports in Venezuela will need to modernise to manage expected growth, in the view of Peter Cerda, IATA's Americas regional vice-president. "The infrastructure [in Venezuela] is sufficient with the current trend in the increase [in air transport in that country], but it is going to be a priority for our industry to make sure that Caracas and the other secondary airports continue to evolve as modern airports with the right level of technology usage [and] the right level of infrastructure," Cerda said on 6 June at the IATA annual general meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Capacity for flights to and from Venezuela in June is up 15% versus June 2025, Cirium schedules data shows. "Several airlines have already announced new flights to Venezuela from the Middle East, from North America, from parts of South America," Cerda says. On 3 January, the US Department of War disclosed that it had captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro "following a successful overnight joint US military extraction" in Caracas. Three months later, in April, American Airlines launched daily nonstop service between Miami and Caracas. The US major started operating flights to Venezuela in 1987 before suspending services in May 2019. In May, JetBlue disclosed that it intended to launch nonstop flights between Fort Lauderdale and Caracas later this year, marking its first-ever service to Venezuela. Cerda notes that IATA will be focusing first on achieving top safety ratings from the US Federal Aviation Administration and EASA for Venezuela flights, and second on putting "the right policies in place with the Venezuelan government". "[Policies are needed] so air transport [in Venezuela] can continue to grow and we can continue to invest in the right infrastructure for our airports," Cerda says. "Regardless if the airports will be concession[-based] or they remain under the government, it will still be a priority for the region."