Etihad Engineering has completed its first post-Covid Airbus A380 heavy check for its parent carrier, which is preparing to return the type to service. The Middle Eastern maintenance provider shared that it has delivered the first A380 (registered A6-APG) back to Etihad Airways after a six-year check, and begun work on a second (A6-APH). Fleets data shows that a third (A6-API) returned to Etihad's Abu Dhabi base on 17 July, following a two-month visit to Chinese city Xiamen, where Hong Kong-based MRO provider HAECO has a facility. A fourth (A6-APJ) is still in Xiamen. Etihad Airways has been contacted for comment. In December 2022, the carrier disclosed a plan to reactivate four of its 10 A380s from this year's summer season. The fleet had been placed in storage amid the pandemic in 2020. A6-APG and A6-API are scheduled to re-enter service with Etihad on 25 July. A6-APH and A6-APJ will follow suit in September and November, respectively. The four reactivated aircraft – all built in 2016-17 – are Etihad's youngest A380s. The first in the Engine Alliance GP7200-powered fleet was delivered to the carrier in 2014. A6-APG and A6-APH are managed by Natixis Transport Finance, and their leases are scheduled to expire in 2029. All the other A380s in Etihad's fleet are owned by the carrier. Etihad Engineering says the check on A6-APG included rear-spar and frame modifications, off-wing inspections of all four engines, component maintenance, and removal and servicing of the aircraft's entire cabin interior featuring 405 economy, 70 business and nine first-class seats plus two private compartments dubbed "The Residence". The aircraft arrived in Abu Dhabi in March, having been taken out of storage at Spanish airport Teruel in January and subsequently ferried to Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees in France. A6-APH was removed from storage in Teruel in May and arrived in Abu Dhabi from Tarbes in June. A6-API exited storage in Tarbes in May and was ferried to Xiamen, while A6-APJ was in storage at Teruel until earlier this month. "The Etihad Engineering team has built formidable experience and expertise over the years on the A380 platform," states senior vice-president airframe services Haytham Nasir, citing the MRO provider's track record of having carried out "the world's first 12-year check on an A380, as well as complex structural modifications, landing-gear changes, cabin refurbishment and numerous heavy maintenance programmes for customers from Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and the Far East". Etihad Engineering is a partner of Airbus for A380 support.

Airbus and South American carrier LATAM Airlines Group have co-operated on a sustainable aviation fuel-powered delivery flight of an A320neo from the airframer's base in Toulouse, France to Fortaleza, Brazil. The flight's fuel supply was 30% SAF produced from cooking oil, LATAM notes. LATAM expects to have 31 A320neo-family aircraft in operation by the end of 2023, and more than 100 in operation by the end of this decade. The aircraft type is a centrepiece of the group's sustainability objectives. "[The delivery flight] is a joint effort between LATAM and Airbus and represents one of our most concrete advances in the group's agenda regarding the use of SAF," states LATAM's finance chief Ramiro Alfonsín. He adds: "Today the amounts of SAF available worldwide are very limited, and access to this type of fuel in South America continues to be one of the great challenges facing the decarbonisation of the industry."

Morocco's Royal Air Maroc plans to increase its fleet size from around 50 aircraft to 200 by 2037, as part of an agreement with the national government. An "investment programme par excellence" signed by Royal Air Maroc chief executive Hamid Addou and Moroccan Prime minster Aziz Akhannouch on 12 July is intended to enable the airline to "play its full role on the African continent" and support the national tourism strategy, says the government. Addou expects that the contract will give the airline "a new lease of life, a new ambition and a new direction". He adds: "This is a historic day for RAM and a very important moment in the history of this airline, which was created 65 years ago." Annual monitoring will be carried out to ascertain the project's progress of this project. The contract is part of the government's support for its 2023-26 strategic roadmap to bolster tourism numbers and earnings, which it predicts will lead to the creation of 80,000 direct and 120,000 indirect jobs.