The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has granted interim authorisation that will allow Qantas and Emirates Airline to extend their alliance as it considers whether to grant it an additional five years. “The interim authorisation commences immediately and allows the parties to continue coordinating their operations while the ACCC considers and evaluates the merits of the substantive application for authorisation,” ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey says. Authorisation for the alliance was granted in 2018 for five years, and was set to expire at the end of March. The two airlines have applied to extend it to 2028, and the ACCC expects to issue a draft authorisation in May. The interim approval allows Qantas and Emirates to jointly coordinate schedules, sales and marketing and yield management functions across their global networks until a final decision is made. Qantas has relied on the Emirates alliance to carry a large amount of traffic from Europe through its partner’s Dubai hub, which complements its own operations to London from Perth and Sydney. Networks data shows that in March Qantas is the largest international carrier from Australia as measured in ASMs, while Emirates is the second largest. By seats operated, however, Emirates is the fifth largest carrier to Australia, behind Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Jetstar and Qantas.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued to aircraft and airport operators an aviation safety call to action (SAFO) in the wake of a recent series of near-catastrophic events on runways at US airports. The FAA notes that in recent months "a number of notable and high visibility events have occurred in the National Airspace System". "While the overall numbers do not reflect an increase in incidents and occurrences, the potential severity of these events is concerning," it says. It adds that six serious runway incursions have occurred so far in 2023, including a narrowly avoided aircraft collision on 13 January at runways at New York JFK, along with another runway near miss on 4 February at Austin-Bergstrom airport. The runway events spurred officials from the FAA and other government agencies, aviation executives and labour-union representatives to convene a safety summit on 15 March in Washington DC. The SAFO recommends that aviation operators reinforce adherence to published processes and procedures, including checklists, air traffic control instructions and internal company procedures; and ensure pilots and flight attendants have the same understanding of a “sterile flight deck” and of the risks associated with extraneous communication. It further recommends that aviation operators encourage crews to follow crew resource management procedures and principles to control workload and reduce distractions; and encourage personnel to identify and report existing and emerging safety issues through voluntary reporting programmes.

The in-service fleet of Comac ARJ21s has passed the 200,000 flight hour milestone on 18 March. The Chinese manufacturer says that the type has also carried over five million passengers since entering commercial service in June 2016 with launch customer Chengdu Airlines. Data shows that there are 83 ARJ21s in service, 20 in storage and 337 on order. Chengdu Airlines is the largest operator with 23 in service, followed by Air China, China Southern Airlines and OTT Airlines, which each operate 14. The only operator of the ARJ21 outside of China is Indonesian carrier TransNusa, which recently took delivery of an aircraft leased from China Aircraft Leasing. In January, Comac received Civil Aviation Administration of China approval for a freighter conversion of the ARJ21. YTO Cargo Airlines and Longhao Airlines are the first customers for the conversion, with YTO taking delivery of the first converted freighter in December 2022.