Airbus booked orders for 11 A350-900s in July, while three orders for the long-haul twinjet were deleted from the manufacturer's backlog. Data from the European airframer shows that it received two orders from undisclosed customers, on 11 and 31 July, for four and six A350-900s respectively. Iberia meanwhile added a single A350-900 order, bringing its backlog for the model to four aircraft. The Spanish carrier has so far received 17 A350-900s from the airframe. The cancellation of three A350-900 orders has reduced Airbus's number of customers for the type to 55, from 56 in June. The customer that cancelled the order was not yet an A350 operator. Beyond widebodies, Airbus received an order from Turkish carrier Pegasus for 36 A321neos, while Icelandair finalised an order for 13 A321XLRs. Single-aisle deliveries in July comprised 54 aircraft: 31 A321neos, 17 A320neos, one A319neo (for Tibet Airlines) and five A220-300s. Airbus had delivered 63 single-aisles in June. From its widebody lines, the manufacturer delivered five A350-900s, three A350-1000s and three A330-900s in July. Cathay Pacific, China Eastern Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Volaris each received an A350-900, while British Airways and Qatar Airways took delivery of one and two A350-1000s, respectively. The A330neos were handed over to China Eastern, Condor and Italian carrier ITA Airways. Airbus had delivered nine widebodies in June. The manufacturer's total commercial aircraft deliveries in 2023 stood at 381 at the end of July.

Air New Zealand has opened an expression of interest to airports in the country to support its plans to operate demonstrator hydrogen, hybrid or battery powered commercial aircraft from 2026. The EoI sets out the operational requirements that need to be considered including factors such as range. "The two airports selected will play a critical role in introducing lower-emissions aircraft into the Aotearoa aviation system," states Air New Zealand chief sustainability officer Kiri Hannifin. "Over the next few years as Air New Zealand works towards its ambition of flying next generation aircraft on our domestic network from 2030, we will be focused on supporting the building, testing, and certifying of aircraft and associated infrastructure. The airline adds that the announcement is expected by early 2024 on which type of lower emission commercial demonstrator aircraft will be flying from 2026, which will initially operate as a cargo-only service. In December Air New Zealand identified the Eviation Alice, VoltAero Cassio, Beta Alia and Cranfield Aerospace Islander as the aircraft that were in the running to take part in the demonstration.

Wizz Air is pulling back on its expansion plans through the peak summer season because of issues with Pratt and Whitney PW1100G engines that power much of its fleet. Required inspections on the equipment mean that 12 engines representing six aircraft will be removed from service by the end of September as part of a first tranche of checks, amounting to around 3% of capacity. Across the first half, which runs to end-September, this will moderate capacity growth from 30% to 25%, although the full extent of the impact remains unclear. "We don't know how long [it will take] to recover the engines wing to wing," said chief executive Jozsef Varadi during a financial results briefing on 3 August. He describes the problems as a "disturbing factor". P&W parent Raytheon Technologies disclosed during its second-quarter results on 25 July that a manufacturing defect would necessitate an accelerated inspection regime for PW1100G engines produced between 2015 and 2020. The type is an option for Airbus A320neo-family aircraft that make up the bulk of Wizz's fleet. But inspections could involve a far greater proportion of Wizz’s capacity as the OEM expands its scrutiny of equipment produced in the latter portion of the timeframe, the carrier warns. The second tranche covers around 1000 engines globally, Varadi says, although again details on the precise impact of the inspections are thin. "We don't know how many engines of ours are affected, we don't know the scope, we don't know the execution," he explains. As Wizz is P&W's largest customer for these engines, he speculates the OEM could provide them with expediated treatment and "a very high compensation from the manufacturer". The removal of capacity will also, he adds, enable Wizz to bolster yields as it focusses on the most profitable routes. Yet, this cannot conceal that the inspections introduce significant uncertainty into the medium-term plans for the carrier's expansion that will feed into its performance. As a result, Wizz warns that its guidance of 30% higher available seat kilometres (ASKs) against last year for the second half "remains subject to further communication from OEM on this matter". The news comes alongside a generally upbeat set of results with Wizz posting a €61 million ($67 million) net profit for the quarter to end-June, moderately beating market expectations. Load factor rose by 5.7 percentage points to 91.2% and costs fell on last year led by a return of the airline's fuel hedging programme that was hastily brought back last year amid surging kerosine prices. That saw expenditure for fuel per ASK decline by nearly a third and total unit costs slip by 6.3%. At the same time, limited market capacity drove up ticket prices and yields, with revenues rising to €1.2 billion from €808 million last year. Management is also positive on trading conditions going forward, with Varadi commenting: "We continue to observe positive trading in the second quarter with [revenue per available seat kilometre] trending higher year-on-year on the back of low double-digit percentage increased ticket revenue and a higher load factor, compared to the same period last year, expected to build up to 94%." Wizz retains a net-profit guidance of €350-450 million for the full year.