South African Airways has received approval from South Africa's finance and public enterprise ministers to lease five Airbus A320s and one A330, allowing it to relaunch some international routes and increase seat capacity on its regional and domestic network from September. Interim chief executive John Lamola says that the carrier will take delivery of the six aircraft by the end of the year. Currently a request for proposals is out for four A320 narrowbodies. The other two - an A330 and A320 have already been secured from the lessor community on the same terms as the ones issued in the RFP," he adds. Fleets data shows that the carrier has seven aircraft in service, comprised of five A320ceos, one A330-300 and one A340-300, although the latter aircraft has already been slated for replacement with a similar-sized aircraft this year. They are leased from AerCap, SMBC Aviation Capital and Aergo Capital. The addition of the leased aircraft marks a significant change in fortunes for SAA, which entered a business rescue process in March 2020, but in February interim chief commercial officer Tebogo Tsimane said that the carrier could break even this year following a strong summer season. "This is a significant boost for the domestic and regional markets and underscores our commitment to expanding our route network and increasing our frequency in the African market. It will also ensure that the equilibrium between the supply of seats and the flow of traffic will benefit our passengers,” says Lamola, adding that a new route will be announced in the coming few weeks. Networks data shows that the carrier is operating international services from Johannesburg to Accra, Lilongwe, Mauritius, Blantyre, Lagos, Harare, Victoria Falls, Kinshasa and Lusaka. Domestically, it is only operating flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town and Durban, while it also flies between Blantyre and Lilongwe in neighbouring Malawi.

The World Health Organization on 5 May declared that Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency, lifting a designation in place since 2020 that signals a turning point in public response to the disease as governments continue lifting travel restrictions intended to halt the spread of the pandemic. The United Nations health organisation says that declining death and infection rates of the disease mean that "it is time to transition to long-term management of the Covid-19 pandemic," notably still labelling it a pandemic. "Covid-19 is now an established and ongoing health issue which no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern," the WHO says. Governments restricted international travel, required mandatory tests or enforced mask-wearing rules following the WHO emergency declaration for Covid in 2020. Lifting this designation is poised to enable political support for governments loosening rules for travel sectors. The US federal government is set to end its public health emergency for Covid on 11 May. These regulatory shifts are likely to encourage more travel to the USA and other nations as carriers prepare for summer flights.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has proposed an air traffic plan for a new generation of electric aircraft being certificated as the agency seeks to develop networks for the nascent urban air mobility sector to start small and eventually grow. The initial blueprint outlined in a federal report filed on 26 April by the FAA NextGen programme says that "operations will begin at a low rate with air taxis flying much as helicopters do today". Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft would "use existing routes and infrastructure such as helipads and early vertiports" and pilots of those aircraft would "communicate with air traffic controllers where required", the FAA says. Numerous start-ups developing propeller-driven eVTOLs have already begun partnerships with infrastructure and real estate companies to plan vertiports and charging stations to support these electric aircraft. Once certificated, these new urban air mobility aircraft would operate within what the agency calls "UAM corridors". "The complexity of the corridors could increase over time from single one-way paths to routes serving multiple flows of aircraft flying in both directions," FAA says. "Over time, these corridors could link an increasing number of routes between vertiports." Standards introduced by the FAA would have a good chance of being considered or imitated by regulators in other nations, which have already shown interest in co-validating certification for aircraft proposed by several start-ups.