Cathay Pacific Group returned 24 more aircraft from long-term storage during the second half of 2022 and plans to reactivate more "in line with operational requirements". The Hong Kong-based airline group said it had 41 passenger aircraft parked outside Hong Kong at the end of 2022, after the reactivations. This compares to the 69 passenger jets parked at the end of June, according to an interim results update. The difference of four fewer jets returned from storage indicates that some parked jets have been permanently retired, likely some of the oldest aircraft in the fleet. Fleets data indicates that the group's oldest aircraft are its Airbus A330-300s, A300-600Fs, Boeing 777-300s and some A320ceo family jets, all above 20 years old and largely listed as in storage.
The group ended the year with a fleet of 222 aircraft, six fewer than at the end of June. From Cathay's fleet, these include the exit of one A320ceo, one A321ceo and eight A330-300s as well as the introduction of three A350-1000s, and the addition of an A330-300P2F to Air Hong Kong's fleet. In terms of new aircraft deliveries this year, the group received two A321neos in February, and expects to take deliveries of nine more jets. Three A321neos and two A350-900s are slated for Cathay's fleet and four A321neos for HK Express. The group took delivery of just five new aircraft in 2022. Cathay has completed refitting the seats of four 777-300ERs that were temporarily used as freighters, and will complete the remaining two in 2023.

US Federal Aviation Administration acting chief Billy Nolen told lawmakers that the agency has implemented “over 60% of the requirements” mandated by Congress in late 2020 intended to improve aircraft safety certification and regulatory scrutiny for manufacturers in the wake of two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes. Lawmakers voiced concerns about the ongoing implementation on 8 March, during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Nolen and the senators observed that 157 people died nearly four years earlier on 10 March, 2019, during the Max aircraft crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. Referring to this grim anniversary and the subsequent 18-month congressional investigation of FAA oversight of Boeing that resulted in the 2020 certification law, the committee’s ranking Republican senator Ted Cruz says “aviation safety regulations have been written in blood”. Thanking the relatives of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crash victims for their “advocacy for aviation safety”, Nolen says the FAA is “hiring new talent who understand the safety implications of new and innovative technologies” as required by the legislation enacted in 2020, called the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act. This agency recruitment, he adds, includes a goal of hiring 300 new aircraft safety personnel by September. Since the passage of the 2020 law, he says the FAA has boosted the staff assigned to provide safety oversight of Boeing from 82 to 107. Boeing declined request for comment. The committee plans to schedule several additional hearings as US lawmakers every five years pass an FAA reauthorisation bill to set funding and priorities for the agency. Committee chair senator Maria Cantwell says that FAA workforce training and recruitment “will be a very big part of the discussion” before the current FAA legislation enacted in 2018 expires on 30 September. The FAA faces a backlog implementing numerous rules, senator Ted Budd noted, adding that some pending rules were mandated by Congress more than a decade ago. Addressing this slow pace, Nolen referred to the “methodical” rulemaking processes including cost-benefit analysis and public comments, adding that despite this “we continue to look for ways to streamline our own internal processes”. Requirements set by the 2020 aviation safety law include that FAA must conduct greater of oversight of organisation delegation authorisation (ODA) units that designate parts of information gathering for the certification process to engineers employed by airframers, including an independent review of Boeing’s safety culture and ODA process. The law also requires greater protection and encouragement for whistle-blowers who raise concerns about safety during a certification process by authorising “civil penalties against aviation manufacturer supervisors who interfere with or place undue pressure on other employees who are empowered to act as FAA designees” during the ODA process.

Singapore-based lessor Avation has indicated that the oversupply of ATR 72 aircraft available to lease has reversed sharply and will not be fixed in the near future. Speaking during its recent earnings call, the lessor’s chief commercial officer Soeren Ferre says that at the beginning of 2022 the market for the turboprops was “actually very soft” as passenger traffic had not recovered, and there were units repossessed from some carriers that had not been placed. “The situation we are in today is basically now we have a shortage of ATRs. All of our ATRs are now spoken for because they have been sold or are being placed with new operators,” he says. Fleets data shows that Avation has three ATR 72s that are not on lease, but executive chairman Jeff Chatfield expects that they will be accounted for soon. “Our preference is to lease the remaining aircraft. We may sell one because clearly there is interest in it, but we certainly would like to lease the others,” he says. Ferre adds that interest remains strong, especially given that the rival De Havilland Canada Dash 8 is no longer in production. “We are getting about two calls a week from existing airlines or start-up airlines that are looking for ATRs because basically that is the only aircraft in this category that can do the job.” The shortage is not likely to resolve over the next two years, Ferre adds, as only 35 ATR 72s are currently being produced this year, which will increase to 40 in 2024. Avation has two more ATR 72-600s on order that are due for delivery in 2024, and purchase rights on a further 28 of the type out to June 2027. The lessor has 14 ATR 72-600s and five -500s leased to 10 airlines based in Australia, Asia and Europe. Avation also has in its portfolio eight Airbus A320 family jets, five A220-300s, one A330-300 and a Boeing 777-300ER.