Dispatchers and facilities maintenance technicians at Southwest Airlines have voted to approve new employment contracts with the Dallas-based carrier. Southwest's more than 450 dispatch employees were represented during negotiations by the Transport Workers Union Local 550 (TWU 550), while its 50 facilities maintenance technicians were represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). "We have now ratified agreements with five of our union-represented workgroups within the past four months," Adam Carlisle, Southwest's vice-president labour relations states. "While we are extremely pleased with this progress, we remain steadfastly committed to advancing the negotiations currently under way for four other Southwest workgroups." Members at unions representing Southwest's appearance technicians, customer-service employees and flight instructors have ratified employment contracts since October 2022. Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) president Casey Murray on 18 January called for a strike authorisation vote among union members, stating that a "lack of discussion or commitment" from the airline's leadership team to "rectify" operational issues for passengers and pilots "drove us to make the decision to carry forward on this path afforded to us by the [US] Railway Labor Act". SWAPA says that its call for a strike authorisation vote "comes in the wake of Southwest’s largest meltdown and the utter lack of meaningful progress on a contract negotiation, with scheduling work rules and information technology asks in particular, that has been ongoing for more than three years". The pilots' union in May will vote on the authorisation of a potential strike, with the results of the vote tallied at the end of that month.

Russian low-cost carrier Pobeda has begun serving Dubai's Al Maktoum International airport from Moscow Vnukovo. The route is being operated at four-times-weekly frequency, says the Aeroflot subsidiary. The frequency will increase to daily from 20 February, it adds.

Lufthansa has scheduled its new Boeing 787-9 aircraft on five additional North American routes starting with the summer flight schedule as of 26 March. The carrier will operate those widebody aircraft six times per week from Frankfurt to Dallas-Fort Worth, Lufthansa says. Additionally, it will offer four weekly flights to Montreal, Canada, and on 1 May will increase this to daily flights. During May, it will also offer daily flights with 787-9s to Denver, Colorado, and three times weekly flights to Austin, Texas. The aircraft will begin serving Detroit, Michigan, on 13 February, and also operates daily flights to Newark since October last year. Currently, Lufthansa operates three 787-9s and receive two additional ones soon. The group will take delivery of a total of 32 new 787-9s until 2027.