Turkish Airlines has warned that groundings of its Airbus A320neo-family jets for enhanced inspections of their Pratt & Whitney GTF engines will surge this year on the back of ongoing delays at the OEM. It predicts that 50 of its 110 GTF-powered Airbuses will be out of action at some point this year, a 28% increase from the 39 grounded at the end of 2025. During the Star Alliance carrier's annual results briefing on 5 March, Turkish's finance chief Murat Seker said that although P&W was "putting in hard work to solve the problem for good", engine turnaround times were "still long", leading to significant delays in getting aircraft back into service. Turkish has had some compensation from P&W but it remains in discussions on further financial settlements, adds Seker. The 39 jets parked at the end of 2025 compared with 35 in August, when Turkish expected 40-45 aircraft to be out of action because of the issue in 2026. GTF groundings had added around 1 percentage point to the airline's ex-fuel costs per ASK, it said at the time.

Lufthansa Group has reported a surge in bookings to Asia and Africa following the eruption of military conflict in the Middle East, as a lack of Gulf capacity forces passengers to book direct connections. During a briefing on full-year results, Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said the group had seen a 75% increase in ticket sales to Asia for April. In response, Lufthansa has added extra capacity to the region, starting with a boost to its Bangkok service. The group also foresees adding more flights to Singapore, Shanghai and Cape Town, plus Riyadh "if the safety situation allows". Details of these services will be revealed in the next three days. Finance chief Till Streichert adds that although the Middle East crisis makes operations "more challenging indeed", there has been an "enormous increase" in demand on Lufthansa's routes both to Africa and Asia. He says that suspending 10 Middle Eastern routes has freed capacity for Asian expansion. This shift, combined with the seasonal reactivation of aircraft typically grounded for the winter, has bolstered Lufthansa’s fleet availability. Meanwhile, the group's high proportion of hedged fuel, 81% for this year, provides a "comparative advantage", says Streichert. Spohr notes that over the slightly longer term, passengers tend to respond to conflict by prioritising travel to safe destinations and booking with established brands. Pointing out Lufthansa's links to geopolitically calm destinations such as Japan and other areas of Asia, plus the reputation of its mainline and Swiss brands as "pillars of stability", he expects the crisis to support bookings going forward. "We can certainly attract more customers and make more profits," he declares. However, he does acknowledge the threat from airspace closures, which have now extended beyond Russia to include Iran and parts of the Gulf. European carriers can thus only reach Asia via Pakistan and Afghanistan, or south over Saudi Arabia, notes Spohr. "If these close, we could wonder whether Asia is reachable at all," he adds.

Embraer is confident it will face fewer supply-chain issues this year than in 2025 and expects to deliver between 80 and 85 commercial aircraft in 2026. "This year, we see the supply chain improving but still with some bottlenecks," Embraer chief executive Francisco Gomes Neto said during a full-year earnings call on 6 March. "We are monitoring the situation, but we are positive that this year is going to be better than last year." The Brazilian airframer delivered 78 E-Jets in 2025, which was at the lower end of its target range of 77-85 commercial deliveries. It is "very focused this year" on hitting the "mid- to high-end" of its guidance of delivering 80-85 commercial jets, says Neto, and is working towards 100 in 2027 or 2028. "We are working very closely with our suppliers, and we are confident and comfortable when it comes to aircraft deliveries for 2026," adds Neto. Embraer is "monitoring closely" the situation in the Middle East, in the wake of ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iran and retaliatory action against countries in the Gulf. However, "so far, we haven’t seen any critical issue that could impact our deliveries" to the region, says Neto. "Our focus now is to monitor the situation to help us take any mitigating action," he notes. Embraer expects total revenue of $8.2-8.5 billion in 2026, compared with $7.6 billion in 2025. The 2025 figure was 18% higher than the previous year's. Commercial aviation revenue was up 7% last year, although it dipped slightly in the fourth quarter "because of customer mix". Commercial aviation represented 37% of Embraer's total revenue in 2025. Executive aviation revenue, meanwhile, increased by a quarter. Embraer's full-year EBIT fell to $608 million in 2025, from $668 million a year earlier, which it attributes in part to a $54 million US import tariff hit. However, as of 24 February "all Embraer engines and parts are exempt" from US tariffs, says Neto. He describes the removal of tariffs as a "very positive" outcome that will "benefit our US customers".