Middle Eastern operator Emirates has deployed a fully refreshed Airbus A380 on its Dubai-London Heathrow route. This is the first Emirates A380 to be completely refurbished under its $2 billion retrofit programme, the airline says. The aircraft features Emirates' latest products and interiors across all cabins. Work on the next Emirates A380 is expected to be completed by the end of this month, the airline adds. "As the programme progresses, engineers will work simultaneously on two aircraft. This means that one aircraft in the fleet will be withdrawn from service every eight days and transferred to Emirates engineering facilities," the airline states. "By 2024, all 67 A380s assigned for refurbishment will have returned to service. Emirates will then begin work on its 53 Boeing 777s earmarked for this project. The airline expects to complete the programme in 2025," it adds.

Comac has received airworthiness approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China for the ARJ21 passenger-to-cargo conversion project. At present, there are two contracted customers, Zhongyuan Longhao Airlines and YTO Cargo Airlines, and the first two aircraft will be delivered to the two users respectively, the Chinese airframer says. The project for freighter conversion started in May 2020 and comprised preliminary and detailed design processes, as well as modification implementation. The ARJ21 converted freighter is expected to become the main model in the regional air cargo market, with a maximum commercial load of 10t and will carry several sizes such as PMC, PAG and AKE, it adds.

Air Serbia carried over 234,000 passengers in December, a figure up 127% year on year and up 20% versus December 2019. The airline says it carried over 200,000 passengers in December for the first time since Air Serbia started operations. The carrier operated 2,761 flights, of which 96% were via Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport. This is an increase of 71% compared to the same month in 2021, it notes. General manager commercial and strategy Bosko Rupic states: "We will share accurate information about the total number of passengers carried in 2022 in the coming weeks, but preliminary results say that Air Serbia carried approximately 2.75 million passengers in 2022, which is only 2% less compared to 2019."