Southwest Airlines has reached agreements with two unions representing its workgroups. Flight instructors, represented by the Transport Workers Union Local 557, have voted in favour of their new contract, the Dallas-based carrier says. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) have also reached a tentative agreement with Southwest on behalf of facilities maintenance technicians. AMFA national president Bret Oestreich states: “This agreement is warranted after these employees helped safely maintain Southwest’s facilities across the country before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, the membership’s voice will be heard in a ratification vote in the coming weeks.”

Middle Eastern operator Emirates plans to scale up its Airbus A380 operations with the resumption of services to Glasgow on 26 March, Nice on 1 June and to Birmingham on 1 July. Emirates deploys its flagship A380 to 40 destinations worldwide, the airline says. By the end of the summer season, the carrier will operate that aircraft to almost 50 destinations, restoring close to 90% of the airline’s pre-pandemic A380 network. The first Emirates A380 to be completely refurbished under the airline’s $2 billion retrofit programme in early January on the Dubai to London Heathrow route. The airline also plans to ramp up its A380 operations to more than 35 destinations across 20 countries by March 2024. Meanwhile, it also plans to resume its second daily service to Stansted from 1 May 2023, using Boeing 777-300ERs.

Airbus is testing visual-sensing technology that could assist pilots in manoeuvring aircraft in the air and on the ground and facilitate automatic diversions and landings in the event of flightcrew incapacitation. The European airframer says it is testing the technology on an A350-1000 under a demonstrator project named "DragonFly" – inspired by the insect's 360° vision – at innovation subsidiary UpNext. The project has entered the "final three months of its testing phase", Airbus says. "The systems being tested have been designed to identify features in the landscape that enable an aircraft to 'see' and safely manoeuvre autonomously within its surroundings, in the same way that dragonflies are known to have the ability to recognise landmarks," states project head Isabelle Lacaze. Testing has included a simulation of an incapacitation event during which the demonstrator system generated a new flight trajectory to a diversion airport, from cruise level, taking into account suitability of available airfields, terrain, airspace rules, weather conditions and approach patterns. The system communicated with air traffic control and the operator's control centre. Airbus says that, "in time", system capabilities could be developed to facilitate arrivals "at any airport in the world" regardless of whether it is equipped with ground technology for automatic landing. The airframer foresees that technology can be customised to pilot flying skills in order to reduce workload in critical situations. The system could be "a game changer when it comes to de-risking emergency operations", Airbus says. At Toulouse airport, the airframer tested system capabilities to support pilots during taxiing. Features included audio alerts about obstacles, "assisted speed control", and guidance to the runway. A video released by Airbus shows that the visual system recognised buildings, airport ground equipment, apron markings, vehicles and other aircraft. Airbus says a separate UpNext project is intended to prepare a "next generation of computer vision-based algorithms to advance landing and taxi assistance". Participants in DragonFly include Cobham, Collins Aerospace, Honeywell, Thales and French aerospace research centre ONERA. The project has been partially funded by French civil aviation authority DGAC, Airbus notes.