Air New Zealand will this month take delivery of an Airbus A321neo, one of three it expects to receive in the "coming months". Another, adorned with a jet-black Star Alliance livery, will arrive in November, after making the 9,625nm (17,825km) journey from the Airbus factory in Hamburg to Auckland via Muscat, Kuala Lumpur and Cairns. That aircraft, fitted with 217 seats, will be operated with Air New Zealand's domestic network, adds the carrier. In May 2020, it deferred planned A321neo deliveries as part of organisation-wide cost-cutting measures. Then, fleets data indicated that its seven on-order A321neos were scheduled to be delivered between January 2022 and April 2024. The data now shows that of the seven, three are scheduled for delivery by year-end, three between February and December 2023, and the last one in September 2026. Air New Zealand already operates seven A321neos, all about three years old. Since aircraft deliveries to the carrier restarted in late 2021, an ATR 72-600 turboprop and two A320neo narrowbodies to its fleet.

Ryanair will next month close its Athens base for the winter season, linking its decision to a "dysfunctional" airport charging structure and a lack of incentives for airlines to serve the airport during off-peak times. The Irish budget carrier says it will stop basing aircraft in Athens on 29 October because the airport does "not offer any incentive to stimulate traffic during the winter season". It adds: "At a time when other governments and airports are reducing fees and introducing tourism recovery programmes, the Greek government continues to apply an airport development fee of €12 [$11.90] per passenger, making Greek access fees uncompetitive." Athens airport is 40%-owned by German operator AviAlliance and 55%-owned by the Greek government. The remaining 5% is held by private investors. Ryanair opened its Athens base in April 2014, stationing two Boeing 737-800s at the airport. The carrier says it has submitted "several growth proposals" to the Greek government since November 2021, and asserts that these could double passenger numbers to 10 million over the next five years. "The airport charging structure in Greece is dysfunctional as it rewards German airport operators who control a vital part of Greek national infrastructure at the expense of tourism, economic development and connectivity," states Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson. He adds that the airline will reallocate capacity from Athens to "competitive, lower-cost destinations such as Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Portugal".

Emirates has disclosed plans to introduce retrofitted Airbus A380s featuring its new premium economy cabins on routes to New York JFK, San Francisco, Melbourne, Auckland and Singapore. The Dubai-based airline says it will operate the aircraft to New York JFK from 1 December, to Auckland from 15 January 2023, to Melbourne from 1 February 2023, to San Francisco from 15 February 2023, and to Singapore from 1 March 2023. With this, Melbourne will become the second Australian destination and San Francisco the second US destination to be served by the retrofitted A380s, the Middle Eastern carrier notes. Emirates also plans to add more premium economy seats on A380 services to Sydney in Australia and London Heathrow in the UK, starting 15 December. Additionally, it will debut the newly-enhanced A380s on route to Christchurch in New Zealand from 26 March 2023, as an extension of the Dubai to Sydney service. The carrier will have a total of 85 A380s in its active service by the end of this year, and scale up its A380 operations to 42 destinations by the end of March 2023. "In tandem, the airline is optimising its network to meet robust demand and enhancing its existing schedules to over 400 A380 departures from Dubai, offering 460,000 weekly A380 seats by March 2023, including 81,000 seats across its premium cabins, offering the very best in customer comfort," it says. Starting November, Emirates will begin work to upgrade and retrofit the interior cabins of 67 A380s and 53 Boeing 777s, with one aircraft rolling out into service every 16 days. "By 2025, nearly 4,000 new premium economy seats will be installed, 728 first class suites refurbished and over 5,000 business class seats upgraded to a new style and design," it adds.