British Airways is suspending the sale of short haul-tickets from London Heathrow until 8 August, following the airport's decision to limit passenger numbers to 100,000 per day this summer. The move will limit passengers on domestic and European routes, and follows months of disruption as airport capacity struggled to cope with a recovery in demand. "As a result of Heathrow's request to limit new bookings, we've decided to take responsible action and limit the available fares on some Heathrow services to help maximise rebooking options for existing customers, given the restrictions imposed on us and the ongoing challenges facing the entire aviation industry," says BA. Up to now, the IAG-owned airline has been largely unaffected by the imposition of a daily passenger cap at Heathrow, having already pre-planned flight cancellations during the summer. In a results briefing on 29 July, IAG noted that BA had cancelled 16,000 flights over the period May to October, representing 10% of its scheduled services, of which 85% were short-haul and 15% long-haul. Amid a second "pre-emptive reduction" phase in June, 1,900 flights were cancelled – mainly in July – representing 1% of the total. As a result of these moves, when Heathrow introduced the 100,000-passenger daily cap on 12 July BA was required to cancel only 0.5% of flights to comply, the airline said.

India's SpiceJet has agreed a settlement with the Airports Authority of India and paid all outstanding principals due to the statutory board. The low-cost carrier says that under its "full and final settlement" with AAI it will revert to the advance-payment mechanism for daily flight operations at the authority's airports in India, having previously operated on a cash-and-carry basis. AAI will also release SpiceJet's Rs500 million ($6.4 million) bank guarantee. SpiceJet says its ability to clear the pending dues reflects improved cash flow, adding that the release of the bank guarantee will provide additional liquidity. On 27 July, India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DCGA) issued an interim order instructing SpiceJet to restrict flights to 50% of its approved departures for a period of eight weeks as part of "enhanced surveillance". Lifting of the restrictions during the monitoring period "shall be subject to the airline demonstrating to the satisfaction of the DGCA that it has sufficient technical support and financial resource to safely and efficiently undertake such enhanced capacity", said the regulator. In a 28 July response filed to the BSE stock exchange, SpiceJet said that it had received the DGCA notice and stressed that "there has been no impact on our schedule following the said DGCA order" as it "had already rescheduled its flight operations due to the current lean travel season". "SpiceJet is confident of scaling up its operations with the onset of the festive season and addressing any concern the regulator may have on priority," it added. The 50% capacity restriction relates to the DGCA's 5 July show-cause notice, issued to SpiceJet in connection with various operational incidents. The airline was given three weeks to respond. In issuing the show-cause notice, the DGCA accused SpiceJet of "degradation of safety margins", "poor internal safety oversight" and "inadequate maintenance actions", pointing to incidents of component or system-related failure. The regulator highlighted that in its financial assessment of SpiceJet in September 2021, it had found that suppliers and vendors were "not being paid on [a] regular basis... leading to shortage of spares and frequent invoking of an MEL [minimum equipment list]".

ANA Holdings’ financials improved significantly in the April-June quarter, on the back of recovering travel demand. “In the airline industry, passenger demand is rapidly recovering, with eased travel restrictions on domestic flights, as well as less entry restrictions in various countries for international flights,” the group said in a statement today. Operating loss for the period was Y1.3 billion ($9.8 million), versus a Y64.6 billion loss in the year-ago period. Operating revenue had increased by 76% year on year to Y350 billion, while operating expenses declined by 34% to Y352 billion. Net income for the quarter was Y1 billion – the first profitable period in ten quarters, ANA says – compared with a Y51.1 billion net loss for the April-June 2021 period. ANA attributes the increase in operating revenue mainly to its core business of air transportation. Revenues from the segment increased by 85% to Y314 billion, “backed by a significant increase in passenger demand on both domestic and international flights, as well as proactive efforts to capture high-yield cargo”. While fuel prices and “expanded scale of operations” pushed up variable costs, ANA said it improved profitability through disciplined cost management and by curbing the increase in fixed costs. Within the air transportation segment, there were significant improvements across ANA’s airlines and networks. In the recently concluded quarter, mainline carrier ANA’s domestic passenger network replaced its cargo network as the largest source of revenue, versus the year-ago period. Revenue from domestic operations increased by 103% year on year to Y102 billion. The group attributes this to the removal of travel restrictions within Japan for the first time in three years, and reports improvements in leisure and business travel. Meanwhile, revenues from ANA’s cargo network increased by 43% year on year to Y94.7 billion. On a year-on-year basis international cargo volumes had declined, owing to the impact of the war in Ukraine on Europe routes, as well as a decline in demand for goods such as automotive parts. Despite that, revenues increased as shipping congestion pushed up freight rates, alongside ANA’s efforts to capitalise on “highly profitable” North America routes and capture high-yield cargo such as oversized commercial products. As for ANA’s international passenger service, revenue increased to Y62.2 billion from Y12.9 billion in the year-ago period as travel restrictions eased, and the network reports 70.7% load factor. This was backed by recovering demand for business travel, homecoming expatriates, and an increased demand for connections between Asia and North America. Likewise, revenue from low-cost unit Peach Aviation nearly quadrupled to Y15.5 billion. For the fiscal year ending 31 March 2023, ANA is expecting Y30 billion in operating income and Y1.66 trillion in operating revenue, on a consolidated basis. “Passenger demand on international and domestic routes recovered steadily, while cargo demand remained strong,” ANA states. “While Covid-19 cases in Japan are currently on the rise, total bookings continue to increase.”