Qantas Group's remaining five Airbus A380s in storage will be returned to service by December 2023, once mid-life maintenance is completed. All other Australia and New Zealand-based aircraft in its fleet have been returned to service, the group says in a statement today. Data shows Qantas Group has 10 A380s in its fleet. Qantas states that it has so far returned to service five A380s with updated interiors. For its international network, Qantas is expecting to receive by the end of financial year ending 30 June 2023 (FY 2023) three outstanding 787-9s on order. The delivery is timed for the restart of Qantas’s Sydney-Auckland-New York service, which was suspended due to Covid-19. The service will operate from 14 June 2023, three flights per week initially. Qantas Freight is also expecting aircraft deliveries, two converted A330 freighters in the second half of 2023 and six A321Fs from early 2024 onwards. Reiterating previous disclosures earlier in August, Qantas says the Airbus freighters will replace five Boeing 737-400Fs and help meet demand from a permanent increase in e-commerce from key customers, including Australia Post. The group adds that work associated with the service entry of A220 and A321XLR aircraft for Qantas Domestic and A350 for Qantas International is underway. Qantas Group released its FY 2022 results today and chief executive Alan Joyce commented: "12 months ago, almost all of Australia's borders were closed. Most of us were stuck at home. International travel felt like a very distant prospect. "Now, our flights are full, and we can't bring aircraft out of storage fast enough."

A first service is departing from Dublin airport's new North Runway on 24 August, and the new capacity is slated to unlock routes to Latin America, Asia and Africa. The runway is nearly 500m longer than the airport's current main one – the 2,637m runway 10/28 – and positioned 1,600m to the north. This will extend the reach of long-haul aircraft and potentially enable carriers to open new routes. Dublin airport's operator DAA says the runway will result in a 31% gain in connectivity for the island of Ireland by 2034, leading to the creation of 31,000 new jobs by 2043. "This new runway will further strengthen Ireland's ability to support more economic growth in terms of Irish exports, tourism and jobs," it adds. The runway featured in Dublin's expansion plans for many years but, while planning permission was granted in mid-2007, the subsequent global financial crisis then placed the project on hold. Construction only began in 2019. Upon opening, the North Runway will be available for operations from 7am to 11pm. Dublin airport has proposed extending the curfew to midnight.

IAG carrier British Airways is making further cancellations to its winter schedule as it looks to minimise last-minute disruption to services at the end of this year and start of 2023. The decision by London Heathrow airport to extend its 100,000-passenger daily cap to the end of October has also pushed BA to make further cutbacks to its flight schedule for the next two months. The move is a further demonstration of the problems faced by the carrier and wider industry as they seek to staff up after the pandemic. Airlines, airports and other service providers are struggling to handle a surge in demand. BA notes that as its intention is to protect half-term getaways "we will need to make some further cancellations up to the end of October". It adds: "In addition, we're giving customers travelling with us this winter notice of some adjustments to our schedule, which will include consolidating some of our short-haul flights to destinations with multiple services." BA has progressively cut services through 2022 in response to staffing problems and Heathrow's passenger cap. The airline previously axed roughly 13% of its summer schedule, highlights Goodbody analyst Mark Simpson. He notes that the latest winter season cuts amount to around 8% of its schedule, or 5,000 round trips. "As part of the winter cancellations, BA is consolidating some of its short-haul flights to destinations with multiple services, which should lessen the disruption for customers who can book a similar flight at a different time on the same day," he notes.