Boeing does not have plans to develop any new variants of the 737 after the current Max generation, commercial chief executive Stan Deal has confirmed. "We’ve got five family members, I think that’s it," he told an audience at the UK Aviation Club on 16 June. The Boeing executive says that the US airframer is now focused on developing the next set of aircraft programmes for the industry. But Deal says he believes the longevity of the Max will be "quite long" with the Max 7, -8, -9, -200 and -10 all offering "incremental benefits", including reduced fuel burn and noise over their predecessor, the NG. Deal says that he is fully focused on the certification of the Max 7 and -10 along with gaining regulatory approval for an enhanced gross weight version of the 787, and the in-development 777X programme. As such the US manufacturer is concentrating on existing product lines rather than looking at developing a new regional aircraft, Deal says. Discussing the issues around the 787 programme, Deal says Boeing is focused on a "tip to tail" recertification process with the US Federal Aviation Administration and adds: "We are going to take the time to get this right." He says the US OEM's own internal investigation found found technical "non-conformance" issues - where the blueprint verses the build "was off" by very minute tolerances of 5000s of an inch. Deal believes the freighter market is in rude health. He says air cargo revenues are up 95% on 2019 levels despite an 8% increase in freight capacity. He believes that there will be four engine aircraft flying around for "another 50 years". He notes that the 747 freighter and its nose loading capability is unique in the market. Deal notes that Boeing's 777-200 freighter is sold out, the 767 conversion programme is almost out of feedstock and there still remains a lot of demand from customers such as UPS and Fedex for dedicated freighters. "I wish I could take rates up even higher on freighters because the demand is there." Sales of converted 737-800 freighters have "skyrocketed" and the abundance of third party conversion programs across the world is a sign of global demand for aircraft, Deal notes. He says that the conversion of the 737NGs is allowing their value to be retained. He believes that the 777F will be the natural replacement for the 747 and will become a "flagship" thanks to customer orders from major carriers including British Airways, Qatar Airways, All Nippon Airways and Cathay Pacific. "As the world re-emerges, there will be that need for a flagship airplane, the 777 is well-positioned for it," he comments.

London Gatwick airport plans to limit passenger capacity growth through July and August as it seeks to minimise disruption from staff shortages through the recovery. Following a review of its operations, the airport will put in place "a gradually increasing capacity level" that is aligned with the ability of airlines and ground handlers to deliver their promised services. This will cap flights during the peak summer period at 825 per day during July, rising to 850 in August, "so that passengers experience a more reliable and better standard of service". The airport had originally planned to operate up to 900 daily flights on some peak-season days. Gatwick's move follows an intervention from the UK government, which on 15 June instructed airlines to reassess their schedules to ensure they were deliverable. Resurgent passenger numbers post-pandemic, combined with staff shortages, have led to widespread cancellations and delays at UK airports. Gatwick has been hit particularly hard. "The airport review found that a number of companies based at Gatwick are, and will continue to, operate with a severe lack of staff resources over the summer holiday period," the airport says. "If not addressed, this issue would see airport passengers continuing to experience an unreliable and potentially poor standard of service, including more queues, delays and last-minute cancellations." By gradually increasing the maximum number of flights over time, Gatwick aims to help airlines and ground-handling companies improve the service they provide by reducing the number of flights they need to manage. In particular, it believes this will benefit ground-handling companies with responsibility for managing check-in areas, turning aircraft round on the airfield, and loading and delivering baggage. Chief executive Stewart Wingate acknowledges that over the jubilee weekend "a number of companies operating at the airport struggled in particular, because of staff shortages". He adds: "By taking decisive action now, we aim to help the ground handlers – and also our airlines – to better match their flying programmes with their available resources." Through late May and early June around 800 flights per day utilised Gatwick's runway. Over 10 million passengers used the airport in the first six months of 2022.

The prospect of a summer of strikes at Ryanair has ratcheted up further as unions in Italy pledge to back their Spanish counterparts in action later this month, to be joined by labour groups in Portugal, France and Belgium. Italian unions UIL Trasporti and FILT-CGIL say cabin crew and pilots will walk out for 24h on 25 June at Ryanair, Malta Air and CrewLink. Malta Air is part of Ryanair Group, while CrewLink is its recruitment and training agency. The protest over improved pay and conditions "will also affect Spain, Portugal, France and Belgium on the same day", add the unions, which describe the 25 June protest as "part of a co-ordinated mobilisation at the European level". Ryanair argues that unions pushing for strike action are not supported by the company's crews and says they are not recognised by the airline. "These same unions held a failed strike attempt on 8 June at our Italian bases. However, zero Ryanair crew participated in that failed strike," the airline contends. It adds that the company's crews in Italy are covered by collective labour agreements signed with three other unions. In recent days, trade unions SITCPLA and USO, representing Spanish cabin crews, have announced plans for six days of industrial action against Ryanair in late June and early July after negotiations on a collective labour agreement broke down. Staff across the low-cost carrier's 10 bases in Spain will stage 24h walkouts on 24, 25, 26 and 30 June and on 1 and 2 July, according to USO. SITCPLA and USO added that five other unions in Belgium, France, Italy and Portugal had on 19 May signed an agreement that they would "not hesitate to launch a Europe-wide strike action this summer" if negotiations with Ryanair broke down. Portuguese union SNPVAC has scheduled cabin-crew strikes on 24, 25 and 26 June, according to a Publico report and a posting on the labour group's Facebook account. Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that Ryanair strikes in France led to cancellations on 12 and 13 June.