The US bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York has approved LATAM Airlines Group's Chapter 11 reorganisation plan. The group says the plan, which was backed by almost all of its creditors, is the result of months of negotiations among major stakeholders. This included an extensive mediation period. "We are very satisfied with the judge's confirmation of our restructuring plan," states LATAM chief executive Roberto Alvo. "This is a very important step in the process to emerge from Chapter 11, and we will continue working hard to complete the remaining steps in the coming months". LATAM is now focused on implementation of the corporate actions necessary to complete its exit from the Chapter 11 process during 2022's second half. This includes approval at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting of the new capital structure contemplated in the plan, the registration of shares and bonds in the securities registry of Chile's financial market commission the CMF, and the implementation of the respective preferential offering periods of the convertible shares and bonds in favour of LATAM's current shareholders. Once effective, the LATAM plan will inject around $8 billion through the combination of a capital increase, the issuance of convertible bonds, and new debt. This includes $5.4 billion of financing backed by major shareholders Delta Air Lines, Qatar Airways and Grupo Cueto and LATAM's major creditors, including the Parent Ad Hoc Group creditors and certain local bondholders.

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.