Air New Zealand expects its first half profit to fall by up to 35% as the engine issues plaguing its Airbus A321neos and Boeing 787-9s continue to weigh on its bottom line and are expected to persist into 2026. The Star Alliance carrier issued guidance on 25 November that it expects its earnings before interest and tax for the six months to December 2024 to come in at NZ$120-NZ$160 million ($70.3-$93.8 million). That compares to a pre-tax profit of NZ$185 million for the corresponding six-month period a year ago. The guidance includes around NZ$10 million of unused travel credit breakage and NZ$30 million in compensation from engine manufacturers, plus a NZ$20 million gain on the sale-and-leaseback of four A320s. The carrier states that up to six A321neos have been out of service during the first six months of the 2025 fiscal year due to Pratt & Whitney's enhanced inspections of their geared turbofan engines, while up to four 787s have been grounded for maintenance on their Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. "Based on current assumptions and recent discussions with engine manufacturers, the airline does not expect these availability issues to ease until early 2026. However, the airline continues to explore all options to improve capacity including further aircraft leases," it adds. More positively, the airline notes that there are "early signs of recovery in corporate travel" though government travel demand remains subdued. "Targeted reductions in competitive capacity on the North American market over the peak Northern Winter season have also been noted," it states. Air New Zealand did not provide full-year guidance, which is expected to be released when its half-year results come out in late February.

The benefits of promoting energy security and job creation will encourage "policy stability" in the USA and maintain cross-party support for the Inflation Reduction Act's SAF provisions, in the view of a senior figure within the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Environment and Energy. Speaking at IATA's Wings of Change event in Rome on 20 November, the office's chief scientific and technical adviser Anna Oldani noted that the Inflation Reduction Act had secured support "across both parties" because of its benefits for domestic energy security, "which I think we all understand and value", as well as its boosting of rural economic development. "All of these things build up into a much greater picture than just 'We are doing this because we want to improve overall sustainability of a hard-to-abate sector'," she adds. The re-election of President Trump has raised questions about the future of the act, designed to turbocharge investment in the USA's green economy by funnelling billions into low-carbon projects, including development of SAF. Trump has said he will cancel some parts of the act and has appointed fossil-fuel-energy executives to lead key government departments, but he has also come under pressure to maintain other parts of the investment, much of which has been directed to Republican-controlled states. Industry executives largely consider the Act's SAF provisions to be a success, incentivising a huge amount of investment which has outstripped other regions of the world. Oldani adds that the act's SAF provisions boost production not only of low-carbon fuels for aviation but also of other outputs such as renewable diesel for trucks, making their continuation a "win-win-win for everyone" and enabling "policy consistency over time".

South African Airways and its subsidiaries made a net profit of R252 million ($13.9 million) in its 2022/23 financial year, the airline has disclosed. Total revenue in the year to March 2023 rose to R5.7 billion from R2 billion the previous year. The financial year 2022/23 was the first full one since SAA exited business rescue and restarted operations in September 2021. SAA's airline operations generated a positive EBITDA of R277 million, compared with a negative one of R1 billion a year earlier. The airline says the positive performance was achieved despite a challenging global aviation environment and uncertainty around its future with a strategic equity partner. SAA operated six to eight aircraft during the financial year, serving only nine destinations. Since then, it has doubled its number of operational aircraft, and seven more are to be delivered during the financial year 2025/26 under lease deals. The airline has also increased its routes to 16. "These pleasing results of the 2022/23 financial year are emblematic of the hard and careful work that went into the relaunching of SAA as a reliable airline and globally admired brand," states SAA interim chief John Lamola. "This has put SAA on a path to financial sustainability without reliance on the fiscus."