Boeing and Airbus are jointly developing cabin signs for blind and partially sighted passengers as part of a wider industry effort to improve accessibility on aircraft. At the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg on 14 April, Airbus "cross programme" senior vice-president Wolfgang Wohlers said the European airframer was collaborating with partners on development of signs with raised characters, tactile symbols, and high contrasts for seat numbering and lavatory controls. "We are working not just within Airbus, but with a lot of suppliers [and] the community to design these as an industry standard, so that not everybody reinvents the wheel," Wohlers says, adding that the initiative includes "a lot of players in the industry". The project's aim is to establish a common industry standard for non-regulatory placards, Airbus notes. During a separate AIX briefing, Boeing regional director cabin marketing Stephanie Werner said the US airframer was working on the placards, too, and had been collaborating with Airbus and other partners on the project for 14 months. Its objective is to establish sign requirements through the standards organisation SAE International. Both Airbus and Boeing are working on other projects to improve accessibility and comfort for travellers who are deaf or have hearing loss, those with reduced mobility, and neurodivergent passengers.

Boeing last month booked orders from undisclosed customers for eight 787-9s fitted with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000s – three years after it was last disclosed that such engines had been selected for newly ordered Dreamliners. Cirium fleets data indicates that the eight new orders were separately booked in batches of three and five aircraft. Boeing has declined to comment. Its data shows that the last time Trent selection was announced for a Dreamliner order was when Papua New Guinea's national carrier Air Niugini ordered two 787-8s in 2023. Air Niugini cancelled these orders in January 2026. The airframer booked 63 Dreamliner orders in 2024 and 382 last year. No engine selection was announced for 12 of the 2024 orders and 69 of the 2025 ones. Customers picked GE Aerospace GEnx engines for the other aircraft. Boeing lists a total of 1,109 on order 787s in its backlog. Trent selection has been disclosed for 35 of these aircraft: 16 bound for Lufthansa, three each for Air Astana, All Nippon Airways and Singapore Airlines, two for lessor AerCap, and the eight for undisclosed customers. No engine selection has been announced for 129 Dreamliners in the backlog. The other 945 are assigned to GE. Rolls-Royce has confirmed the new orders with Trent selection, highlighting its re-engineered high-pressure turbine blade for the engine. "Our ongoing transformation has enabled us to make significant improvements with our Trent 1000 XE engine, more than doubling time on wing. These orders are testament to the step-change in performance our investment is delivering for current and future customers," Rolls-Royce says.

Air New Zealand will on 18 May start selling sessions in its Economy Skynest bunk beds on the Auckland-New York route for travel starting in November. The six lie-flat sleep pods on new Boeing 787-9s – placed between the economy and premium-economy sections of the aircraft – will be available for passengers in any class to book for 4h sessions on the flights. Initially, two sessions will be offered on the New York flights. Personal storage and USB device charging are included. "It's a simple idea with a powerful impact: swap the headrest for bedrest, and arrive ready to go," states Air New Zealand chief executive Nikhil Ravishankar.