Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson has indicated that although he is eager to hand the reins to a successor, he is willing to wait for the right candidate. The carrier's recent difficulties have complicated its search for a successor to Wilson, who in April disclosed that he would be retiring from his role sometime in 2026. He joined Air India in 2022 amid the airline's privatisation under the Tata Group, after 70 years of government ownership. "In the last 12 months I had the occasion, for the first time in my 30-year aviation career, to learn that the collective noun for swans, black or otherwise, is a 'bevy'," Wilson said at a 21 May event at the Wings Club in New York. Nearly a year ago, on 12 June 2025, an Air India Boeing 787-8 crashed on take-off in Ahmedabad. It was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members, with only one passenger surviving the accident. The crash also killed 19 people on the ground. "It was a devastating event for their [the victims'] families, for their loved ones, for the aviation community, and for us," Wilson says, adding: "The official investigations continue." That tragedy has been just one of several challenges for Air India over the course of 2025 and 2026. "We've contended with a kinetic war between India and Pakistan [and] the subsequent suspension of overflight rights over Pakistan that forces a much longer routing to Europe and North America," Wilson says. He notes that nearly half of Air India's deployed capacity has been affected by the change in flight paths. Additional recent challenges include "50% tariffs in the US", as well as "severely curtailed" visas for Indian students and businesspeople coming to the USA. He adds: "There have been two armed conflicts involving Iran and neighbouring states causing massive aviation disruption, whether it be to airspace, or a doubling of fuel price, or a 10% depreciation in the rupee." Nevertheless, he argues, over the last four years leadership at Air India has "taken an iconic airline that was on the brink of collapse and given it a future". Wilson expects to be leaving Air India "in a couple of months' time". "I was always very clear that this was a four-year term for me, and I want them [Air India's board] to go through it [the selection process]," he says. He adds: "I'm going to be flexible for as long as it takes for them to find someone and make sure that we do a good transition. We've gone from rebuilding a platform of an airline, which is now done, to now supporting an induction of some 600 new aircraft. "The next four years is going to be just as challenging as the past, albeit in a different way. And so the person that takes over will have their hands full, but I want to make sure the right person is in place to carry that forward."

Airbus will appeal a court ruling that found the airframer and Air France responsible for the crash of an A330 in 2009. The Paris court of appeal on 21 May decided that the two companies were guilty of manslaughter over the accident of Air France flight AF447, which killed all 216 passengers and 12 crew on board. The aircraft was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it crashed into the south Atlantic after a high-altitude stall triggered by unreliable speed indications caused by sensor icing. Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury says that "it is hard to understand the decision made by the Paris court of appeal, which stands in contradiction to previous judicial rulings". The manufacturer cites a 2019 judicial order to drop charges against Airbus and Air France, and their acquittal in 2023. Faury says that Airbus has since the crash been "steadfast" in its commitment to assist judicial authorities and technical investigators in understanding the accident and "draw every possible lesson" to enhance safety standards. "Safety is at the heart of everything we do," he asserts, adding: "It guides every decision we make and every action we take, every single day." French pilot union SNPL has welcomed the appeal court's decision, noting that it found it "unacceptable to place the responsibility for the outcome of this accident solely on the pilots". The ruling affirms that the crash "cannot be reduced to an isolated human error but is the result of multiple failures", the union adds.

Emirates has refurbished the first of 15 Airbus A380s previously configured with a two-class cabin layout, as part of its wider fleet upgrade programme. The aircraft (A6-EUX) had been fitted with 615 seats: 557 in economy and 58 in business. Now, it has 569 seats across three classes: 76 in business, 56 in premium economy and 437 in standard coach. The widebody has returned to service. Emirates highlights that the new cabin configuration features, for the first time across its A380 operation, premium economy seats on the aircraft's upper deck, installed in a two-three-two layout. Refurbishment of the aircraft at Emirates' maintenance facility at Dubai International airport took two months, including planning and testing, says the carrier. It targets halving the required refurbishment time to 30 days per aircraft and completing the retrofit of the other 14 two-class A380s by year-end. Emirates uses four different cabin layouts across its 116 A380s: a 615-seat two-class configuration, a 517-seat three-class long-range one, a 489-seat three-class ultra-long-range one, and a 484-seat four-class ultra-long-range one. Emirates' passenger fleet also spans 119 Boeing 777-300ERs, 10 777-200LRs and 19 A350-900s. It has 54 A350s, 30 787s and 270 777X jets on order. As part of its ongoing refurbishment programme, Emirates has so far processed 53 777s and 42 A380s, representing more than a third of its current fleet, it says. The carrier disclosed the programme in 2021, with an initial target to complete 120 aircraft. Subsequently, this was expanded to 219 (110 A380s and 109 777s). The aim is to offer customers "a truly elevated experience", states Emirates Airline president Tim Clark, adding: "Our engineering team has been working continuously and at pace, in close collaboration with an ecosystem of partners and suppliers, to meticulously refresh and integrate the best-in-class products to each aircraft in the programme [and] has raised the bar at every step, in terms of complexity, scale and detailed craftsmanship."