The US Federal Aviation Administration tells Cirium that it plans a two-day meeting with airlines “in early May” to discuss ways to ease air space congestion in Florida, where airlines endured flight delays during the first quarter due in part to overextended air traffic controllers. Air traffic controller staff employed by the FAA in that state faced challenges managing airline flights in Florida amid severe weather, rocket launches and other factors, the agency says. “At the same time, the number of flights scheduled for Florida’s busiest airports has rebounded to well above pre-pandemic levels,” the FAA says. “The combination of these factors leaves little margin for the system to absorb flight delays, particularly during periods of peak travel demand, such as weekends and holidays.” Florida is a major leisure travel destination and has kept loose travel restrictions during the Covid-19, so congestion on routes to that state complicates network plans for US airlines. Frontier Airlines chief executive Barry Biffle during an earnings call on 28 April said the Denver-based carrier plans to reduce capacity at certain airports in Florida in response to what he calls the “unsustainable” shortage of air traffic controllers in that state. “We are going to be smaller in Florida in the near-term as a result,” Biffle says. JetBlue Airways is also concerned, as around 46% of flights operated during April by that carrier began or ended at Florida airports, data shows. The shortage of air traffic controllers employed by the FAA at Florida airports could be “a more protracted” problem for capacity planning compared with pilot shortages and other operational challenges facing airlines, JetBlue president and chief operating officer Joanna Geraghty said on 26 April during an earnings call. The FAA in recent days has advertised grants to train students to become aviation workers, and its plan to spend $1 billion during 2022 on the US air traffic control system, made possible by the newly-enacted Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Airline alliance SkyTeam has temporarily suspended the membership of Russian carrier Aeroflot in the wake of the country's invasion of Ukraine and the corresponding sanctions regime. In a brief statement, SkyTeam says the action was agreed with Aeroflot and that it is "working to limit the impact for customers and will inform those affected by any changes to SkyTeam benefits and services". Although mostly symbolic, the move further isolates Russia from the rest of the world, with connections to Western countries having been severed by the impact of sanctions and airspace closures. Even airlines from countries that have not sanctioned Russia have frequently had to cease operations to the country because their insurance, issued in Europe or the US, has been invalidated by sanctions. Meanwhile the commandeering of Western-owned aircraft leased by Russian carriers means that Aeroflot and other airlines based in the country have increasingly become domestic-only operators. Aeroflot joined SkyTeam in 2006, becoming the first Russian carrier to join an airline alliance. It's removal follows the suspension of fellow Russian carrier S7 from Oneworld earlier this month and leaves no Russian carrier with membership of an alliance.

Air China reported an operating loss of CNY10.5 billion ($1.6 billion) in the first quarter, increasing from the CNY8.65 billion loss reported in 2020. Revenue fell 11% to CNY12.9 billion, the group says in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Net loss attributable to shareholders widened to CNY8.9 billion from the loss of CNY6.2 billion loss mainly due to the “combined effects of the domestic sporadic outbreak of the pandemic and the rising aviation fuel price”. Operating costs remained flat at CNY23.1 billion. As on 31 March, the carrier had a cash and cash equivalents of CNY11.2 billion versus CNY15.9 billion at the start of the quarter.