Tariffs imposed or threatened by the US government are a form of emotional manipulation, in the view of IATA's chief economist Marie Owens Thomsen. Speaking on 2 June during a panel discussion at IATA's AGM event in Delhi, Owens Thomsen said "we are totally being manipulated" by ever-changing threats of tariffs. "We should try to avoid being manipulated emotionally," she argues, while acknowledging that such avoidance is difficult at best. "I think we are totally being manipulated… when we jack up tariffs to 150% and then bring them down to 30% maybe or 10%, and think that that's good." She adds: "It's sort of like how I feel about my personal weight. I go high up, and then I go down to something lower, but it's still higher than it was, and that I feel better is obviously mental." Henry Wilkinson, chief intelligence officer at risk-analysis firm Dragonfly, suggested during the panel discussion that the effects of tariffs might run deeper than emotional manipulation, and could serve to destabilise global alliances and extend armed conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. "The question of tariffs is really important," Wilkinson says. "What we're seeing is that this decoupling of nations – this reduction of these economic inter-dependencies – is really critical, and the reason for that is: one, because it removes incentive for peace; but two, it also blunts the effect of sanctions." Describing sanctions as "the primary peaceful [method] for deterring conflict and trying to bring it to a resolution", he asks: "When sanctions are off the table and economic independence is falling, what are the tools of statecraft?"

IndiGo has kicked off its hosting of the IATA Annual General Meeting in Delhi by signing a tentative agreement with Airbus to exercise 30 options for additional Airbus A350-900s. Chief executive Pieter Elbers signed the memorandum of understanding with Airbus executive vice president sales Benoît de Saint-Exupéry during a 1 June media briefing. "We've recently started widebody operations, we're extremely excited about the progress," Elbers says. "We can't wait for Airbus to deliver the A359s and we thought this was a wonderful opportunity to actually double our firm orders from 30 to 60." IndiGo placed its order for 30 A350-900s plus 70 options in April 2024, the first of which will deliver in 2026. The longtime Airbus narrowbody operator has also wet-leased Boeing 777-300ERs from Turkish Airlines and recently inducted its first of six 787-9s wet-leased from Norse Atlantic Airways. Once firmed, the additional A350s will take IndiGo's backlog to 1,400 aircraft, de Saint-Exupéry says. "Just a year ago we were here in Delhi signing the first widebody order with IndiGo and we are excited to be doubling down with your interest to exercise these additional A350s," he said to Elbers.

Delta Air Lines chief executive, Ed Bastian, has offered his full support to a proposal by Virgin Atlantic, to split up London Heathrow airport, in a bid to foster competition. "Speaking for us as Delta, we fully support what Shai Weiss, chief executive at Virgin Atlantic and the team are proposing," he said in response to a question over whether Heathrow's terminals could be hived off to separate owners. Heathrow, Bastian continues, is "maybe the most important airport in the world", he said during a press briefing at IATA’s AGM event in Delhi but is the "toughest to gain access to and the toughest and most expensive to navigate". This was acting as a drain on the facility’s benefit to the UK economy, he adds. Weiss has previously called Heathrow a "de facto monopolistic" airport whose dominant position benefits shareholders at the expense of UK consumers. Taking inspiration from regulations elsewhere, he has proposed that terminals within the airport be owned and operated by different companies at the insistence of regulators. "Why not consider competition in the campus itself?" he asked in November 2022. That was in response to a bid by Heathrow, later partly rebuffed by the Civil Aviation Authority, to increase fees. Airlines have long complained that the facility has the highest airline expenses in the world, pushing up ticket prices. Sitting alongside Bastian, Pieter Elbers, chief executive of IndiGo, notes that there is an "imbalance" in capacity between Europe and India more generally, which means that the majority – around 65% - of seats between the two blocs are on European carriers, partly due to a lack of slots. Breaking up Heathrow could help to remedy the situation, he believes. Meanwhile Ben Smith, who leads Air France-KLM, said his priority regarding Heathrow is to ensure the same quality of services between terminals, "and today that’s not the case". Also speaking in Delhi, Virgin Atlantic's Weiss appeared to rebuke Heathrow boss Thomas Woldbye over his handling of a recent power outage at the facility which forced it to close for several hours. A report commissioned by Heathrow and published on 28 May detailed that Woldbye was asleep with his phone on silent for the first few hours of the issue, leaving a deputy to make the decision to close the airport down. "The last time I put my phone on silent running an airline was never," said Weiss. "I think all my colleagues [on the panel today] would share that observation." He adds that the airline was continuing to push for compensation for the disruption, with airlines and the airport first waiting for the results of several reports that have been commissioned into the outage. Estimates of the cost of the outage run into the hundreds of millions of pounds, with IAG estimating it alone took a hit of €50 million ($57 million). "We expect [Heathrow] to do the right thing," says Weiss, adding that "once the dust settles, our bill is coming."