Lufthansa Group plans to keep its Airbus A380s in operation until at least 2030, having refitted the type with new Allegris business-class seats. During a briefing on third-quarter results, chief executive Carsten Spohr described the superjumbo as a "great aircraft" for its high-season summer routes when tickets sell out. "Customers love it, and our crews love it," he says, adding that it has "five years plus" still to run in Lufthansa service. Fleets data shows that Lufthansa's eight A380s, which have an average age of 13 years, are among 177 in service globally, compared with 234 at the end of pre-pandemic 2019. There are 29 in storage. Amid the Covid crisis, Lufthansa mothballed its A380 fleet and accelerated a plan to retire six of the aircraft. These are among a total of 48 A380s that have been retired globally. High operating costs have been cited as a factor in decisions to retire A380s, though some such pandemic-era moves have been reversed amid resurgent demand and lack of aircraft availability. Spohr says Lufthansa's phasing out of the A380 will depend on the arrival of the Airbus A350-1000 and Boeing 777-9. First delivery of the latter is now scheduled for 2027, Boeing said on 28 October. Lufthansa, which has 20 of the passenger variant on order, has previously been identified as its launch customer. The first 777-9 was originally scheduled to arrive in 2020. The German group intends to phase out A340s, A330-200s, 747-400s, 767s and 777-200s by 2028 at the latest. It has confirmed it will continue to fly its A340-600s next summer, in response to high demand. With the planned arrival of on-order 777-9s and A350-1000s, Lufthansa will operate six different long-haul aircraft variants from 2030, down from eight currently. The six will include its in-service aircraft the A350-900, 787-9 and 747-8.

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have obtained a single operating certificate from the US Federal Aviation Administration, just over a year after the two carriers combined. The airlines will now operate under Alaska’s "AS" call sign, although they will retain their individual brand identities. "This was a year-long, multi-phase effort involving multiple departments and thousands of hours of work," states Alaska Air Group chief executive Ben Minicucci, adding that the single operating certificate marks "an important step in our journey as a combined organisation". The next steps include combining scheduling and passenger service systems (PSS), and integrating flight crew, airport and maintenance staff under joint collective bargaining agreements. In April, Alaska and Hawaiian will move to a single PSS. Diana Birkett Rakow has now assumed her new role as chief executive of Hawaiian, succeeding Joe Sprague who is retiring. She was previously Hawaiian’s executive vice-president of public affairs and sustainability. Other leadership changes at the Honolulu-based carrier include senior vice-president technical operations Jim Landers becoming head of Hawaii operations, and Shelly Parker, formerly Horizon Air’s vice-president station operations, becoming head of guest operations.

AirAsia X and Capital A have met all conditions for the proposed disposal of AirAsia Aviation Group, paving the way for the consolidation of all AirAsia-branded airlines. All conditions precedent to the share sale and purchase agreement have been fulfilled or waived as of 29 October, according to their respective filings to Bursa Malaysia. With the fulfilment of conditions, Capital A says it "will determine and announce the Entitlement Date for the Proposed Distribution in due course." Under the restructuring, AirAsia X is also expected to raise MYR1 billion ($238 billion) through a private equity placement. Capital A had said earlier this month that the disposal of its aviation unit is expected to be done by December after multiple rounds of delays.