Boeing in June and July produced "roughly" 25 737 Max aircraft each month, and foresees that it will reach a rate of 38 per month by the end of this year. The US airframer is allowed to produce no more than 38 units per month under the US Federal Aviation Administration's production cap. In late May, Boeing delivered to the FAA a comprehensive action plan addressing its systemic quality-control issues. That was part of the FAA's increased oversight of Boeing in the wake of the Max 9 door-plug blow-out accident in January. "We've got proof points that [say] we've got a real ability to hit our 38 per month as we exit the year," said Boeing chief financial officer Brian West during a 31 July earnings call. "[With] the 737 rate ramps, keep in mind [that at the] beginning part of this year, we were very, very low production, like single digit. And now we're getting to the point in June, July, where we're kind of mid-20s. August will likely be an improvement." He notes that Boeing has reactivated the third production line in its Renton, Washington factory. Additionally, Boeing has transferred its fuselage inspection process from Renton to Wichita, Kansas, the home of fuselage supplier Spirit AeroSystems. Boeing on 1 July disclosed that it had agreed to acquire Spirit, a deal which the airframer expects will close in mid-2025, and which is subject to regulatory approval. "The [Renton] factory is currently operating within or near the KPI control limits laid out with the FAA as part of the safety and quality plan," West says. "[It is] operating with all fully inspected fuselages today, and near-term production will continue to be paced by fuselages from Wichita. More broadly on the master schedule, we continue to make adjustments as needed, and that is supplier by supplier based on inventory levels. Our objective remains to keep the supply chain paced ahead of final assembly to support stability and minimise travelled work." Outgoing chief executive Dave Calhoun notes that Boeing this year has nearly tripled the number of its on-site inspectors at Spirit's base in Wichita. "Defects we initially caught and reworked in Renton are now caught and reworked in Wichita," Calhoun says. "While this dramatically reduced the number of clean fuselages coming from Spirit in the first few months, we have seen steady improvement ever since. The improvements in quality have significantly improved our Renton flow times over that same period."

Rolls-Royce has reported an underlying operating profit of £1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) for the first half, up from £673 million in the same period of 2023. Revenue grew 18% to £8.18 billion, while pre-tax profit almost doubled to £1 billion from £524 million a year earlier, the UK engine manufacturer says. It adds that the largest improvement was in the civil aerospace division, which delivered an operating margin of 18% versus 12% in the same period of 2023, driven by higher aftermarket profit from large-engine long-term service agreements and time and materials, and stronger business-aviation performance in both original equipment and aftermarket, along with net contractual margin improvements. "Our strong first-half results reflect the continued delivery of our strategic initiatives and a relentless focus on commercial optimisation and cost efficiencies across the group," states Rolls-Royce chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic. "These results and our increased financial resilience give us the confidence to raise our 2024 guidance and reinstate shareholder distributions in respect of the full year 2024 results." The manufacturer has raised its full-year guidance and now expects underlying operating profit of £2.1-2.3 billion.

Wizz Air is facing heightened air traffic control problems in eastern Europe which are seriously hampering the airline's summer operations, chief executive Jozsef Varadi has warned. Presenting the airlines results for its fiscal first quarter, Varadi commented that Wizz's slot restrictions were "through the roof" given reduced ATC capacity in central and eastern Europe. That region represents the "backbone" of Wizz's network – particularly Romania and Hungary, where the carrier is based. A large proportion of its traffic passes through an air corridor that traverses the two countries, especially given that Ukrainian airspace is currently closed. Yet despite capacity in those two countries having recovered to above pre-Covid levels, they are "not even at pre-Covid cap levels in terms of ATC", Varadi observes. The result is that slot restrictions through the three months to end-June were twice the level of last year, resulting in delay and extra costs. "It's bad," he tells investors, echoing similar complaints from the wider sector about ATC preparedness in Europe. Such issues have a knock-on impact on Wizz in terms of EU261 compensation, crewing and customer satisfaction, notes Varadi, adding: "There is lots of consequential damage." Wizz Air achieved a 67.6% on-time performance through the quarter, up 7.1 percentage points on last year.