Flightline 31 - September 18, 2025

China Eastern Airlines (MU) is set to launch what will be the world’s longest direct commercial flight beginning December 4, 2025, linking Shanghai Pudong (PVG) to Buenos Aires (EZE) via Auckland (AKL). The one-flight-number service will use a Boeing 777-300ER and cover over 12,000 miles with the westbound leg taking about 29 hours, including a ~2-hour stop in Auckland during which passengers stay on board. The return eastbound journey will be shorter at approximately 25½ hours, thanks to favorable winds. The route will fly twice weekly in each direction and represents a major milestone in ultra-long-haul operations. No airline has yet offered a flight of so many hours on one aircraft with one flight number.

Xiamen Airlines (MF) will open a 3x weekly route from the “futuristic” city of Fuzhou (FOC) to Surabaya, Indonesia (SUB) on October 25. The route will be operated by Boeing 737-800 equipment.

Air Côte d’Ivoire (HF) has pushed back the start of flights from Abidjan (ABJ) to Paris deGaulle (CDG) by a month. The Airbus A300-900 route is now planned 6x weekly from October 15.

South Korean discounter T’way Air (TW) will add two Japanese routes from Busan

IndiGo (6E) will begin 3x weekly service from Mumbai (BOM) to Coepnhagen (CPH) on November 18. This route will be operated by Norse Atlantic (N0) Boeing 787-9s.

Akasa Air (QP) is set to begin twice weekly flights from Bangalore, India (BLR) to Jeddah (JED) on October 26. This route will be flown by Boeing 737 MAX 8 equipment.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL) will go to a year-round operation on its Amsterdam (AMS) to Miami (MIA) service when the winter season concludes in late-March.

Aer Lingus (EI) will add a 5x weekly run from Dublin (DUB) to Raleigh, N.C. (RDU) on April 13. This route will be operated by Airbus A321XLR equipment.

American Airlines (AA) will bring back several summer seasonal trans-Atlantic flights earlier than planned next year:

El Al Israel Airlines (LY) will add a one-off rotation from Tel Aviv (TLV) to Las Vegas (LAS) on January 5, with the return leg operating on January 10. These Boeing 787-9 flights are scheduled for the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show.

Air France (AF) will run two rotations fro Paris deGaulle to San Diego (SAN) in April, with Airbus A350-900 flights on April 17 and 22.

Sun Country Airlines (SY) has scheduled a seasonal run from Appleton, Wis. (ATW) to Fort Myers, Fla. (RSW) early net year. Twice weekly flights will start in late January and run into March. A Boeing 737-800 will operate this route.

Xiamen Airlines will add routes from Hangzhou, China (HGH) and Quanzhou, China (JJN) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL) this winter. The first will operate 3x weekly while the second is a 4x weekly run. Both routes are set to be operated by Boeing 737-800 equipment and run from late October until mid-March.

Delta Air Lines (DL) will add a pair of trans-Atlantic routes from New York Kennedy (JFK) this summer: 4x weekly to Olbia, Italy (OLB) from late May and 3x weekly to Malta (MLA) from early June. Both routes will be operated by Boeing 767-300/ER equipment; this is the first nonstop sector from the U.S. to Malta in nearly 40 years.

Icelandair (FI) will end service from Reykjavik (KEF) to Detroit (DTW) on January 3.

Greater Bay Airlines (HB) is ending two routes from Hong Kong (HKG) to Japan at the end of the month: Tokushima (TKS) and Yonago (YGJ).

Airlines are facing a sharp rise in “fume events,” when oil or hydraulic fluid leaks into cabin air. A Wall Street Journal review found incidents increased from about 12 per million departures in 2014 to nearly 108 per million in 2024, with the Airbus A320 family most affected. Crews report neurological symptoms such as tremors and slowed reaction times, while passengers have also been impacted. Regulators and airlines have downplayed risks, and inconsistent reporting plus a lack of sensors leave the problem undercounted. Airbus plans a design fix on new aircraft starting in 2026, but the trend points to a growing safety concern.

I always find the details and costs of running an airport fascinating. At Dallas/Fort Worth, for example, the board recently approved a $2.34 million contract to purchase 19 self-service bag drops and 38 self-service check-in kiosks for its international terminal. Another contract covers auto liability insurance for the airport’s entire fleet of owned and leased vehicles, with the one-year policy costing $385,000. On the vehicle side, the airport board has authorized $11.5 million to acquire 84 new vehicles, including pickup trucks, sedans, police cars, vans, and ambulances. Older vehicles are typically retired through auction.

June was a rough month for American Airlines’ regional subsidiary PSA Airlines (OH). Only 59 percent of the regional airline’s flights arrived on time, and nearly seven percent of its 21,161 planned flights were canceled. A pair of Envoy Air (MQ) regional flights suffered tarmac delays of five and nearly six hours at Fort Myers, Fla. (RSW) on June 2. Here are the rest of the most recent monthly performance metrics posted by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS):

Starting January 1, 2026, Lufthansa Group will centralize several key management functions across its European subsidiaries, to include Austrian Airlines (OS), Brussels Airlines (SN), Lufthansa (DL), and Swiss (LX), to boost efficiency and profitability. The changes cover organizational structure, financial management, network planning for short and medium-haul routes, and group-wide cross-airline cooperation. As part of this, core areas like IT and commercial offering management will shift from the subsidiaries to group functions. This move is likely to improve cost efficiencies across the group, reduce duplication of work, and sharpen competitiveness.

🏈 For those of you interested in NFL charter flights, JetTip.net keeps a pretty good tally each week of what teams are flying which airlines to their next game.

Cirium released its monthly on-time reports for August 2025, so let’s take a look at the most punctual airlines in Asia/Pacific and Europe for August 2025. Our next issue will feature Latin America and African airline results.

U.S. scheduled passenger airlines closed out the second quarter of 2025 with $4 billion dollars in after-tax net income and a $5 billion dollar operating profit before tax. That marks a modest gain over Q2 2024’s net income of $3.8 billion but a slide from its higher pre-tax profit of $6.3 billion in that same quarter.

Revenue for Q2 2025 reached $65.7 billion dollars, while total operating expenses were about $60.7 billion dollars. Labor costs consumed roughly 38 percent of revenue, up from 35.7 percent year over year. Fares were still the dominant revenue source at 75.1 percent of total revenue, though slightly down from 75.5 percent in 2024.

Breaking it down further, domestic operations earned an after-tax profit of $2.2 billion dollars, a rebound from a loss in the first quarter of 2025. International operations added $1.8 billion in profit. In both segments revenue grew, though margins showed some compression: system-wide net margin was 6.1 percent, up from 5.8 percent a year earlier, while operating margin dropped to 7.6 percent from 9.6 percent in Q2 2024. Domestic operating margin in particular saw a sharper drop.

Delta/AeroMexico JV to End: The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has ordered that the long-standing joint venture between Delta Air Lines and Grupo Aeroméxico be dissolved by January 1, 2026. This decision ends the antitrust immunity granted in 2016 that allowed the two carriers to coordinate pricing, scheduling, and capacity on U.S.-Mexico City routes. The DOT said Mexico’s government interfered with fair competition at Mexico City’s Benito Juárez Airport (MEX) by restricting slots and forcing cargo airlines to relocate operations, distorting the market and giving Delta and AeroMéxico (AM) an unfair advantage. Although the deeper cooperation must end, the carriers will still maintain codeshares, flight operations as normal for now, and reciprocal frequent flyer relations. Delta has expressed concern over potential impacts on U.S. jobs, fares, and route availability.

BIG BROTHER: A new contract obtained by 404 Media shows the scale of passenger data being sold by the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), a data broker owned by major U.S. carriers including American Airlines, Delta, United Airlines (UA), and Southwest Airlines (WN). ARC sells access to five billion ticketing records to U.S. government agencies, allowing warrantless searches of names, flight itineraries, and financial information. The data comes from more than 270 airlines and over 12,800 travel agencies.

ARC’s program, known as the Travel Intelligence Program (TIP), updates daily with the previous day’s ticket sales. It allows agencies such as the FBI, Secret Service, ICE, and the IRS to search travel data by name, airline, or credit card. A new contract shows the Secret Service will pay ARC $885,000 for access to this system through 2028. Other agencies, including ATF, TSA, and the State Department, also use the data. ATF confirmed it uses the system for cases related to firearms trafficking and said access is tightly limited.

Critics argue this system enables mass surveillance without proper oversight. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said Americans’ privacy rights should not hinge on whether they purchase tickets directly from airlines or through agencies, and he called for passage of his Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. Privacy concerns are compounded by ARC’s past secrecy, as the group previously asked the government not to reveal where passenger data originated.

ARC defends the program, saying it was created after the September 11 attacks and has helped prevent threats ranging from terrorism to drug trafficking. The corporation now allows consumers to request that their data not be sold, and in June it registered as a data broker in California after media scrutiny and pressure from Senator Wyden’s office.

Air cargo volumes on the India-US route have dropped sharply after Washington raised tariffs on Indian imports. Weekly volumes have declined roughly 12-percent in recent weeks as importers reduce demand following the tariff hikes. Shippers had rushed to dispatch goods ahead of the new duties, but once they kicked in the flow of airfreight fell off significantly. The moves reflect how trade policy shifts can disrupt air cargo patterns almost immediately, forcing exporters and forwarders to adjust routing and scheduling to avoid increased costs.

DHL Express has opened a new international hub at Barcelona (BCN) after investing eighty million euros. The facility covers a 29,000 square meter site including a 10,000 square meter warehouse and 3,000 square meter office space. The hub can process up to 20,000 pieces per hour, and its sorting capacity is seven times greater than the previous facility. It serves Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Andorra, and is designed as a connection point for air routes to Europe, the Americas, and North Africa. The new hub was built in under two years and comes in response to a 30 percent rise in shipment volume over the past five years, primarily driven by growth in e-commerce. DHL currently operates ten daily flights from its own network in Barcelona plus connections on six other intercontinental commercial flights. It plans to add two more network flights and boost connectivity.

🇲🇹 9H-WMK, an Airbus A321-271neo, was delivered to Wizz Air Malta (W4) on September 17.

🇨🇳 B-32PS, an Airbus A321-251neo, was delivered to China Eastern Airlines (MU) on September 17.

🇬🇧 G-TTSH, an Airbus A320-251neo, was delivered to British Airways (BA) on September 17.

🇰🇷 HL8567, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, was delivered to Korean Air (KE) on September 16.

🇵🇦 HP-9809CMP, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, was delivered to Copa Airlines (CM) on September 16.

🇺🇸 N770CK, a Boeing 777-36N(ER)/F, was delivered to Kalitta Air (K4) on September 13. This frame was previously A6-EB) with Emirates (EK) in a passenger configuration from 2006-2023.

🇺🇸 N771CK, a Boeing 777-36N(ER)/F, was delivered to Kalitta Air on September 16. This frame was previously A6-EBN with Emirates in a passenger configuration from 2006-2021.

🇺🇸 N8971L, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, was delivered to Southwest Airlines on September 16.

🇺🇸 N912UP, a Boeing 767-300(ER)/F, was delivered to United Parcel Service (5X) on September 17.

$AAL ( ▼ 1.44% ) $ALGT ( ▼ 2.82% ) $ALK ( ▲ 1.11% ) $BA ( ▲ 0.95% ) $CPA ( ▼ 0.36% ) $DAL ( ▼ 2.8% ) $FLYY ( ▼ 2.78% ) $JBLU ( ▼ 2.87% ) $LUV ( ▼ 0.58% ) $MESA ( 0.0% ) $RJET ( 0.0% ) $SNCY ( ▼ 1.99% ) $UAL ( ▼ 0.43% ) $ULCC ( ▼ 5.17% )