LONDON - Qantas trials its London - Sydney nonstop service with a test flight that left Heathrow airport with 50 passengers Thursday., Serving airlines that will operate flights lasting 14 hours or longer is a "key consideration” for Boeing global growth strategy over the next 20 years, an executive said.

CAPE TOWN - South African Airways (SAA) said on Wednesday it might never recover if a strike by labour unions goes ahead this week, underscoring how close the state-owned company is to collapse. The airline had to cancel nearly all its schedule for Friday and Saturday in the wake of industrial action.

SEATTLE - Boeing took 10 new plane orders last month, but saw some customers swapping the U.S. planemaker's grounded 737 MAX planes in favor of more expensive wide-body planes as doubts lingered about the MAX's return to service, which the manufacturer expects by January 2020.

CAPE TOWN - South African Airways (SAA) said it had started consultations with its more than 5,000 staff and was talking to labour unions. The airline has not made an annual profit since 2011 and is grappling with severe funding difficulties and an inefficient and ageing fleet of airplanes.

SYDNEY - Qantas Airways on Monday pledged to slash its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, joining British Airways owner IAG as the industry's response to climate change activists gathers momentum. The Australian airline will invest in research on biofuels to cap emissions at 2020 levels.

BRUSSELS - Nine European Union states have called on the bloc's incoming executive Commission to introduce an EU-wide tax on aviation so as to charge a polluting industry more for its emissions and put all member states on level pegging. The industry set itself an ambitious 2050 target.

LONDON - The bill to fix Rolls-Royce's Trent 1000 engine has risen by another 800 million pounds ($1 billion) as the aerospace group battles to reduce disruption to airline customers that have had to ground Boeing 787 passenger planes for repairs. The problem fix will extend into 2023.

JAKARTA - Lion Air has found structural cracks in two Boeing Co 737 NG planes with fewer flights than a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) threshold for checks, Indonesia's aviation safety regulator said on Friday. The issue becomes a widespread concern among 737 operators worldwide.

OSLO - Norwegian Air's third fundraising from investors in 20 months could be the airline's final chance to prove it can make money from cheap transatlantic air travel, one of its major shareholders said on Wednesday. It said the money would cover its needs "through 2020 and beyond based on the current business plan".

LONDON - British Airways owner IAG scaled back its forecast for capacity growth for the next three years on Friday, hitting its outlook for earnings per share as the prospects for the global economy remained weak. The airline group braces for a "soft" 2020 macroeconomic environment.

DOHA - India's largest airline, IndiGo , and Qatar Airways will make a strategic business announcement on Thursday, which media reports said would involve a codeshare agreement. Qatar has in the past shown interest in investing in IndiGo but the Indian airline has resisted.

MADRID - IAG the parent of British Airways and Spain’s Iberia, announced a 1 billion euro ($1.12 billion) takeover of Spain’s Air Europa to boost its presence on routes to Latin America and the Caribbean. The deal follows a setback in Latin America for IAG - and raises competition concerns at rivals.

JAKARTA - Lion Air is targeting a flotation of up to $1 billion in the first quarter of 2020 amid a "market of stability", several sources close to the matter said, as the Indonesian airline resumes growth after a year dominated by the fatal crash of one of its Boeing 737 MAX jets near Jakarta.

LONDON - British Airways owner IAG said on Monday it had agreed to buy Spanish carrier Air Europa for 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) in cash as it set its sights on the market in European travel to Latin America. IAG will tie Air Europa to Iberia to strenghen its Madrid hub operation.

LONDON - Low-cost airline Easyjet has added baggage services to its flight-connections partnership with two budget long-haul carriers flying from Paris, in a move that challenges Air France on transatlantic and Caribbean leisure routes. Air France is eager to counter the step with Transavia.

DUBLIN - Ryanair said on Monday it expects to take delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX in March at the earliest, two months later than it last forecast, pushing its passenger growth for next year to its lowest level in years. In July it said it hoped to receive it in January. The airline remains "cautious" for its guidance.

STOCKHOLM - Norwegian investor Petter Stordalen and private equity firms Altor and TDR Capital have agreed to buy the Nordic business of collapsed travel company Thomas Cook. The nordic Thomas Cook arm generated a 108 million Euro operating profit in 2018 and has a headcount of 2,300 employees.

TOULOUSE _ Indian budget airline IndiGo is close to placing a near-record order for more than 300 Airbus A320neo-family jets worth at least $33 billion at recent catalogue prices to cement its position as India's largest carrier by market share. The deal is expected to include A321XLR long-range aircraft.

BEIJING - Beijing's new $63 billion Daxing airport began its first scheduled international flights on Sunday as it ramped up operations to help relieve pressure on the city's existing Capital airport. British Airways was among the first carriers to shift their Beijing operations to the new airport.

LONDON - The airline industry needs to take strong action to reduce carbon emissions and withstand the "flight shame" movement by environmentalists seeking to reduce commercial flying, an executive for London's Heathrow airport said on Friday. The airports expects "global hubs" to be less effected by the movement.