Connecting Skies • Bridging Continents
Undeclared lithium item detections at OR Tambo International Airport baggage screening have fallen by more than half since January, from around 2,000 rejections to about 1,000 across all airlines, as LIFT publishes an explanation of why cabin crew instructions exist – and what passengers most commonly get wrong about the batteries in their hand luggage. […]
Boeing and Archer Aviation have signed definitive agreements under which Archer will acquire Wisk Aero, SkyGrid and Insitu (businesses with nearly two million combined flight hours) while Boeing takes a strategic stake in Archer and retains access to Wisk’s core autonomous flight technology through a technology-sharing arrangement. The deal is expected to close by the
A week-long kaizen at GE Aerospace’s Lynn Component Manufacturing site in Massachusetts has taken preventive maintenance compliance on a critical 2,400-degree heat-treat oven from around 15 per cent to 100 per cent, and lifted the number of reliably operating ovens from four to six – with the operators who run them credited as the source
The US Department of Transportation has extended its enforcement pause on four provisions of the 2024 Wheelchair Rule from December 2026 to April 2027, and has added a fifth: the annual hands-on flight attendant training requirement for on-board wheelchair and lavatory accessibility, due to take effect on 2 October 2026. The addition follows a request
EirTrade Aviation Maintenance has secured authorisations from the Bailiwick of Guernsey 2-REG, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands and the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority for its facility at Ireland West Airport Knock, opening the site to the offshore registries on which much of the aircraft leasing industry places its assets. FOLLOWING THE REGISTRIES
SAS has been named Europe’s most punctual airline in Cirium’s On-Time Performance report for July 2026, recording an 84.32 per cent on-time arrival rate during peak summer — a figure below its own full-year 2025 average, which illustrates how much harder July is than the rest of the calendar. A RANKING WON IN THE MONTH
Emirates and South African Airways have expanded their codeshare into a reciprocal agreement covering nine new routes — three South African domestic and six regional links from Johannesburg into the DRC, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Regulatory approvals have been secured, ending an arrangement that has operated on a unilateral basis since 1997. FROM UNILATERAL
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, the US Air Force Test Pilot School and industry partners have demonstrated sensor-driven autonomy on a fighter aircraft, with an AI agent aboard the X-62 VISTA using targeting information from an operational Legion Pod sensor to fly 27 intercepts against a live T-38 across eight flights. CLOSING THE SENSOR-TO-ACTION LOOP IN
The Fuerza Aeroespacial Colombiana has signed for two KC-390 Millennium multi-mission aircraft with mission equipment, an integrated support package and an offset programme, making Colombia the thirteenth country to select the type and adding an aerial refuelling capability configured to operate alongside its recently acquired Gripen fighters. A TANKER-TRANSPORT CHOSEN WITH THE FIGHTER FLEET IN
Joby Aviation and Atoms, the industrial AI and infrastructure company founded by Travis Kalanick, have formed a strategic partnership to acquire and develop vertiport sites in Florida, New York, Texas and California — the markets where Joby is preparing early operations under the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. BUILDING THE GROUND SIDE BEFORE THE AIRCRAFT
