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CAPA News Briefs

CAPA publishes more than 1,000 global News Briefs every week, covering all aspects of the aviation and travel industry. It’s the most comprehensive source of market intelligence in the world, with around 50 per cent of content translated from non-English sources. The breadth of our coverage means you won’t need any other news sources to monitor competitors and stay informed about the latest developments in the wider aviation sector.

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Below is a sample of the latest news headlines. 151 news briefs have been published for CAPA Members in the past 2 days.

Air France announced (11-Dec-2025) plans to open a new lounge in Terminal 4 at London Heathrow Airport in spring 2026. The lounge will be reserved for the airline's La Première, Business and Flying Blue Elite Plus customers, as well as eligible travellers flying with KLM and SkyTeam alliance partner airlines. The 750sqm lounge was designed in collaboration with SGK Brandimage and features approximately 150 seats. [more - original PR]

Background ✨

Air France has recently expanded its premium lounge network, opening new or renovated facilities in key international markets such as Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago O'Hare, with similar access policies for La Première, Business, and Flying Blue Elite Plus customers, as well as eligible KLM and SkyTeam passengers1 2 3. It also invested in exclusive experiences for La Première passengers at Paris Charles de Gaulle4.

US Department of Transportation (DoT) reported (11-Dec-2025) the following traffic highlights for all carriers for Sep-2025:

  • Passengers: 86.1 million, -1.6% year-on-year;
    • Domestic: 67.4 million, -0.9%;
    • International: 18.7 million, -4.2%;
  • RPM: -1.0%;
    • Domestic: -1.0%;
    • International: +5.1%;
  • ASM: +1.2%;
    • Domestic: -0.5%;
    • International: +2.9%;
  • Passenger load factor: 80.5%, -1.9pp;
    • Domestic: 81.0%, -0.5pp;
    • International: 80.0%, -3.2pp;
  • Number of flights: 790,726, -0.2%;

Turkish Airlines and Phnom Penh Techo Takhmao International Airport, via their official LinkedIn accounts, announced (11-Dec-2025) the carrier launched three times weekly Istanbul-Phnom Penh service.

Background ✨

Phnom Penh Techo Takhmao International Airport commenced operations on 09-Sep-2025, replacing Phnom Penh International Airport1. Turkish Airlines' new Istanbul-Phnom Penh service began on 11-Dec-2025 and was confirmed by Cambodia Airports and Cambodia's State Secretariat of Civil Aviation spokesperson Sinn Chanserey Vutha2 3.

flyadeal CEO Steven Greenway, in an interview in the CAPA - Centre for Aviation report entitled: 'Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030: An Evolving Market for Air Travel', stated (12-Dec-2025) the airline plans to launch services with A330neo aircraft to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines to capture pilgrim and worker traffic before adding selected European markets for pilgrim travel. Mr Greenway said: "We are testing the market to convert to scheduled services depending on demand. So, our own A330s have a potentially bigger operational scope". He said the A330neos "will be high utilisation and high density configuration" to target "high volume, low yield markets for Hajj and Umrah pilgrim travel" while maintaining "the lowest possible unit cost". [more - CAPA Report]

Air India and Scoot signed (11-Dec-2025) an interline agreement. Under the agreement, Air India passengers can travel from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai to Singapore and connect to Scoot services from Singapore to more than 60 destinations in the Asia Pacific region, all under a single itinerary. This includes multiple destinations "not covered by any of the airline's other existing [interline] partnerships", including Macau, Padang, Labuan, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Langkawi, Ipoh, Kuantan, Miri, Sibu, Malacca, Kota Bharu, Davao, Koh Samui, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc. [more - original PR]

Background ✨

Air India planned to increase its Chennai-Singapore service to twice daily from 01-Aug-2025, a route also operated by Scoot, Singapore Airlines and IndiGo1. Air India and Singapore Airlines also expanded their codeshare arrangement from 27-Oct-2024, enabling Air India customers to access 29 destinations on Singapore Airlines' network and vice versa, with further destinations to be added progressively2.

Air New Zealand announced (11-Dec-2025) the opening of its new Lookout Lounge on level 2 of Auckland International Airport's terminal on 12-Dec-2025. The lounge will be open daily from 05:00 to 10:00 and from 15:30 to 21:15. The airline plans to commence construction of Koru lounges at the airport in 2026, with the project to be delivered in two stages. The existing Koru Lounge will remain open with reduced capacity while work is completed on the Koru Premier Lounge for Koru Platinum, Koru Black and Business Premier customers, due to open in 2027. Following this phase, the current lounge space will be redeveloped, with the refreshed Koru Lounge expected to open by late 2027. [more - original PR]

Background ✨

Air New Zealand previously announced that its new flagship Koru Lounge at Auckland International Airport would be approximately 1700sqm larger than the existing facility, with separate spaces for Airpoints Elite and Business Premier customers, as well as for Airpoints Gold, Star Alliance Gold, Airpoints Silver and Koru members1. Qantas also planned to reopen its expanded Auckland International Lounge on 17-Dec-2025, targeting trans-Tasman and New York passengers2.

SAS CEO Anko van der Werff, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit World, stated (11-Dec-2025) "We shouldn't reduce ourselves to a company that just flies planes… Now we're positioning ourselves as retailers [who allow] people with options, such as checking out with their points". Mr van de Werff added: "Everyone's a consumer, everyone buys stuff, this is where the world has evolved to… let's now make that work in our daily business". Mr van de Werff concluded: "Passengers aren't just passengers but people. People who interact with different brands everyday".

EUROCONTROL head of strategy, engagement and institutional relations Predrag Vranjkovic, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit World, stated (11-Dec-2025) the organisation is "coming from a summer" where it performed "much better than the previous year". Mr Vranjkovic attributed the performance to improved processes including weather procedures as well as the "power in harmonisation and cooperation" with partners.

Kenya Airways Group MD and CEO Allan Kilavuka, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit World, stated (11-Dec-2025) "What tends to happen is government increases taxes to make it extremely difficult for aviation… Our biggest problem today in Africa is that we don't have sufficient capacity". Mr Kilavuka highlighted high costs and lack of spare parts as some issued facing African aviation, adding: "We have the highest number of commercial airlines - most with one or two aircraft - which are totally unviable… The faster we move into consolidating the space, embracing AI and coordinating together, the faster we can improve".

Cover Genius co-founder and CEO Angus McDonald, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit World, stated (11-Dec-2025) "Airlines have this incredible consumer base - and consumers trust them to deliver. You're committed when you're sitting on that plane. That trust is something that's really important". Mr McDonald highlighted Cover Genius as a "partnerships business through and through", adding: "I get excited about airlines because I love the number of consumers they have an impact with - and the question is how do we facilitate that next level of experience?"

Cover Genius co-founder and CEO Angus McDonald, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit World, commented (11-Dec-2025) on the company's partnership with SAS, stating: "As SAS goes through the process of premiumisation with a [reintroduced] business class… the question becomes, how do we create different benefits for different customer sets?" Mr McDonald added: "Personalisation means that experience is individualised - it means you get something that makes sense to you… These are the kinds of experiences that we're trying to protect".

British Airways chief planning and strategy officer Neil Chernoff, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit World, stated (11-Dec-2025) "Airlines learned during COVID how to react and how to adapt to environments which are always changing… In a world where there's lots of changes, you have to be able to plan for disruption - and we've embedded that into our planning process".