Southwest Airlines (WN) recorded an on-time arrival rate of 68.90% in October 2026. The airline ranked last among 10 North American carriers in aviation analytics company Cirium’s monthly performance report.

This would mark an interesting departure from the low-cost/hybrid carrier's usual operations, but the long-haul market to and from the US is undeniably a fruitful one. It does already offer interline long-haul connectivity on European routes via carriers such as Condor and Icelandair, but could it be about to cut out the middleman? In terms of second-hand 787 acquisitions, Norse Atlantic is the likely target.

Lauren Rounds, a spokesperson for the City of Dallas’ Department of Aviation, said that Love Field’s operations team was told by Southwest that the airline had been experiencing an intermittent internal network outage Friday morning, impacting boarding pass printing and mobile app scanning.

Executives at all three carriers said on Wednesday that demand remained strong even after price increases, helping them offset much of the higher cost of jet fuel. But ​the latest jump in fuel is prompting them to reassess less-profitable routes late this year and, potentially, into 2027.

Beginning in late 2027, Southwest airport lounges are coming to select airports, creating new spaces where travelers can recharge, reconnect, and relax before their flight.

Southwest Airlines' (SWA) ordinary flight turned into one of the most disturbing aviation cases in history, as the captain of Flight 6607, bound for Orlando from Philadelphia, was accused of stripping naked and watching adult content in the cockpit while his female First Officer continued operating the aircraft.

The co-pilot subsequently reported the incident to SWA's Employee Relations Investigator, leading to a federal criminal case, where he pleaded guilty and was fined $5,000, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Maryland.

However, what followed was that the co-pilot found herself in a challenging situation, as the SWA pilots' union allegedly sided with the captain and retaliated against her for reporting his lewd behavior.

German authorities have confirmed that bomb disposal experts successfully defused a drone armed with explosives, which was found on the tarmac at Leipzig/Halle International Airport in the state of Saxony. The drone was found close to a massive Antonov aircraft, painted in the iconic yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag.

GE Aerospace has flown its modified Saab 340B megawatt-class hybrid-electric testbed at 30,000 ft., representing a milestone for an electric propulsion system operating at standard commercial airline altitudes.

The aircraft, which is on show at the Farnborough Airshow after being flown across the Atlantic from the U.S., incorporates a fully integrated megawatt-class hybrid-electric propulsion system in a modified nacelle in the No.2 right engine position, and retains the standard GE CT7 turboprop in the left position.

The first four streams were from Las Vegas (LAS/KLAS), Sint Maarten (SXM/TNCM), Lanzarote (ACE/GCRR), and New Orleans (MSY/KMSY), which were later joined by streams from Reno (RNO/KRNO) and New York-LaGuardia (LGA/KLGA).

Last year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed that sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) production represents only 0.6% of total jet fuel consumption, well below the 65% target by the global aviation industry to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. SAF currently costs two to five times more than conventional jet fuels, with the hefty price premium creating a significant economic barrier for airlines that operate on razor-thin margins. Additionally, there is not enough global refining capacity or raw materials such as cooking oil and animal fats to produce SAF at the scale required, with producers hesitant to invest without long-term supply agreements. However, a new report has revealed that the world could start sourcing cheap SAF from an unlikely source: a joint study by IECC at UC Berkeley and Energy Innovation has found that India is uniquely positioned to produce enough SAF to supply global markets at costs up to 40% below global benchmarks thanks to the country’s booming renewable energy sector.

Global air traffic growth in 2026 will be more than halved compared to earlier predictions because of the Iran war, Boeing says, though the company forecasts a faster‑than‑usual recovery that will return passenger traffic to its long‑term growth trajectory by the end of 2028.

“We were looking at 6% growth in February before the conflict in the Middle East began, and that reset the expectations for the rest of this year,” says Darren Hulst, vice president of commercial marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The company now expects year‑on‑year passenger growth, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, to be about 2.3% for 2026.

The most pessimistic of pessimists would whisper that the carrier gets broken up in parts and sold, the mentioned slots alone reportedly being valued at more than what at least Castlelake currently has bid for the company. Castlelake has remained coy on its plans, with Apollo on the other hand reportedly supporting the current strategy of easyJet. This further implies that it wouldn’t break up the company and sell it for parts.

Given that we after all are discussing private equity companies, a plausible scenario sees the new owner streamlining and carefully examining the operator for opportunities where cost-cutting measures can be implemented. Perhaps it even seeks to further increase competition with Ryanair, currently weighing in at roughly twice the size when it comes to strict fleet numbers?