After a brief pause due to technical migration from Blogger, Aero-News Journal is now live on our own domain, aeronewsjournal.com. Faster, more secure, and fully owned by us. Thank you for your patience.
We return with three major developments from the past 24 hours:
1. Lufthansa Becomes 2nd Airline To Reject Boeing’s Oldest 777-9s
Lufthansa has confirmed it will NOT take delivery of the earliest-built Boeing 777-9 airframes.
CEO Carsten Spohr said the oldest 777X test aircraft will need extensive modifications to bring them up to current production standard, and Lufthansa will wait for newer-build aircraft. The German carrier — the 777-9 launch customer with 20 firm orders (part of 27 777X including freighters) — now expects its first delivery in Q1 2027.
This follows a similar stance from other customers and means Lufthansa will have to extend its 747-400 and A340-300 fleets longer than planned to cover long-haul capacity.
The 777-9 remains delayed by 5+ years from its original 2020 target, but Boeing says first delivery is still planned for 2027.
2. Airbus Reports Stable July Deliveries, Confirms China Orders
Airbus delivered 46 jets in July, flat versus July last year (47) and down from 60 in June, as engine supply shortages left gliders parked outside factories.
The company said it must average ∼90 deliveries per month for the rest of the year to hit its ∼820 annual target.
On the order side, Airbus confirmed a major China breakthrough — Chinese carriers and China Aviation Supplies are claiming jets from an elusive mega-order, including recent deals for up to 148 A320 family aircraft, while Airbus also secured Chinese clearance to deliver 120 previously blocked jets. The Tianjin FAL remains key to that relationship.
3. FAA Says Marine One Was Briefly Too Close to Passenger Airplane at DCA
The FAA is investigating a separation incident at Reagan Washington National (DCA) on Tuesday.
According to the agency, a military helicopter carrying President Donald Trump — Marine One — departing the Ellipse around 2:33 p.m. was “briefly too close” to a passenger jet departing DCA. The FAA cited a “momentary loss of separation after which the aircraft continued to move away from one another”.
The flight involved was reportedly Envoy Air 3742 departing Runway 1. FAA and NTSB said controllers were in contact with both aircraft and the aircraft were not converging, downplaying it as not a dangerous close call.
The incident comes months after the NTSB flagged over 15,200 close encounters between commercial aircraft and helicopters near DCA since 2021 and called for permanent helicopter route restrictions.
What’s Next?
We’re fully back on daily publishing. If you bookmarked our old Blogger link, please update it to https://aeronewsjournal.com — all old links will redirect.
Got a tip? Contact: aeronewsjournal@gmail.com
Welcome back aboard.