Analysis Reports

After taking delivery of the 500th aircraft in the group fleet in the latter part of 2025, Turkish Airlines has articulated a vision to reach a fleet of 1,000 aircraft by 2036.

The group, founded in 1933, had to wait 73 years to receive its 100th aircraft in Aug-2006. It received its 300th aircraft less than 10 years later, in Feb-2016, and it took delivery of its 400th as recently as Mar-2023.

Turkish Airlines' fleet was small compared with Europe's big three legacy airline groups 20 years ago, but it is now approaching their size.

Its expansion can be attributed to its recognised product and service quality and very efficient unit costs, which both underpin its global connecting strategy.

At the CAPA Airline Leader Summit - World in Dec-2025, senior industry leaders listened as one of aviation's most pressing challenges: how to deliver ever more powerful, efficient, and sustainable propulsion systems without compromising durability, reliability, or public trust was discussed.

This interview with Luke Mallows, Senior Vice President Marketing & Lessors at Rolls-Royce placed the spotlight firmly on the evolution of modern widebody engines, framed through the remarkable journey of the Trent 1000 programme at the OEM.

As aircraft engines have grown more capable, their operating environments have become more extreme. The technical demands placed on today's propulsion systems are extraordinary feats of engineering that leave little margin for error.

Against this backdrop, the Trent 1000 story offers invaluable lessons on design philosophy, materials science, testing regimes, and the importance of real-world operational feedback.

This session explored how early durability challenges reshaped engineering processes, supply chain engagement, and airline collaboration. It also looked ahead to a future defined by sustainability, digitalisation, and increasingly complex propulsion architectures.

The discussion moved beyond technical fixes to examine how leadership, culture, and innovation frameworks are evolving to meet these demands.

This conversation provided rare insight into how one of the world's leading engine manufacturers is recalibrating its approach - not just to repair an engine programme, but to redefine how propulsion systems are conceived, tested, supported, and continuously improved.

An upturn in business, and with another one projected for 2026 - despite global economic uncertainty - air cargo operations and the airports that facilitate them has been thrust into the spotlight.

Air cargo represents only 1% of global trade by volume, but more than 35% by value. No airport can afford to overlook it, but challenges to profitability are endemic.

Even so, there are many airports throughout the world where cargo is as much a part of the business mix as are passengers. Moreover, a select number of smaller airports have set themselves up as cargo specialists, sometimes acting as relievers to large primary airports in the vicinity, so that those airports can focus on passenger operations (which often go hand-in-hand with bellyhold cargo services anyway).

If a small regional airport gets it right, it can be a very profitable venture, while removing the need to cater for expensive passenger handling infrastructure.

This report runs the rule over the state of the air cargo handling business in 2026, identifies some of the leading airports in their respective fields (especially parcels and e-commerce), and points to the numerous factors that can determine success or failure in this business segment.

Cebu Pacific has achieved remarkable levels of growth in recent years, but its next phase of expansion will depend on progress in vital airport infrastructure projects in the Philippines.

The airline pursued a strategy of capacity growth in the immediate post-pandemic years, taking advantage of weakened competition to strengthen its dominant position in the Philippine market.

It has more than 100 aircraft on order to maintain its momentum. However, its growth potential is constrained by congestion at its main hub at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Cebu Pacific can achieve a certain amount of capacity growth by continuing to upgauge its narrowbodies to Airbus A321neos, and through the use of A330 widebodies.

But it will be the construction of a new airport at Bulacan and expansion of NAIA that will provide scope for significant fleet increases. So these will be the pacing items for decisions to exercise options or place new orders.

Cebu Pacific has managed to boost its capacity, despite engine availability issues in the past several months that grounded many of its Airbus narrowbodies. The good news is that the number of grounded aircraft has declined, however.

The airline's CEO Mike Szucs gave some insights into Cebu's fleet strategy to Aviation Week on the sidelines of the Changi Aviation Summit on 2-Feb-2026, and also updated the grounded aircraft situation.

The balance between passenger convenience and security is no longer an either-or proposition - it is the defining challenge of 2026.

Airports now face a more complex, fluid threat landscape than ever before. Rapid technological, political and social change has brought forth new security threats, which evolve daily and challenge airports.

From savvy stowaways and drone incursions to cyberattacks (which surged by 600% in recent years), the breadth of risks spans physical, digital and human vectors. In this environment, vigilance cannot stand still.

Yet today's innovators remind us that technology can be our ally: the same advances that empower attackers can also be turned against them, with far less impact on honest travellers. In fact, a wave of emerging technologies is already reshaping the passenger journey.

COMAC once again commanded significant attention at the Singapore Airshow, underlining Asia's enduring centrality to its ambitions as geopolitical realities continue to complicate its advance into Western markets.

The Chinese OEM's prominent presence highlighted both its technological progress and the strategic constraints shaping its future.

While the C919 programme is steadily maturing, and domestic deliveries are rising, the broader operating environment has become markedly more complex.

Heightened US-China political and economic tensions, combined with continued reliance on Western suppliers for critical systems, have left COMAC navigating one of the most challenging periods in its short commercial history.

In 2025 production and deliveries were curtailed by supply chain disruptions, regulatory hurdles, and escalating trade frictions, underscoring the fragility of globally integrated aerospace manufacturing.

These pressures have forced COMAC to recalibrate production targets, temper growth expectations, and reassess its long term industrial strategy. Yet, the company remains buoyed by the scale and resilience of China's domestic aviation market, which offers a crucial buffer against international uncertainty.

As COMAC enters 2026, its trajectory reflects a delicate balancing act between ambition and pragmatism: expanding output while reducing vulnerability, pursuing self-sufficiency without compromising quality or certification, and strengthening its Asian footprint while keeping one eye firmly on its long term aspiration for global acceptance.

With little traction in new airport privatisations, the revelation of two potential deals in Europe has stirred interest in a somnambulating investment sector that has survived for too long on the pickings of secondary sales; some of the deals that were on the verge of completion immediately before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic six years ago still not having reached fruition.

The first is in Italy, specifically Sicily (which is no stranger to airport privatisation: the first deals having taken place early in the 1990s and many of the main airports today at least partly privatised). But even so, the Italian interpretation of 'public-private partnership' is different, and governments can - and do - remain very much in charge.

So how the privatisation of Catania's airport develops will attract attention. The main driver for it seems to be its future potential as a logistics hub more than passenger traffic development, and that will require investment.

The second is Copenhagen Airports A/s, one of the first airport groups to be privatised, initially by IPO and then attracting institutional investors, but which was (to all intents and purposes) renationalised after disdain set in within the government about the aims and intentions of some of the private investors - even though there were tangible benefits evident from the privatisation.

Now it appears that the Danish state is ready to attract the private sector back again, albeit in a reduced role, not dissimilar to the events in Hungary a couple of years ago. It seems to have recognised that the private sector can bring distinct benefits, and that it will be needed if the major airport is to retain and enhance its role as the premier gateway to the Scandinavian region.

Whatever the outcome of both of these potential transactions, and in Copenhagen's case the history, some light is shed on the perennial debate about the real value of privatisation in the airport sector.

The market for air travel between Western Europe and the US has usually been an important source of profits for Europe's network airlines that operate this lucrative route region.

However, as the market contemplates its second summer under the second president Trump administration, there are signs that the coming peak season may be softer than last year 2025.

Visitor numbers to the US from Western Europe fell in 2025 - before they have recovered to pre-pandemic levels - with seven of the top 10 originating markets experiencing a drop.

Scheduled Western Europe-US capacity for 1H2026 is flattening and underperforming against the two markets at either end.

Moreover, data on forward bookings and air fares for Jul-2026, the peak summer period which also coincides with the FIFA World Cup this year, show falls in both indicators.

There is time for this outlook to become firmer, but the signs make anxious reading for European long haul airlines.

Major aircraft manufacturers at the Singapore Airshow outlined their views on the Asia Pacific airline market, which is widely regarded as having the greatest potential for growth in traffic and aircraft demand.

Part one of this report focused on Boeing and Airbus projections for the region, as well as Asia Pacific trends identified by IATA.

Part two looks at the Asia Pacific aspirations of regional aircraft manufacturers ATR and Embraer.

While turboprops have a substantial presence in the existing Asia Pacific fleet, this has traditionally been a challenging market for regional jets.

Regional aircraft (jet and turboprop) are underrepresented in the current Asia Pacific backlog, with narrowbody and widebody jets comprising more than 90% of existing orders.

But both ATR and Embraer see further opportunities for deals in multiple Asia Pacific markets.

It is no surprise that India features highly in the plans of both these regional manufacturers, as it is also a top priority for Airbus and Boeing.

At the CAPA Airline Leader Summit - World in Dec-2025, Meta presented a compelling vision for how extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) are moving beyond experimentation to become core tools for the aviation industry.

This session explored how immersive technologies are already delivering tangible benefits across training, operations, and the passenger experience, while laying the foundations for the next era of digital engagement in flight.

Airlines are deploying XR to transform crew training, enabling realistic, repeatable simulations that improve safety outcomes, accelerate learning curves, and significantly reduce training costs. AI-driven content creation and analytics are further enhancing efficiency, allowing airlines to tailor experiences, predict operational needs, and optimise performance at scale.

In parallel, immersive in-flight entertainment and bring-your-own-device strategies are redefining passenger engagement, offering richer, more personalised journeys without adding weight or complexity to aircraft cabins.

Looking ahead, Meta's work on next-generation augmented reality devices, including Orion smart glasses, points to a future where contextual, real-time information seamlessly integrates into both crew workflows and passenger experiences.

From interactive navigation and service guidance to immersive destination previews, XR promises to reshape how travellers interact with airlines and the world around them.

Backed by significant long-term investment and real-world deployments, Meta's aviation roadmap demonstrates that XR and AI are no longer futuristic concepts, but practical tools delivering measurable value today.

This session offers a strategic lens on how immersive technology will shape airline competitiveness, operational resilience, and customer engagement in the decade ahead.