The Up Front Update #5: what you need to know during a tense week of geopolitics

From geopolitics, new and used airplanes, more seat renaming, tariff delivery tracking and much more, join us for your weekly update

By John Walton 7 min read
An Emirates A350 sitting on the tarmac at the Paris Air Show with the Update logo on top

Welcome back to The Up Front Update: your comprehensive roundup of news from across aviation, as well as what we’re reading and what’s on our radar.

The big thing to note this week: as the Iran-Israel ceasefire holds, some overflights are starting to resume over formerly closed airspace. While only a few flights (mostly Emirates, Etihad and flydubai) are overflying Iran, the key corridor re-opening is over Turkey and eastern Iraq to the main Gulf hubs. But the shutdown of airspace this week, including in the UAE and Qatar, emphasises just how vulnerable commercial aviation is to geopolitical disruption.

This week on The Up Front: 

In our latest episode of the 40,000 Feet podcast, we start our strategic thinking after the week that was at the Paris Air Show. Gareth and I dive into the big questions about the supply chain, our globalised industry, geopolitics and bursting order books. For Pros (get your extended editions here), we go even deeper on key data points from Airbus orders at the show, and what they mean for our industry. 

Also for Pros: a Readout from Iberia’s Flight Plan 2030 event in Madrid. Fintan Horan-Stear dashed over to Spain, with initial thoughts about the near-doubling of Iberia’s longhaul fleet and big plans for the Madrid hub. With the US becoming increasingly hostile to Latin American travellers, Iberia will be able to capitalise on passengers who want to fly through Madrid rather than Miami or the US to Europe… and indeed beyond.

John also appeared over on the Dots, Lines and Destinations podcast talking Paris Air Show and the new ANA Safran The Room FX business class seat, as well as discussing production challenges at Boeing and Airbus — and on The Bunker UK-based news podcast, debunking myths about whether airplanes are crashing more often, and providing industry expert context on a variety of aviation questions to their wider audience.

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On our radar: what’s going on around the industry?

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John Walton

Editor in chief of The Up Front, with two decades of experience reporting across the global aviation industry, specialising in business and first class, seats, cabins and the passenger experience.