Delta Air Lines' pilots have voted to authorise its union to call a strike if contract negotiations with the carrier break down and certain legal conditions for a strike are met. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) states that with more than 96% of its members flying for Delta participating, 99% voted to authorise a strike if necessary. ALPA and Delta separately point out that the vote does not mean that the Atlanta-based carrier's pilots have gone on strike. The union notes that before a strike can take place, the National Mediation Board must first decide that additional mediation efforts would not be productive and offer the parties an opportunity to arbitrate the contract dispute. If either side declines the arbitration, both parties enter a 30-day cooling-off period, after which the pilots' union can strike or management can enact a lockout. Delta says that Delta's pilots are not on strike, adding: "This authorisation vote will not affect our operation for our customers. ALPA's stated purpose for the vote is simply to gain leverage in our pilot contract negotiations, which continue to progress under the normal process set by the Railway Labor Act and in partnership with the National Mediation Board. Under that federal law, there are many steps remaining in the process and many opportunities left for collaborative negotiations before a strike is even allowed to be considered. "Delta and ALPA have made significant progress in our negotiations and have only a few contract sections left to resolve. We are confident that the parties will reach an agreement that is fair and equitable, as we always have in past negotiations." ALPA says that Delta's pilots are working under pay rates, contractual provisions and benefits that were negotiated in 2016. Negotiations for a new agreement commenced in April 2019, nine months prior to the amendable date of December 2019. Talks entered mediation in February 2020 and were paused for nearly two years during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mediated talks resumed in January 2022. Today, Delta’s nearly 15,000 pilots sent a clear message to management that we are willing to go the distance to secure a contract that reflects the value we bring to Delta Air Lines as frontline leaders and long-term stakeholders," Jason Ambrosi, chair of the Delta's ALPA master executive council, states. "Delta has rebounded from the pandemic and is poised to be stronger than ever, posting record revenues for the third quarter. Meanwhile, our negotiations have dragged on for too long. Our goal is to reach an agreement, not to strike. The ball is in management’s court."

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has extended the timeframe to consider competition concerns regarding Qantas's proposed acquisition of Alliance Airlines. The competition regulator on 28 October deferred the provisional date to announce its findings to 1 December "to allow the parties more time to provide information", according to its register on the transaction on its website. The ACCC in mid-August outlined preliminary competition concerns regarding the acquisition and had set a closing date of 1 September for submissions from interested parties to these concerns and 17 November for a final decision. It has since delayed the deadline to deliver its findings since August, and this extends the date for ACCC's final decision to 20 March. In a statement today, Qantas expressed its disappointment in the ACCC's decision "to delay its findings on the airline’s acquisition of Alliance Aviation Services for a third time". The flag carrier highlights that it "has been clear about its intension to fully acquire Alliance" since it acquired a 19% stake in the charter services operator in February 2019. It argues that the ACCC "took three years to investigate that minority holding and made no findings that it lessened competition", adding that it also "had the benefit of over two years of closely monitoring the domestic aviation industry". Commenting on the new timeline for the ACCC's decision to next March, Qantas asserts "this would make it one of the longest processes for informal clearance in recent times", comparing it with the "11 days it took for the ACCC to decide it didn’t need to conduct a public review of Rex’s acquisition of National Jet Express from Cobham in July this year". "Qantas is a firm believer in regulation and due process, and has cooperated fully with information requests from the ACCC, but also believes such regulation needs to be timely and efficient to maintain confidence in the process." The flag carrier in early May announced that it had reached an agreement to fully acquire Australia's Alliance Aviation Services, which would see it acquiring the remaining 80% stake in Alliance through a scheme of arrangement. The ACCC on 18 May began a formal review of the acquisition under the informal merger review process guidelines.

Airbus has described its fourth-quarter commercial aircraft deliveries target as "challenging but doable" despites its expectation that the supply chain will take "up to the middle of 2023" to normalise. Chief executive Guillaume Faury said during a 28 October earnings call that third-quarter deliveries has been "not so strong", resulting in "a significantly backloaded end of the year" in which the airframer aims to deliver "close to 265 planes". Faury says Airbus is "less dependent on supply-chain deliveries" as it closes in on November compared with one to two months prior. "This gives us more visibility on what we can do from a supply-chain perspective, but it is a lot of planes to deliver in the last two months. It is now mainly on Airbus's shoulders to a very large extent. Engine makers are delivering against their previous commitments. So on one hand, we have more visibility on the supply chain, but on the other, we know the challenges that are about to come," he says. Airbus has maintained its delivery target of "around 700 commercial aircraft" for 2022. Across the first three quarters of the year, it delivered a total of 437 aircraft, versus 424 in the same period of 2021. "As of today, the supply chain remains fragile, resulting from the cumulative impact of Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, energy supply issues and constrained labour markets," says Faury. "We expect it will take up to the middle of next year to normalise, therefore 2023 is expected to be another backloaded year." Despite some signs of the situation "potentially getting better", Faury highlights that things overall "remain very difficult". He observes that while managing resources "quite adequately on the blue-collar side", Airbus is finding it "quite challenging on the white collar [front]". "Mid-sized and smaller companies in other regions of the world continue to experience a lot of difficulties to recruit in numbers and in specific skills. So this will continue to be a headwind for the ramp-up [in production], and I think it will take time before it gets better, especially on the labour markets," he adds.