Turboprop manufacturer ATR is poised to start deliveries to Chinese operators following the Civil Aviation Administration of China's approval of the ATR 42-600's type certificate with a reduced seat count. The European airframer – jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo – had been working for years to gain CAAC approval for its current 600-series family, after previous-generation aircraft were temporarily operated in the country. It says the CAAC approval "opens the opportunity for ATR to re-enter the Chinese market with a firm order from an undisclosed customer for three aircraft". At the Paris air show in 2017, the manufacturer disclosed separate letters of intent from Xuzhou Hantong Aviation Development and Shaanxi Tianju Investment Group, to order three and 10 ATR 42-600s respectively. At the time, ATR said it expected deliveries to begin in 2018. "Receiving CAAC's validation of the ATR 42-600 type certificate, along with a firm order, is a major achievement marking the reintroduction of ATR turboprops in China," states chief executive Nathalie Tarnard Laude, adding: "The ATR 42-600 will undoubtedly prove to be a game changer." ATR says that under the CAAC approval the aircraft will be limited to operating with a maximum 30 passengers. The ATR 42-600 can accommodate 50 passengers under its European Union Aviation Safety Agency type certificate. "The ATR 42-600 has been approved to fly for Chinese general aviation operators," the airframer says. It describes the 50-seater as an "ideal route opener". ATR predicts demand for 280 regional turboprops in China by 2041. "By 2035, we anticipate that over 150 airports will be built in China and turboprops will play a key role in creating a new network of short, thin routes, complementing the high-speed train offering," states senior vice-president of commercial Fabrice Vautier. Data shows ATR backlog comprises 183 orders, 94 options and letters of intent covering a further 109 aircraft. Of the orders, 32 are for the ATR 42-600 (including 15 for the in-development short take-off and landing variant), 130 for the ATR 72-600, 20 for the larger variant's freighter version, and one for the ATR 72-600 Combi. ATR has not provided an outlook on a potential CAAC approval of the ATR 72. "Currently, we have responded to market requirements which indicated a need for efficient aircraft operating on the general aviation segment with 30 [passengers]," it says. The first ATR entered China in 1997 with China Xinjiang Airlines, which had orders for five ATR 72-500s. The carrier was in 2003 acquired by China Southern Airlines, which continued operating the turboprops until 2010. The aircraft were subsequently sold to Nordic Aviation Capital.

Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT) has become the first customer of new interactive flight training software developed by Airbus. Dubbed "Airbus virtual procedure trainer", the software enables A320-family pilots to learn procedures with a virtual reality system either alone or in teams online, the flight academy subsidiary of Lufthansa says. It adds that the VR solution provides full immersion for the flight crews within a digitised cockpit to train Airbus standard operating procedures and can be used across VR, PC and Apple devices. Lufthansa Group head of aviation training development Gilad Scherpf states: "As part of a unique partnership, training expertise will be mutually shared to provide an innovative, integrated pilot training approach." He adds: "The resulting training enhancements will enable further use cases as well as regulatory acceptance. This will be based on the jointly gathered data while aiming at a trainee-centric, flexible solution to support key competencies" Airbus vice-president flight operations and training Fabrice Hamel asserts: "Using our virtual procedure trainer, pilots have demonstrably learnt procedures more effectively and efficiently, offering the potential to shorten their type rating course."

Pilots represented by the Oneworld Cockpit Crew Coalition (OCCC) have disclosed their support for LATAM Airlines Group's pilots, who voted last week to approve a strike action. The LATAM Pilots Union (SPL - Sindicato Pilotos LATAM) tweeted on 2 November that 99% of SPL pilots had voted to approve a strike action against the Chile-based group. "In the midst of the [Covid-19] crisis, LATAM implemented an adjustment that involved the dismissal of some 240 pilots, a 30% salary reduction and moving towards a variable salary model," SPL says. "What we are asking for is to recover the conditions that we had before the adjustment." OCCC stated on 7 November that it "voiced its strong support for the SPL-represented pilots of LATAM Airlines Chile in their efforts to improve pay and working conditions from their pandemic-driven lockdown levels". John Sluys, OCCC chair, says: "It is unfortunate that LATAM management continues its bad-faith bargaining tactics, particularly given the robust travel demand we’re now experiencing." OCCC is comprised of pilots from Oneworld alliance members Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qantas and Sri Lankan Airlines. LATAM terminated its Oneworld membership in May 2020. The group had disclosed in 2019 that it would leave the alliance after Delta Air Lines’ announcement in September of that year that it had invested $1.9 billion in the South American carrier, representing a 20% stake. The day after SPL's 2 November 2022 disclosure that LATAM's pilots had voted to approve a strike action, LATAM emerged from its US Chapter 11 restructuring process, with its reorganisation and financing plan taking effect. In August, LATAM released a revised five-year business plan that envisions revenue climbing to $11.5 billion in 2024 from $10.4 billion in 2019. The group said it expects to fly "a similar amount" of capacity by 2024 as it did before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019. EBIT is targeted to reach more than $1 billion by 2024, compared with $700 million in 2019. Sluys of OCCC adds: "The professional pilots of SPL made great sacrifices to get the airline through the difficult times. It is time for management to do the right thing as the company is emerging from the storm… The pilots of OCCC-represented airlines are ready to support our colleagues in any way needed at LATAM and around the world." The strike authorisation vote by LATAM's pilots is one of several similarly themed actions taken recently by pilots' unions in the Americas. On 31 October, Delta's pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) 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. United Airlines' pilots a day later voted to reject a tentative agreement on terms for a new contract nearly six months after ALPA had first signed an agreement in principle. ALPA hopes to hammer out a new agreement with United that reflects the carrier’s profitable second and third quarters of 2022. In 2 November, the Allied Pilots Association's board voted to reject a proposed tentative agreement for American's pilots.