India’s flag carrier Air India has been officially handed over to the Tata Group. The group says it took ownership of the carrier and its management on 27 January following the completion of the transaction for the purchase of the airline from the government of India. The Mumbai-based conglomerate was selected as the new owner of the airline by the government in October 2021. The transaction covers three entities – Air India, Air India Express, and AI SATS. Air India Express is a low-cost carrier, while AI SATS provides ground handling and cargo handling services. "We are excited to have Air India back in the Tata Group, and are committed to making this a world-class airline," Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran says. "I warmly welcome all the employees of Air India, Air India Express, and AI SATS to our group, and look forward to working together," he adds.

Emirates plans to resume flights to seven African destinations from Dubai starting 29 January. Destinations include Addis Ababa in Ethiopia; Dar es Salaam in Tanzania; Nairobi in Kenya; Harare in Zimbabwe; and Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in South Africa, the Middle Eastern carrier says. The airline will begin daily flights to Johannesburg on 29 January and increase the frequency to twice daily from 1 February. Daily services to Cape Town and Durban will also commence on 1 February. Emirates will operate 10 weekly flights to Nairobi from 29 January, while services to Addis Ababa will be operated daily from 30 January. Five-times-weekly flights to Dar es Salaam and six-times-weekly flights to Harare via Lusaka in Zambia will start on 30 January. Customers flying in and out of Emirates’ African gateways “can safely connect to Dubai and to an array of onwards connections to Europe, Middle East, the Americas, West Asia and Australasia”, the carrier says.

Singapore and Indonesia have agreed to realign the boundary between their respective flight information regions (FIR), which returns parts of its airspace over Indonesian territories to its control. Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo signed the landmark bilateral agreement at the Singapore-Indonesia Leaders’ Retreat on 25 January in Bintan. The new agreement will enlarge the scope of the Jakarta FIR to cover "all of Indonesia's territorial airspace, particularly in the waters around Riau and Natuna islands", Widodo says at a same-day televised press conference. Widodo states: "Going forward, we hope that the cooperation in law enforcement and aviation safety as well as defence and security of the two countries can continue to be strengthened based on the principles of mutual benefit." Lee says the implementation of the agreement "will meet the civil aviation needs of both countries and uphold the safety and efficiency of air traffic in a manner consistent with ICAO rules". The two countries will need to jointly submit the FIR agreement to ICAO for final approval. Singapore's current FIR covers parts of Indonesia, including the islands of Batam, Bintan and parts of Sumatra and Natuna, according to CAAS' aeronautical information publication dated 2 December. The agreement will see Indonesia and Singapore cooperating to provide aviation services in areas bordering their respective FIRs, according to a statement by Indonesia's coordinating ministry for maritime and investment affairs. "Indonesia will provide a delegation of flight services in certain areas at an altitude of 0-37,000 feet to the Singapore aviation authority. In certain areas, altitudes of 37,000 feet and above remain under Indonesian control," the ministry says. The countries have also put in place arrangements for civil and military cooperation for air traffic management, including stationing Indonesian civilian and military personnel at the Singapore Air Traffic Control Center.