The European Commission on 18 January approved a €20 million ($22.7 million) aid scheme for the Reunion Island-based carrier Air Austral to help the airline secure its cash flow and prepare for the future. This support comes from the French government for Air Austral, says the airline, which has been greatly affected by the ongoing pandemic and its consequences. The aid is in addition to previous shareholder loan grants from the regional council for Air Austral. The airline has also been devising a restructuring plan for several weeks now. The plan, which will be set in action within the next six months, will guarantee long-term business continuity and job security, the airline says.

Collins Aerospace has expanded MRO services in Malaysia to serve the growing ATR fleets in Asia-Pacific. IATA III operators of ATR 42 and ATR 72 turboprops will have access to a local pool of rotable spares and MRO services for Collins 568F six-blade propeller from 2022, the Raytheon Technologies-owned subsidiary says in a 20 January release. Initially, the exchange programme will be supported by local operations to assess hardware preservation and condition, while the repairs and major inspections will be supported by Collins’ existing MRO centres in Europe. Collins says its 568F propeller is currently flying in over 100 countries on more than 900 aircraft comprising the global fleet of ATR 42/72 aircraft.

Airbus intends to recruit around 6,000 new employees over coming months to support the company's post-Covid-19 recovery and realise its plan to build more environmentally sustainable aircraft. The European airframer says that it will re-assess the number of external hires after the "initial" recruitment wave – before June – and "adjust our needs accordingly", indicating potential further employment efforts. New staff are to be recruited across all of the aerospace group's divisions and international operations. About a quarter of the planned recruitments are targeted to acquire "new skills" in the fields of decarbonisation, digital transformation and cyber technology, Airbus says. A third of all recruitment slots will be allocated to young graduates. The manufacturer says it sees "strong signs" of a post-Covid recovery. In 2020, Airbus outlined a plan to increase average monthly A320-family production to 65 aircraft by the second quarter 2023, from around 40 during much of last year. Airbus also said at the time that it was investigating further increases to reach 75 aircraft by 2025. At the end of September 2021, Airbus employed 125,888 staff, down nearly 5,500 from December 2020 and a fall of 9,000 from the pre-Covid level. Airbus chief human resources & workplace officer Thierry Baril states the manufacturer's "bold" plans for sustainable aviation "can only be achieved by acquiring the right talents in the various domains of expertise that will help us grow our activities as we come out of the crisis, while preparing the long-term transformation of the company". He adds: "We will also do our utmost to reinforce diversity across the company, fostering a safe and inclusive culture reinforcing Team Airbus to be ready to pioneer sustainable aerospace". In 2020, the manufacturer set itself a target of developing a zero-emission aircraft for service-entry in 2035.