Thailand will widen the scope of its 1 November international tourism reopening to 46 low-risk countries, up from 10 countries as previously announced. In a 21 October post on Facebook, Thai prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha says the country "needs to move faster" in its reopening in order to "attract more tourists" and "stimulate tourism and other business sectors". He argues that "to wait for everything to be perfect will make us too late", warning that "tourists may decide to travel to other countries first". The 46 countries comprise 10 in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong), seven in the Middle East (Bahrain, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE), 26 in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK) and three in the Americas (Canada, Chile and the USA). To enter Thailand on the quarantine-free arrangement from 1 November, travellers must be fully vaccinated and will be required to undergo pre-departure and on-arrival testing. They will also have to apply for a certificate of entry, insurance covering up to $50,000 for healthcare and treatment expenses, and a hotel booking for one night at an approved hotel. Data shows that scheduled international flights to Thailand are set to increase in November and December compared with the first 10 months of this year. Airlines have pencilled in about 480 flights in November and nearly 800 flights in December, up from 200-330 per month in the January-October period.

Qantas has brought forward the restart of international flights from Sydney and Melbourne, and will launch service between Sydney and Delhi on 6 December. The carrier will operate three return flights per week on the Sydney-Delhi sector with Airbus A330 aircraft, and increase frequency to a daily service by the end of the year, it says in a statement today. This is Qantas's first commercial flight between these two nations in almost a decade, it says. The group states: “This is subject to discussions with Indian authorities to finalise necessary approvals. The flights would initially operate until at least late March 2022, with a view to continuing if there is sufficient demand." Flights from Sydney to Delhi would operate via Darwin, while flights from Delhi to Sydney would operate nonstop, according to Qantas. From Sydney, the mainline carrier will resume flights to Singapore on 23 November, four weeks earlier than scheduled, thrice weekly with A330 jets and eventually, daily from 18 December. The same aircraft type will be deployed on Sydney-Bangkok, resuming 14 January with five return flights a week. Sydney-Nadi flights will resume from 7 December, using 737 aircraft; Sydney to Johannesburg from 5 January 2022, with 787's. Jetstar will resume flying from Sydney to Phuket from 12 January; Singapore services from Melbourne and Darwin will resume from 16 December. Qantas states: “The faster ramp-up follows the federal and New South Wales governments confirming that international borders would reopen from 1 November and the decision by the NSW government to remove quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated arrivals, which significantly increases travel demand.” The carrier says these decisions support all Qantas and Jetstar workers based in Australia and New Zealand, who are currently stood down, to return to work by early December. This includes around 5,000 employees linked to domestic flying and around 6,000 linked to international flying. International services from Melbourne have also been brought forward, in line with Victoria's state government's decision to remove quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers, starting November. Melbourne-London will relaunch on 6 November, six weeks earlier than scheduled. The service will be operated twice weekly with 787 jets and ramped up to a daily service from 18 December. Qantas's Melbourne-Singapore service restart will be brought forward by three weeks to 22 November, operated thrice weekly with A330 jets and from 18 December, daily. Jetstar will also service the route four times a week using 787 jets.

Southwest Airlines' staffing and operational challenges, along with the delta variant's demand-throttling effects plaguing all US carriers in August and September, cost it $300 million in revenue during the third quarter, the carrier estimates. Its operational difficulties have continued in the fourth quarter, prompting it to reduce its schedule through the first quarter of 2021. Southwest now expects its capacity in the fourth quarter will be down 8% versus 2019, a widening of 3 percentage points compared with its previous estimate. The Dallas-based carrier's operating revenue in the third quarter slid 17% versus the pre-pandemic third quarter of 2019, to $4.7 billion. Southwest made an operating profit of $733 million in the third quarter, compared with a profit of $819 million in the third quarter of 2019. "The bounce in revenues at the beginning of the third quarter came with a lot of bumps in the operation, as our historic staffing models left us short and caused us to miss our reliability plan for the quarter," said Southwest's chief executive Gary Kelly during a 21 October earnings call. "I would be the first to admit that things are messy. It is also very encouraging to see the earnings potential that we had in July, especially considering that business travel is far from recovered to 2019 levels, and our capacity is not fully restored with 24 airplanes still sitting on the ground. But it also illustrates that this virus and its effect on our business can be unpredictable and volatile." Incoming chief executive Bob Jordan, who will take the reins from Kelly on 1 February, notes that leisure and business booking trends have been recovering "nicely" since the US's rate of daily new cases of Covid-19 began falling in September. Nevertheless, Southwest foresees that continuing operational "inefficiencies", staffing shortages and increasing jet-fuel prices will lead to a 15-25% decline in revenue during the fourth quarter, versus the fourth quarter of 2019. The carrier has been "trimming" its schedule in the current quarter and the first quarter of 2022 to help it avoid the rolling flight cancellations its customers suffered through earlier in October. Southwest had cancelled more than 2,700 flights between 8 and 12 October, in an echo of its raft of flight cancellations in mid-June. The carrier blames the October cancellations primarily on "weather and other external constraints", which left aircraft and crews out of pre-planned positions. The carrier's most pressing immediate goal is to "bulk up" its staffing, Jordan says. "We've made tremendous progress, but it remains short of what is needed, especially when we dip into staffing reserves." Southwest ended the third quarter with $17 billion in liquidity.