Manchester Airports Group has already seen passenger numbers fall 10-20% because of the emergence of Covid-19's Omicron variant and the subsequent announcement on 27 November that travellers arriving in the UK must undertake a PCR test. Releasing six-monthly results, UK airport operator MAG notes that the impact of restrictions "has increased further over recent days following the introduction of pre-departure tests this week". The UK government has said the restrictions are "precautionary" and "temporary" measures intended to help slow the spread of the new variant. MAG, which in addition to Manchester owns Stansted and East Midlands airports, is now calling for an urgent review of the government's travel rules, after passenger numbers across the first six months of its financial year to end-September came in 82% below 2019 levels. The company saw a brief window of higher activity when restrictions lifted, reaching 58% of pre-pandemic levels in November, before being sent into reverse by Omicron and the new restrictions. "The first half of this year tells a story of how travel restrictions held back the recovery of UK aviation, especially when compared to the rest of Europe," states MAG chief executive Charlie Cornish. "As restrictions eased, passenger numbers grew steadily at all three of our airports. The reintroduction of costly and inconvenient travel testing requirements has created further uncertainty and delayed our recovery." He adds: "As a business, we will always do our part to protect public health, but we also need these temporary measures to be removed when they are no longer worthwhile." The group saw revenue rise £64.9 million ($85.6 million) year on year, but the total was down 70% on the same period two years ago. MAG made a loss before interest and tax of £75.7 million in the six-month period this year, after a £173 million profit two years earlier.

Airbus is escalating its dispute with Qatar Airways over surface degradation on the A350 aircraft type, seeking an independent legal assessment of the issue in order to resolve the situation. The European airframer asserts that such action is necessary in the face of what it describes as "the ongoing mischaracterisation of non-structural surface degradation" by "one of its customers". Airbus does not name Qatar Airways in its latest statement, but the Middle Eastern airline has repeatedly complained about A350 paint degradation in recent months. Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar Al Baker said late last month that he could "crucify" the airframer over the issue. "The real cause has not been established," he said at the UK Aviation Club in London on 30 November. "In the beginning, they mentioned that it was only cosmetic… Now they have at last accepted that there are other airlines, several of them, that have the same condition... and yesterday [they] acknowledged that they are working to find a solution, which means they don’t have a solution, and they don't have a solution because they don’t know why it is happening." Airbus, for its part, says the surface-paint-related issue has been thoroughly assessed both internally and by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) as having no airworthiness impact on the A350 fleet, an assessment that has previously been questioned by Al Baker. The airframer argues that to "misrepresent this specific topic as an airworthiness issue" is to challenge international protocols on safety. Airbus sees its move to initiate a legal assessment as necessary "to defend its position and reputation". It adds: "Airbus has worked actively with its customers in order to minimise the impact and any inconvenience caused by this in-service surface degradation on the aircraft. These solutions have all been dismissed by the above-mentioned customer without legitimate justification." In August, Qatar Airways grounded 13 of its A350's on the instruction of its national regulator because of the issue. The airline has now taken 20 of the type out of operation, Al Baker recently revealed. "We don't know if it's an airworthiness issue; we also don't know if it's not an airworthiness issue," he said on 30 November. Airbus has clarified that a recent EASA proposal on corrective steps caused by areas of missing expanded copper foil on the wings of 13 A350's as a result of a production process "is different in nature" to the paint issue. The aircraft impacted will be inspected in line with EASA's instructions.

Airbus increased its aircraft production in November, reaching 58 deliveries across 34 customers. This compares with deliveries of 36 aircraft in October and 40 in each of September and August. The airframer's data shows that total deliveries for the year stood at 518 at the end of November, indicating that the manufacturer would need to hand over 82 aircraft in December to reach its target of 600 deliveries in 2021. Credit Suisse analysis earlier this month suggested that meeting the annual target in itself may not be overly significant in the current environment. But they noted that a deviation from the target will likely raise further questions about the feasibility of Airbus's planned production ramp-up. Airbus plans to raise average monthly A320-family production from 40 to 45 by year-end, and to 65 by the second quarter of 2023. The European airframer previously said that it was also in talks with suppliers to enable a rate of 70 by the first quarter of 2024 and "investigating opportunities" to reach 75 by 2025. November deliveries comprised 25 A320neos, 18 A321neos, an A321ceo, seven A220-300's, four A330-900's, an A330-200 and two A350-900's. The A321ceo was delivered to Delta Air Lines and represented the last but one order in the US carrier's backlog for the variant. A further seven remaining A321ceo orders in Airbus' data are attributed to Iran Air. The single A330ceo was handed over to Airbus Space and Defence. Meanwhile, the airframer received 318 orders in November, of which 261 – or 82% – were for A321neo models. Indigo Partners ordered 255 A321neos at Dubai air show, for distribution across Wizz Air (75 A321neos and 27 A321XLRs), Frontier Airlines (91 A321neos); Volaris (39 A321neos) and JetSmart 23 (21 A321neos and two A321XLRs). Airbus booked the remaining six A321neo orders for UK carrier Jet2. The A320neo gained 24 orders. This included 11 commitments by new Italian carrier ITA Airways, which additionally ordered seven A220-100's and 10 A330-900's. EasyJet ordered 12 A320neos on 29 November, according to Airbus's data. Another single A320neo order came from a private customer. Nigerian operator Ibom Air ordered seven A220-100's and three -300's at Dubai air show. On 29 November, Airbus received an order for four A330-300s from an undisclosed customer. Another order booked in November for two A330-200's is attributed to Airbus Space and Defence. However, customers cancelled 75 orders last month, bringing Airbus net tally for the year so far to 368 orders. Cancellations included commitments for 10 A220-100s previously placed by an undisclosed customer. Some 52 A320neo orders were cancelled. This included a commitment for 28 A320neos from Mexican carrier Interjet, which suspended operations in 2020. An unidentified customer cancelled orders for 23 A320neos and 13 A321neos. Another private customer cancelled a single A320neo order. Airbus' 2021 net tally for the A320 family at the end of November comprised orders for 422 A321neos, two A319neos and 99 A320neo cancellations.