Executives from Indian conglomerate Tata Sons have confirmed that the group has won the bidding for struggling national carrier Air India. Bloomberg had on 1 October, quoting unidentified sources, reported that New Delhi had selected Tata ahead of a rival bid from Ajay Singh, managing director and chairman of SpiceJet. In a social media post from Tata Sons on 8 October, chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran says: “At the Tata Group, we are delighted to be declared as the winner of the bid for Air India. This is a historic moment and it will be a rare privilege for our group to own and operate the country’s flag-bearer airline.” Former Tata chairman Ratan Tata, in a social media post of his own, adds: “The Tata Group winning the bid for Air India is great news. While admittedly it will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India, it will hopefully provide a very strong market opportunity to the Tata Group’s presence in the aviation industry.” In winning the bid, Tata moves full circle on Air India, having started the airline in 1932 as Tata Airlines. The Indian government nationalised the carrier in 1953. Tata Sons is still heavily involved in the airline sector. It owns 51% of Vistara, with Singapore Airlines holding the other 49%. It also owns a 49% stake in AirAsia India. The company’s Tata Advanced Systems is a significant player in the aerostructures space, mainly with military programes.

AirAsia Malaysia will only allow fully-vaccinated passengers to board its flights, effective immediately, as it prepares for a full resumption of domestic and international flight services. This is part of the airline’s Covid-19 mitigation plan "to ensure the highest safety standards for all guests and employees", it says in a 6 October statement. Guests under the age of 18, if unvaccinated or partially-vaccinated, must be accompanied by fully-vaccinated parents or guardian, the airline says. AirAsia Malaysia chief executive Riad Asmat states: “The decision to accept only fully vaccinated guests for boarding is made in the best safety interest of our guests and employees." Asmat adds that all its flights are operated only by fully-vaccinated pilots and cabin crew as well as ground operations and baggage handling staff.

British Airways plans to "further develop" its plan to launch a short-haul subsidiary at London Gatwick following the successful conclusion of negotiations with pilot union BALPA. The carrier said in September that it would suspend short-haul operations at Gatwick and pursue "alternative uses" for the relevant slots after disclosing its plans for a new, lower-cost subsidiary had failed to secure support from pilots. BA comments that the new unit will be a full-service operation that will offer "competitive fares" to customers. "We will continue discussions with our colleagues, trade unions, suppliers and other stakeholders, following this positive result, and if we can agree a way forward with all parties, we would hope to begin operations next summer." An agreement with pilots is just one hurdle to overcome before any unit could be launched, with BA facing pressure from unions representing crews and other staff. On 6 October, the Unite union accused the carrier of adopting a "fire and rehire" employment strategy that it vowed to oppose. BA's plans at Gatwick are understood to comprise the establishment of a carrier whose services are indistinguishable from the airline's regular offering, but with lower costs to the business. In this regard, the subsidiary would operate similarly to the carrier's BA CityFlyer unit. The Oneworld carrier stopped operating short-haul flights out of Gatwick amid the pandemic in 2020. In September, the airline entered talks with unions over plans to create a new subsidiary for future short-haul operations out of Gatwick, to enable it to better compete with low-cost rivals.