Air France on 1 October operated a flight from Nice to Paris Orly airport using 30% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The SAF was produced by TotalEnergies from used cooking oils at its biorefinery in La Mede and its plant in Oudalle, the flag carrier says. The incorporation of 30% SAF helped the airline avoid an emission of three tonnes of CO2 during the flight, it notes.

Air New Zealand will mandate Covid-19 vaccination for international travel, starting 1 February. All passengers 18 years and older arriving or departing New Zealand on Air New Zealand's international flights must be fully vaccinated, the flag carrier says in a 3 October statement. Passengers who are not vaccinated will be required to present proof that vaccination was not a viable option for them for medical reasons, it adds. Chief executive Greg Foran states: "We're getting ready to reconnect with the world and letting customers know what they need to do to be ready to take off when we can. "Being vaccinated against Covid-19 is the new reality of international travel… The quicker we get vaccinated, the sooner we can fly Kiwis to places like New York, Vancouver and Narita. "We've been hearing from both customers and employees that this measure is important to them... Mandating vaccination on our international flights will give both customers and employees the peace of mind that everyone onboard meets the same health requirements as they do." The airline says these requirements will sit alongside the measures it already has to keep New Zealand safe. Foran adds: "To take some of the friction out of the travel experience and to help our customers know exactly what they need to travel before even getting to the airport, we're continuing to work on rolling out the IATA Travel Pass app."

Tata Group is most likely to win the bid for Indian flag carrier Air India, a former Air India executive has said. "It's my take that the Tata would eventually emerge as the successfully bidders considering… they are in the business and used to own Air India in the past," said former Air India executive director Jitender Bhargava during a 29 September Bloomberg TV interview. "They have the wherewithal to inject a large sum of money into Air India to revive it. The other factor that we shouldn't be overlooking is that Tata have been very, very passionate about Air India." He said the passion stemmed from the fact that Tata Group originally founded Air India in 1932. Local Indian media, including the Business Standard, in a 29 September report that cited anonymous sources, said the government has started evaluating financial bids received from Tata Group and SpiceJet founder Ajay Singh. A 29 September Economic Times report stated, according to anonymous sources, that the government would be in a position to announce the winning bidder by mid-October. A source has not independently verified either of those local media reports. "This investment process was launched almost one-and-a-half years ago and the financial bids were submitted on 15 September," Bhargava said. "The government has not made it public how many people have submitted bids, but it's generally believed that... Tata have bid and so has the promoter of SpiceJet in its individual capacity." He went on to say that should Tata emerge as the winner, it would be unlikely to "wager to change" the name of Air India. "I've often stated it: it may never have been as good an airline as it ought to have been, but it's also not as bad an airline as it is made out to be, because of the government ownership," he said.