British Airways is resuming services and increasing frequencies to a number of destinations that are being removed from the UK government's Covid travel red list, which require passengers to enter quarantine on arrival. The Oneworld carrier says it will restart services to South Africa's capital Cape Town in November, initially operating three flights a week and then moving to a double daily service in December. The carrier also plans to offer daily services to Johannesburg by mid-December, it says. IAG-owned BA will restart flights to Mexico's Cancun from 22 October, offering daily services, while services to Mexico City will also be increasing to five per week from 6 November. Elsewhere, South American destinations Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires are set to return in time for Christmas, the airline says. Chairman and chief executive Sean Doyle states: "Once we have a firm date for the reopening of USA borders in November, we look forward to reconnecting our two countries, reigniting transatlantic businesses and reuniting families who have been separated for the best part of two years." The airline plans to increase flights to the USA from early November despite no firm date from government on the reopening of the country. BA plans to bring back its Airbus A380s to operate some of these services.

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.