Flair Airlines plans to acquire four Boeing 737 Max aircraft by May 2022, growing its fleet to a total of 16, 737-family aircraft and enabling it to expand its network with 14 new routes in the USA and Canada by the second quarter. The ultra-low-cost carrier headquartered in Edmonton says deliveries of the new aircraft are scheduled to start in April. Two of the Max jets will be added to Flair's Toronto base, with one to be added at its Edmonton base and another to its Vancouver base. This will bring its tally of aircraft to five at Toronto, two at Edmonton and three at Vancouver. The airline plans to use these new aircraft to add four destinations to its network, including Comox in Canada, and San Francisco, Nashville and Denver in the USA. Adding these new routes will grow Flair's network to a total of 28 destinations by May. Flair is scheduled to add Comox to its network starting 29 March, with flights thrice weekly to Edmonton and Calgary. Routes from Nashville to Toronto and Edmonton are scheduled to operate twice weekly starting on 14 April. Flights between Denver and Toronto are scheduled to begin thrice weekly on 15 April. The carrier has scheduled twice-weekly flights starting 14 April between San Francisco and Edmonton, and thrice-weekly between San Francisco and Vancouver starting on 17 May. Flair also plans to add new routes between its existing destinations in Canada. These include routes from its Edmonton hub to Regina, Montreal, Saskatoon and Winnipeg launching in April. During May, the airline will begin new routes from Toronto to Victoria; from Kelowna to Vancouver; and from Kelowna to Victoria. Flair during October will also begin service to six US destinations to complement the existing 18 destinations on its network in Canada.

Australia's Regional Express is planning to recommence domestic services between Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra from 15 November, as Australia eases pandemic-related restrictions and vaccination rates continue to climb. The airline also plans to resume domestic services to South Australia and Queensland once the vaccination rates in these states reach the 80% level, the operator says in a statement today. Regional intrastate services in New South Wales and Victoria will also be progressively ramped up from the same date, it says. Australia announced on 1 October it will gradually reopen the international border from November, starting with citizens and permanent residents. Melbourne, dubbed the world's most locked down city, is reaching Australia's 70% vaccination target and officials announced on 17 October there will be a significant easing of restrictions from 22 October.

Air Madagascar has been placed under a court-appointed restructuring process, the Indian Ocean island nation's government has disclosed. The flag carrier is now under a collective liabilities settlement procedure, or procedure collective d'apurement des passifs after incurring an "operating deficit/cumulative loss" of around $80 million, says the transport ministry. A statement from the Malagasy presidential office highlights ATR leasing costs at "double" the normal price and "uncontrolled" management costs, which it links to Air Madagascar's partnership with Air Austral. It adds that Air Madagascar's fixed charges have also continued to rise and that employee numbers "far exceed what the company really needs". An in-depth audit of all the debts incurred by the airline will now be undertaken by the accounts commissioner. In addition, all agreements or contracts entered into by Air Madagascar must be terminated. The stated objective of the restructuring process, the ministry says, is to ensure "reliability, regularity and punctuality", while also implementing a digitisation of management procedures and ticketing operations. The airline says that because legal proceedings are still ongoing, it is not possible to give any information about the restructuring process and its modalities at this point. An official and detailed communication will be made as soon as possible, it adds. In October 2017 Air Austral signed a strategic partnership to acquire a 49% stake in Air Madagascar. In 2020 the partnership came to an end when Air Austral exited its shareholding, leaving the Malagasy government with a direct 51% stake in the airline and government agency Caisse Nationale de Prevoyance Sociale controlling the remaining 49%. Malagasy media outlet 2424.mg reports that Air Madagascar is to be merged with its domestic subsidiary Tsaradia and renamed Madagascar Airlines. The joint company intends to lease a Boeing 787 to serve the Antananarivo-Paris route, lease an Embraer 190 on an ACMI basis for regional flights, and reinvigorate its MRO division. Air Madagascar declined to comment on the reports, citing the ongoing legal process. The process takes places as Madagascar prepares to reopen its borders to international traffic following the imposition of Covid-19-related restrictions. The country's civil aviation authority stated on 14 October that commercial flights operated by Air Austral and Air Mauritius on inter-island routes from Mauritius and La Reunion to Madagascar would resume from 23 October. Commercial flights operated by Air Madagascar and Air France from the African state to Europe are authorised to resume from 6 November.