The US Federal Aviation Administration has received from NASA new airport operations software designed to improve the fuel and emissions efficiency of commercial aircraft taxiing and take-offs and reduce taxi delays. NASA has additionally given the FAA the findings from its six-year "Airspace Technology Demonstration 2" (ATD-2) project during which it tested the "integrated arrival, departure and surface" (IADS) suite of airport operations tools at Charlotte-Douglas, Dallas/Fort Worth and Dallas Love Field airports. The FAA will initially deploy the new surface management technology at 27 hub airports in the USA. The agency estimates that the software will enable airports and carriers to save more than 7 million gallons of fuel and eliminate more than 75,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. "The software calculates when it's best to have the airplane push back from the gate at busy hub airports so that the airplanes can roll right to the runway," FAA administrator Steve Dickson said during a media briefing on 28 September. "With this capability we can reduce taxi delays and ramp congestion. And after take-off the system enables air traffic controllers to merge your flight right into the stream of jet traffic." Dickson explains that while the FAA and air traffic controllers had access to airlines' flight schedules, they never knew precisely when an aircraft might be departing "until they hit the spot on the ramp and talk to air traffic control". "Now we'll have advanced visibility into the metrics that the airline has so that we can be much more specific about predicting an on-time departure. And that just allows us to manage the rest of the system much more effectively and remove those bottlenecks on the ground." NASA administrator Bill Nelson says the IADS software is rooted in the agency's technology used to calculate trajectories for space travel. "The idea behind this was simple: take that technology and apply it to a commercial aircraft when they are pushing back from the gate, taxiing to the runway, taking off and reaching cruising altitude without stopping. We had already done this with the FAA years ago on descent technology." NASA's previously developed ground-based and flight deck tools used throughout the arrival phase of a flight are in the final stages of implementation by the FAA and US aviation. Nelson notes that NASA's partnership with commercial aviation is continuing with its development of both an electric and a supersonic aircraft intended to fly over populated areas. "This is a needle-nosed creature coming out of the skunkworks that will be able to fly supersonic over populated areas because we are lowering the sound of the sonic boom."

Nok Air has received approval from Thailand's Central Bankruptcy Court for its rehabilitation plan at a 29 September hearing, clearing the final hurdle to implement the plan. "After consideration of the rehabilitation plan, its amendment, objections against the plan and planners’ clarification, including the official receiver’s opinion on several issues, the Central Bankruptcy Court issued an order to approve the plan and its amendment," the airline says in a same-day filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The court also appointed the four plan administrators named in the rehabilitation plan, who are authorised to operate the business, manage company assets and implement the plan. They include chief executive Wutthiphum Jurangkool, directors Tai Chong Yih and Chavalit Uttasart and independent director Prinya Waiwatana. Nok Air says it is confident that the plan administrators will “successfully” implement the plan soon. The court accepted Nok's application for business rehabilitation on 30 July 2020, and approved it for the process on 4 November 2020, appointing planners to prepare the rehabilitation plan. Nok Air's creditors accepted its rehabilitation plan at a 4 August meeting.

Qatar Airways annual losses doubled to QR14.9 billion riyals ($4.1 billion) for the 12 months ending in March, as Covid-19 decimated its long-haul business model and led to write-downs across its fleet. Describing the period as "the most challenging and extraordinary" of its history, the Gulf carrier recorded impairments of QR8.4 billion across its Airbus A380s, A330s and Boeing 737 Max aircraft, adding that they are "not likely to be used in operation in the near future". However, the group highlights a slight narrowing of its operating losses to QR1.1 billion, as well as growth in EBITDA to QR6 billion in the period from QR5 billion in 2019/2020. This was despite revenue from scheduled passenger services collapsing by 78% to QR7.97 billion, with passenger numbers down 82%. Qatar Airways has pointedly striven to operate as much of its network as it can throughout the pandemic, with chief executive Akbar Al Baker underlining the carrier's commitment to enabling the flow of people and goods around the globe, providing a lifeline to some industries. Not only does the group expect this strategy to result in a greater market share, but also to play a role in bolstering customer confidence in returning to the skies – a core tenet of its recovery strategy. "Whilst our competitors grounded their aircraft and closed their routes, we adapted our entire commercial operation to respond to ever-evolving travel restrictions and never stopped flying, operating a network our passengers and customers could rely on", comments Baker. "With the support of our varied fleet of modern, fuel-efficient aircraft, we were able to ensure that more of our scheduled flights operated than any other carrier and fulfilled our mission of taking stranded passengers home, whilst maintaining global supply chains to transport medical aid and supplies essential to the fight against Covid-19," he adds. From a low of just 33 destinations at the peak of the crisis, Qatar Airways has rebuilt its network to operate on 140 routes today, "ensuring the airline is well-positioned to take advantage of the recovery of international travel", it notes. Weakness in passenger revenues were somewhat offset by gains in the Doha-based carrier's cargo unit, which more than tripled its daily services and recorded an overall 4.6% rise in freight carried to 2,727,986 tonnes. This, in combination with a "significant increase" in cargo yield, saw revenues at the unit more than double to QR18.5 billion - over twice that of its passenger operations. Although the carrier did not receive state support in the form of salary support, tax relief or grants, the Qatari government did provide an equity injection of $3 billion to support the "business continuity" throughout the period, it adds.