Ethiopian Airlines has ordered another six Airbus A350-900s from the airframer and agreed with Air Congo the lease of two ATR 72-600 turboprops. The African carrier has 22 A350-900s and four A350-1000s today and had another 11 A350-900s on order prior to the six additional orders disclosed at the Dubai air show on 18 November, Cirium fleets data shows. Ethiopian's passenger fleet additionally includes 29 Boeing 787s, 11 777s, 23 737 Max 8s, nine 737NGs and 29 De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 turboprops. Its cargo fleet spans 12 777 Freighters, four 767 converted freighters and four 737NG converted freighters. The group's order backlog comprises 31 Max 8s, 11 787-9s, eight 777-9s, and two Twin Otter Classic 300G turboprops "We are delighted to expand our Airbus fleet size with this order and strengthen our partnership with the Airbus company," states Ethiopian chief executive Mesfin Tasew, noting that the carrier's position as Africa's largest A350 operator. The follow-on order "further supports our vision to grow sustainably while providing a world-class travel experience to our passengers and strengthening our position as the aviation leader in Africa", he adds. ATR has disclosed that Air Congo will operate under a lease agreement two ATR 72-600s for Ethiopian from February 2026. The turboprop manufacturer highlights a previous agreement with Ethiopian to establish ATR maintenance capabilities for third-party customers at its base in Addis Ababa. Toulouse-based ATR is jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo.

UK regional carriers Loganair and Aurigny have moved to take over routes previously operated by Blue Islands following the latter's cessation of operations. Loganair will operate rescue flights on routes from Jersey to Guernsey, Exeter, Bristol and Southampton, and also, subject to governmental approval, from Guernsey to Southampton. From Guernsey, Aurigny will operate two daily Jersey flights and up to three daily Southampton flights until 17 December. The carrier says long-term schedules for both routes will be announced in the coming days. Fleets data shows that Blue Islands operated four ATR 72-500 turboprops and one -600. Two of the ATR 72-500s were leased from Falko and one from Abelo. Jetstream Aviation Capital leased the -600 to the Channel Islands-based airline. Blue Islands is the second UK-based regional carrier to have suspended operations in recent weeks, following the collapse of Eastern Airways in late October.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has lifted all flight reductions at 40 airports from 17 November at 6:00. The lifting of flight restrictions follow "detailed reviews of safety trends and the steady decline of staffing-trigger events in air traffic control facilities", according to a 16 November statement. “I want to thank the FAA’s dedicated safety team for keeping our skies secure during the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history and the country’s patience for putting safety first. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, controllers have returned to their posts and normal operations can resume,” states US transportation secretary Sean Duffy. FAA had on 14 November lowered the required flight reductions at 40 airports from 6% to 3%, effective 15 November at 06:00, adding that it would evaluate over the weekend if normal operations could resume. Prior to that, the FAA first initiated a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 locations across the country from 7 November to deal with air traffic control staffing pressures due to the government shutdown which ended on 12 November.