Spinners have been working fine for me.. Just need a decent number of them, proportional to how much air they're using of course. I think the commander's AA is a bit too powerful now though. It was definitely weak last patch, but they buffed it too much. Seems like his missiles used to miss a lot, but now they never do, even against scouting planes.
Before the commander got missiles, rushing T1 bombers was a win button against the AI. One air factory will build bombers faster than the comander can shoot them down, and the AI's response was to try and run away :V The commander's missiles put a stop to air rushes (seriously those things are brutal) but if you spam enough T1 Air, you can still defend your base from light vehicle rushes and limit enemy expansion with T1 bombers, Maintain air superiority with fighters, and then once you get a T2 air factory, you can just missile the commander to death. Haven't tried this against the AI outside of Galactic war, or against a skilled human, but right now air and sub commanders is easymode for Galactic war.