CAE announced the sale of its first three 787 full-flight simulators, two to Qantas and one to China Eastern Airlines subsidiary Shanghai Eastern Flight Training. It also sold a 737-800 FFS to KLM. The four orders are worth a combined C$67 million ($56.9 million), CAE said. The airlines will take delivery next year.

Finnair yesterday made the first firm commitment for the new A350 XWB powered by the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, signing a contract for 11 of the type along with a flexible mix of seven A330s and A340-300s.

First Choice Airways of the UK exercised options for four 787-8s yesterday, bringing its commitment to 12 (ATWOnline, Dec. 8, 2006) and making it the type's largest European customer. "The success of our long-haul program with our upgraded Boeing 767s has given us the confidence to order 12 Boeing 787s," First Choice MD Dermot Blastland said. It selected GEnx engines for the order, which will double the size of its long-haul fleet by 2013.

Indonesia's air safety record was under intense scrutiny yesterday following a second fatal 737-400 accident in 10 weeks, this one involving a Garuda Indonesia aircraft that skidded off a runway upon landing in Yogyakarta and caught fire in an adjacent rice field, killing 21 of 133 passengers and one of seven crewmembers.

General Electric has ruled out a variant of the Engine Alliance GP7000 powerplant, which powers the A380, for the A350 XWB-1000. A GE spokesperson told ATWOnline yesterday that "it is not being considered." The engine, a joint venture of GE and Pratt & Whitney, is currently offered only on the A380. The XWB-1000 is to be powered by a Trent 1000 at 95,000 lb. thrust. There had been brief discussions between GE and Airbus on a possible 105,000-lb. GEnx derivative but those talks lapsed.