Tony Tyler, the International Air Transport Association's chief executive, said recently that “too often governments see aviation as a luxury and milk it as a cash cow.” Giovanni Bisignani, Tyler's provocative predecessor, has also in the past several years repeatedly accused governments of implementing a narrow-minded cash-cow policy toward airlines.

Cathay's next CEO looks to North America to boost long-haul fortunes

In direct response to Colgan Air's 2009 accident near Buffalo, N.Y., Congress passed the Airline Safety and FAA Extension Act of 2010, requiring all crewmembers to have an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) license as of July 15, 2013. The rationale: The lack of flight time among pilots at smaller air carriers, also known as regional airlines, was leading to an unacceptable decrease in airline safety. While the FAA has proposed alternative minimums for ATPs, its stance is to keep the new mandate for such a license in place.

Fuji Heavy Industries is in the midst of a massive efficiency drive

Cessna is still assessing whether a problem that surfaced during a test flight of its diesel Turbo Skylane JT-A will push back the timeline of the aircraft’s certification. The aircraft, N9008H, was forced to make an emergency landing on Aug. 21 in a field in Kingman County, west of Cheney Lake, Kan., apparently after losing power. The pilot successfully landed the aircraft, which did not sustain any notable damage.

A revised Federal Communications Commission plan to phase out 121.5 MHz emergency locator transmitters is failing to sway the Department of Transportation and the FAA that the ban should be implemented.

Signature Flight Support, which recently signed a deal to become a dominant presence at Westchester County Airport (HPN) in White Plains, N.Y., has struck an accord with Maguire Aviation Group that will make it the single largest entity at another major business aviation airport – Van Nuys Airport (VNY) in California.

Dallas-based fractional ownership provider Flexjet is seeing the first signs of sustained growth since the downturn, with new customers buying shares and flight hours increasing, the company says. As a result, the fractional ownership provider is beginning to expand its workforce for the first time since the downturn began.