Big gain for Pratt as Embraer prepares for formal launch

Limited and uncertain funding has forced NASA to make hard decisions as it selects which technologies to take to the next level in its pursuit of aggressive fuel-burn, noise and emissions reductions for next-generation commercial transports. A victim of its own success, NASA's refocused aeronautics research program has advanced more technologies than its diminished budget can afford to take forward into the next phase of its Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) project.

Virgin Atlantic Airways' choice to recruit American Airlines executive Craig Kreeger as CEO indicates the London-based airline is preparing for a new chapter in its history, jettisoning its historic independent streak to embrace a future as a fully fledged network carrier and possible alliance member. But the new CEO will have his hands full.

Four Skyteam members on either side of the Taiwan Strait are deepening their relationship with closer collaboration in their shared market between the island nation of Taiwan and China. The so-called Great China Connection service also marks one of the biggest steps forward in cooperation between China Southern and China Eastern airlines since the latter's 2010 application to join Skyteam. The application put both carriers in the same alliance and raised the question of whether the two state airlines would ultimately be merged.

The opening of an expanded terminal at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport signals its aspirations to compete with the larger two airports in the Russian capital, and it also opens capacity for UTair Aviation and its Star Alliance partners.

U.S. government agencies are quietly making “direct arrangements” with airborne Internet providers to obtain certain information flowing through broadband Wi-Fi systems for data and voice in airline passenger cabins.

Merkel nixed what would have been biggest merger ever.

It is a yardstick often cited, given to market timing and not always related to profits. Nonetheless, Boeing is on track to win the orders “race” in 2012 and the title of “world's biggest aircraft maker.”