Pratt & Whitney always believed the pivotal launch of the geared turbofan for regional and smaller airliners was the first step to opening a crack in the door back to the big time. Now, with tests of the first Airbus A320NEO engine about to begin, there is no disguising Pratt's view that the door is finally yawning wide open.

Is the retirement rate for airliners accelerating?

If present trends continue, no airline pilot will fly without a tablet computer; nor will any aircraft mechanic attempt a repair without one. For the pilot, the devices represent the latest evolution in electronic flight bags (EFBs), which first made inroads, nearly two decades ago via the laptop computer. For mechanics, the far less bulky tablets will provide a new measure of mobility, as digital maintenance manuals can be downloaded and taken where the work is being done.

Holographic video, headphone-less audio and social media may be coming.

Supply is slowly rising to meet a long-standing demand in the broadband connectivity market for passenger cabins and cockpits. The rebalancing is driving a flurry of forward-fit and retrofit activity in the sector as airlines struggle to meet the bandwidth-heavy habits of their customers.

So far, not so bad. The Comac C919, the single most important program in the great array of China's civil aircraft plans, has used up all of the slack in its schedule. The manufacturer is, by numerous accounts, suffering from at least as much bureaucratic caution as would be expected of a Chinese Communist organization executing a high-priority political project. And the aircraft, according to some industry executives, is likely to miss its target for a first flight in late 2014.

As efforts to integrate unmanned aircraft into civil airspace intensify, industry pundits are eying legal and safety challenges that could be posed by the introduction of autonomous technology into commercial air transport.

While the fight over Australia's international airline market has been capturing headlines lately, major takeover moves by Virgin Australia are set to turn up the heat in an increasingly fierce competition on the domestic front.