David Barger, president and CEO of JetBlue Airways, has joined the Dallas-based ISTAT Airlink Advisory Council. Barger also is chair of the FAA's NextGen Advisory Committee and a member of the board of governors and treasurer of the Flight Safety Foundation.

The suspension of commercial trade sanctions against Myanmar, coupled with a push by the country's civil aviation department for the operation of newer aircraft, is leading state-owned Myanma Airways to renew its fleet and expand internationally. Myanma Airways has signed a lease with GE Capital Aviation Services (Gecas) for two Embraer 190s for delivery in November and December, says Gecas.

Rarely is the economic decision to retrofit an aircraft with fresh communications, navigation and surveillance equipment as straightforward as for Airbus and its A300-600ST Super Transporter, better known as the Beluga.

EADS and BAE Systems are scrambling on several fronts to put together their proposed merger, and while decisions in favor or against the deal are being made in Paris, London and Berlin, Washington is playing an important role, too. BAE Systems executives believe any threat from the merger to its special security agreement (SSA) with the U.S. government would be a “deal breaker,” says an industry official close to the talks. Each SSA is tailored to the specific business of a particular company.

Joe Bento (see photo) has joined Itasca, Ill.-based SEKO Logistics as chief sales officer for North America. He was executive VP of CEVA Logistics.

Ginger Wierzbanowski (see photo) has been named VP-space, missile defense, advanced technology and ground programs at Northrop Grumman Corp., Falls Church, Va., succeeding John R. Landon, who is scheduled to retire at year-end. Wierzbanowski has been VP-government relations and was legislative assistant to the vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Airlines waiting for a reason to spend millions of dollars to equip their fleets with next-generation communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS) may see more convincing arguments from the FAA in the very near future. Along with the awarding a contract to establish and operate a domestic data-link system that includes $80 million in financial help for equipage, the agency is also nearing completion of a public-private partnership that may provide more than $1 billion to help cover buying and installing NextGen CNS avionics.

Nearly everyone knows that the U.S. is the largest arms exporter in history, selling or donating more weapons and defense services abroad than any other nation. But did you know that the U.S. also is the world's single-largest financial supporter of conventional weapons destruction? Since 1993, the State and Defense departments, the U.S.