EU carbon dioxide allowances declined in September, in line with German power prices for 2013 delivery and on jitters over the extent of possible opposition to the European Commission's proposals to delay future carbon auction volumes. December 2012 EU Allowances (EUA) hit a six-month peak of €8.37 per metric ton ($10.80/mt) on Sept. 7, according to Platts' assessments, taking support from bullish sentiment in the wider financial markets after the European Central Bank announced new economic stimulus measures.

Michael Merk has been named manager of real estate and business development at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. He was director of real estate for BAX Global.

Tom Roche (see photo) has been appointed VP-customer support at Tempe, Ariz..-based StandardAero. Alain Berube succeeds Roche as VP-turboprops and fleets from his previous role as VP-operations.

Von Gardiner (see photos) has been named senior manager for Defense Department programs, and John Wallace VP-market management of Vienna, Va.-based NJVC. Gardiner was director of communications and information with USAF Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and Wallace has been sales director for capital markets and banking corporate accounts, as well as VP-financial services industry at Hewlett-Packard.

Academic exercises about whether Congress will allow a nearly $1 trillion in across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration to take effect in January are taking on an entirely new reality. Aerospace and defense companies are already beginning to announce plant closures, layoffs and cutbacks, and at least one of them is citing sequestration specifically.

Boeing's decision to make radial tires standard for main and nose landing gear on the 737 MAX is a welcome upgrade for airlines that have compared radials' performance with the alternative—the bias-ply tires that have been an industry standard for decades.

The deal has been in the making for more than a year, and now—after this lengthy process—the Lufthansa board of directors has finally approved what is a pretty dramatic breakthrough for the carrier's modus operandi: The group is setting up a subsidiary for European direct services, operating a fleet of around 90 aircraft. The unit will be headquartered at Cologne/Bonn Airport in Germany.

It's official: President Barack Obama last week signed into law a measure that confirms full ownership rights to artifacts received by Apollo-era astronauts from their missions. According to the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, NASA managers routinely allowed astronauts to keep mementos, pieces of hardware and personal equipment from the spacecraft during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. But beginning in the mid-2000s, NASA began to challenge the ownership of these artifacts.