Monarch Aircraft Engineering Technical Training Academy will start Boeing 787 training this year, investing $2.5 million on desktop training equipment at its Luton Airport facility in London. A refurbishment of the training building will add several new classrooms for composites and fiber optics training.

Thai Airways chose Bluebox Avionics to provide its Bluebox Ai IFE application for the iPad. The airline will deploy 650 iPad units to its Royal Silk class customers in June, which will have a custom user interface for the airline. Training

Finnair is launching labor talks to shed 280 positions as the airline moves to outsource engine and component services to SR Technics. The move is part of a wider Finnair group effort to realign the business and seek €140 million in cost savings to improve financial returns. In announcing the deal, airline COO Vile Iho says “this plan is based on a thorough analysis, where we first examined the costs and structures of our own operations, and then compared the results to tens of external service providers.”

Delta may benefit from financing from the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. (Ex-Im Bank), despite the carrier's being involved in a lawsuit objecting to the bank's financing foreign carriers purchase of Boeing aircraft. The Ex-Im Bank announced an $84.8 million loan guarantee for GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes for engine maintenance services in Atlanta by DeltaTechOps. The Ex-Im Bank's loan guarantee covers the first two years of a five-year contract. DeltaTechOps is to provide 253 engine removals and heavy maintenance on GOL's CFM56-7B engines at its Atlanta facility.

More MRO providers plan to enter the high-end completions business.

Today's airlines have identified a growing need for modular interiors that can easily conform to constantly changing seat configurations and layouts. Ancra International has created a special type of patented quick-release seat fitting called the AncraLock that does not require tools to remove it. According to Robert Rossato, Ancra's director of sales and marketing, this feature typically drives down the time to remove and reinstall a three-seat assembly to under five minutes, compared to the typical time of 15-20 minutes.

Commsoft's Oases software went live on nine widebody aircraft belonging to Portuguese operator Hi Fly.

Sabena Technics extended its collaboration with AirBaltic to provide the carrier with loans and repairs for CFMI CFM56-3 thrust reversers, which power its Boeing 737s.