FOR MOST OF ITS HISTORY, the passenger airline industry did not require a distribution strategy. In the beginning, passengers simply walked up to the airline's desk at the airport. Then the carriers added call centers and city ticket offices. Travel agencies began selling tickets in the 1930s and the airlines were, for the most part, content to use them as an ad hoc sales force.

CLICKAIR CHIEF EXECUTIVE ALEX Cruz certainly was boastful about his startup airline during his presentation at French Connect here earlier this year. According to the former Accenture executive, the Barcelona-based carrier that operated 18 A320s at the end of June represents the largest investment in a startup, is Europe's fastest-growing airline, is second only to Ryanair in operating cost and soon will have the most frills of any LCC.

THE PAST TWO YEARS HAVE BEEN turbulent for Pinnacle Airlines, which until New Opportunities However, the revised deal also permitted Pinnacle to take advantage of growth opportunities outside the Airlink program, something previously forbidden. It now can sell its services to other carriers (although not into NWA's hubs of Detroit, Memphis and Minneapolis) and can operate aircraft up to 76 seats or other sizes that do not cause NWA to violate its labor agreement with its pilots union.

Regional Express Holdings, which operates in Australia as Rex, announced the purchase of five Saab 340Bs that recently came off lease for A$11.5 million ($9.8 million). It now operates 22 owned Saab aircraft and has an additional 11 on lease.

Boeing yesterday told reporters in New Delhi that it has boosted its forecast for aircraft demand in the fast-growing Indian market, projecting that the country's airlines will order 911 passenger aircraft valued at $86 billion over the next 20 years. Last year the manufacturer pegged demand in the market at 856 aircraft valued at $72 billion over the next two decades (ATW, January 2007). It said the higher demand is owing to the rise of private airlines in India.