Southwest Airlines Chairman, President and CEO Gary Kelly told the Wings Club in New York City that SWA has notified Boeing that it will “substitute 20 of its 737-700 orders for -800s,” with the first delivery scheduled for March 2012. The airline had made known its desire to add the larger type into its fleet of 737-700s, -300s and -500s but needed to get approval from its pilot and cabin crew unions first.

Pratt & Whitney Canada said it will invest more than $1 billion in R&D over the next five years "to develop the next generation of high-performance aircraft engines." Investment includes a $300 million repayable contribution from the Government of Canada under the Strategic Aerospace and Defense Initiative. "This major investment will enable us to sustain our engineering centers of excellence in Ontario and Quebec and reinforce our position as a leader in the global aerospace industry," said P&WC President John Saabas.

AerCap Holdings board of directors approved a share repurchase program. The Amsterdam-based aircraft lessor said the program "is limited by restrictive covenants in a debt facility expiring in 2015 to $25 million share repurchases annually and $50 million in aggregate." GECAS delivered one new Airbus A320 to Philippine Airlines, to be operated by AirPhil Express. It also delivered three new Boeing 737-800s to Garuda Airlines in Indonesia.

ACSS said that its T3CAS Traffic Management Computer was certified by Airbus for the A320 family. The unit includes TCAS incorporating Change 7.1 software, TAWS and ADS-B capability.The first installations of T3CAS start this month on A320 family aircraft to operators in Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. ACSS is owned by L-3 Communications and Thales.

Boeing on Wednesday delivered its 200th direct-delivery jetliner to Air France. The aircraft also launches AF’s new business-class seat; it is outfitted with 42 of the 78.74 in. (2 m.) -long lie-flat seat beds that include 15-in. (38cm.) IFE screens. The 383-seat GE90-115B-powered 777-300ER will operate its first commercial flight Dec. 20 and will be used on the carrier's Paris-Montreal service, as well as on Paris-Ho Chi Minh City beginning in January.