Low-cost carriers in Asia continue to expand their networks and fleets, aiming to grab an even bigger chunk of the regional air travel market. Jetstar in Singapore says that with the arrival of its 10th aircraft it will launch a Singapore-Taipei-Osaka service on July 5, the first multi-sector route for the carrier, which also has a sister airline in Australia. The Jetstar family has been flying daily between Singapore and Taipei since December 2004 and to Osaka from Australia since March 2007.

Air China is firmly in control of Shenzhen Airlines with the appointment of a new president of the smaller carrier, whose base in Guangdong province offers a chance to take market share from China Southern. Shenzhen Airlines is now code sharing on 13 routes with Air China and from April 27 will do so on 10 routes with Shandong Airlines, another subsidiary of the major carrier.

The Philippine government is refusing to bail out Philippine Airlines as the company rushes to avoid corporate failure by offloading non-core operations. Financial losses reduced equity to only $1.1 million by February, the airline says. The sudden and urgent reorganization, centered on spinning off non-core units, comes only four weeks after the airline said that it was optimistic it would recover this year after a “not-so-good performance” in 2009.