The civil aircraft projects of China and Japan will be heavily supported by Western first-tier suppliers who can offer much of the integration expertise that the upstart manufacturers lack. While this lack of experience in bringing together a whole aircraft is often seen as a key obstacle for companies such as Mitsubishi Aircraft, Comac and the ambitious subsidiaries of the Avic group, to a large extent they can simply contract such Western manufacturers as Goodrich and Honeywell to take on some of the integration load.

Virgin Blue Airlines of Australia, its long-haul branch, V Australia and Virgin America will join their frequent flyer programs. Club members on the Australian and U.S. carriers will immediately begin earning points when they fly on the partner airlines. By the end of 2010, they will be able to redeem points on the partners’ flights.

Malaysian cargo carrier Transmile Air will begin operating at Singapore Changi Airport, seeing a market opportunity to carry bulky oil and gas equipment. Transmile Air, the first airline to start operations to Changi this year, will operate three weekly roundtrip cargo flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur via Kuching and Labuan in East Malaysia from April 10. The carrier will ply the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore-Kuching-Labuan-Kuala Lumpur route on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.