China is handing a 50% market share in its largest city to China Eastern by ordering the ailing carrier to swallow hometown rival Shanghai Airlines. China Eastern will become about equal to Air China as the country’s second-largest airline in terms of passenger traffic and about equal to China Southern as the largest in terms of fleet size.

Thai Airways is signaling that it does not want to take delivery of the six Airbus A380s it has on order.” “It is not economically viable to have and deploy this aircraft in our network,” says Thai Airways Chairman Wallop Bhukkanasut. Thai has been undertaking a review of the A380 order (DAILY, June 9).” In comments to the Bangkok Post, Wallop does not clearly say that the airline will cancel its A380s, but his comments leave no room to doubt that the company does not want them.

Sen. John Faulkner, a highly regarded figure in the Australian government, will take over as defense minister following the resignation of Joel Fitzgibbon, while Bob Ainsworth has been named the new British Secretary of State for Defense. Fitzgibbon quit last week after it was revealed that the major general in charge of defense health services was ordered to discuss possible health insurance savings with Fitzgibbon’s brother, who is the head of an Australian insurance company, and with a U.S. insurer that the brother represented.