Tiger Airways will this year add two Airbus A319s to its Australian operation so it can use airports smaller than those needed for its A320s, maybe including Sydney’s general aviation facility, Bankstown. Introducing scheduled jet services at Bankstown would be an almost revolutionary move in Australian commercial aviation because it would finally create competition for Kingsford Smith Airport, which handles almost all of Sydney’s traffic.

Eurocopter and Sikorsky stand to benefit from Australia’s cancellation of its disastrous Kaman SH-2G(A) Super Seasprite naval helicopter project, with a competition for a replacement program likely to be launched within a year. More immediately, Australia will look for ways to upgrade and improve the availability of its fleet of 16 Sikorsky S-70B Seahawk naval helicopters to fill the gap before 22 to 24 new aircraft arrive next decade to replace both types.

China’s 2008 defense budget suggests the country’s military spending is roughly keeping pace with economic growth, but not growing any faster. The figures are superficial, however, because the total budget may be two or three times the figure declared at this time each year during the annual meeting of parliament. So the whole picture could be quite different. In the declared budget, the government has allocated 418 billion yuan ($58.8 billion) to the military for 2008, up 17.6 percent from last year.