Chinese moves to control the rapid airline growth that’s taxing its infrastructure will probably boost demand for small to medium wide-body aircraft such as the A330 and 787 at the expense of narrowbodies, manufacturers say. Airbus sees the clampdown as one of a series of developments in Asia that will stimulate sales of the A330. Its brisk sales over the past year or so have surprised even Airbus.

Bombardier’s proposed CSeries airliner will benefit from engines with bypass ratios around 10:1, a figure unheard of for a narrow-body airliner and only recently heard of for widebodies. The company says each of the three engines it’s reviewing—from Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and CFM International—offers such a high bypass ratio. It hopes to choose one of them, or maybe two, by year-end as it works toward a launch decision on the 110- and 130-seat aircraft within 12 months.

Chinese aircraft makers are planning a range of new civil models, even before their current big project, the ARJ21 large regional jet, rolls out at the end of this year. Avic I, one of the country's two aviation conglomerates, says it is considering a new turboprop transport, a business jet and a new aircraft for general aviation.