The Virgin Group will buy a 20% stake in the company that will operate long-haul budget services under the AirAsia brand and will also support the business in other, unstated ways. Operating company Fly Asian Xpress says it will fly its first long-haul service, probably to the Australian holiday city Gold Coast, in six or seven weeks. The company says it has also secured landing rights at London Stansted Melbourne's secondary airport, Avalon. It plans to spread services across Asia and says Amritsar will be the first in India.

China is making concrete moves toward deregulation of its commercial aviation industry, relaxing rules that protect the main state-backed airlines and creating more opportunities for others. Earlier talk has been backed up with action, with new carriers being allowed on to the country’s premier air route, the one linking Beijing and Shanghai. Hainan Airlines and Shanghai Airlines will now fly between China’s biggest cities alongside the big-three state carriers—China Southern, Air China and China Eastern.

First flight of the Kawasaki Heavy Industries C-X will be delayed, after the big Japanese airlifter failed structural tests. The P-X maritime patroller, a parallel development by the same manufacturer, has also suffered structural problems. And delivery of the first Boeing KC-767 to Japan has been delayed for a third time—from the end of this month until March—because it has not passed U.S. safety requirements, says the defense ministry.