Mesa Air Group and Shenzhen Airlines are pushing into uncharted waters of the Chinese aviation market with a joint venture based on regional jets, high-fare aircraft normally considered better suited to rich countries than developing ones. Phoenix-based Mesa becomes the first U.S. carrier to form a strategic alliance to establish a new airline in mainland China.

Australia is making a surprise move to buy 24 Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets as interim replacements for its much larger F-111 strike bombers, showing just how nervous it is about Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. The expected A$3-billion ($2.4 billion) order through the U.S. Defense Dept. could cut Australia's requirement for F-35s, even though the country committed itself to JSF last month.

Singapore's Tiger Airways is turning itself into a franchise business like a fast-food chain, sidestepping restrictions on traffic rights in Southeast Asia and, in effect, forming an airline alliance in which the affiliated carriers trade solely under the brand of the group, not under their own names.