Hainan Airlines is making a determined effort to set up a base in the western Chinese city of Chengdu, with two of its affiliates applying to set up branch companies there. The move increases pressure on Air China, which already is being challenged by China Eastern Airlines at its Chengdu hub. One of the Hainan Airlines divisions seeking expansion at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is Lucky Air, which this week opened a third service to the city. All three routes go to Yunnan, the base province of Lucky Air.

In 2011, a Chinese aero-engine industry executive told Aviation Week that, if necessary, the country would muster its resources and develop the CJ-1000 commercial turbofan on its own, so determined was it to end its reliance on Western imports. Two years later, it looks like all those resources had better be mustered. The industry's attempt at luring U.S. and especially Western European help is looking increasingly bleak, though it has secured Russian assistance and has employed expert Western engineers.

When Japanese industry launched Mitsubishi Aircraft and the MRJ in 2008, the regional jet was intended to enter service late in 2013 as the only aircraft in its class with the decisive advantage of an advanced new engine. In accepting the cost and risk of the unconventional geared engine and in adopting a long, slender wing optimized for modest cruise speed, the developers were betting on high fuel prices.