Multiple hiccups could delay entry into service of the twin-aisle airliner by a year....

New chief executives, like political leaders, traditionally are given a 100-day honeymoon period when they take the helm. For incoming EADS CEO Tom Enders, the honeymoon has ended 100 days before he even takes office.

The call by carriers to standardize composite training certification, techniques and material mounts by the minute, with the Boeing 787 an operational fait accompli, and the Airbus A350 waiting to take wing.

When Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Washington last year, he unveiled with great fanfare $19 billion worth of purchases for Boeing 737 and 777 jets. There was only one catch: The aircraft had actually been ordered between 2007 and 2009. The central government in Beijing has long used its requisite sign-off on orders by Chinese airlines as a tool to further its political agenda, doling out—or withholding—big-ticket purchases at opportune moments.

In a speech to the Wings Club in New York last month, Bombardier President/CEO Pierre Beaudoin defended the Canadian aircraft manufacturer's new CSeries against “naysayers,” including the ones who have raised questions about the supposed “slow” order uptake for the 100-145-seat aircraft.

Aircraft manufacturers are adamant that airlines will continue to be able to raise the needed funds to finance aircraft on order, but a more pertinent question for the airlines is “at what price?”

Final site clearing is under way for construction of a 180,000-sq.-ft. delivery center for Boeing's widebody aircraft factory in Everett, Wash. Expected to open early next year, the new Everett Delivery Center north of Seattle is replacing a 60,000-sq.-ft. facility that dates to the late 1960s when Boeing was developing its first widebody jets, the 747-100/-200s. The new center will be built on the same site south of the widebody factory.

This year is supposed to be pivotal for Europe's ambitious effort to redraw its convoluted airspace. But even if states meet deadlines to form new cross-border airspace blocks, airlines are skeptical that this will bring the project's promised efficiency gains any closer to reality.