Until recently, the future appeared bright for aeroengine titan Rolls-Royce.

The sudden departure of UTC Chief Louis Chenevert surprised a lot of people. He may have been one of them.

The airline is the latest among the small group of airlines transforming European air transport. While Ryanair and EasyJet prepared the way for low-cost short-haul travel and dominate that segment, Norwegian is third and takes the business model far beyond where the two pioneers stopped.

The concept of airlines forming leasing units is certainly not new, but the latest evolution sees more LCCs going down this path, particularly those with hundreds of narrowbody aircraft on order.

The airline will soon launch tenders for 100-seat aircraft and larger narrowbodies, aiming to double its fleet within the next 10 years.

The new subsidiary, Fuzhou Airlines, will compete at one of the two key bases of China’s sixth-largest carrier, Xiamen Airlines, which plans a big lift in capacity next year at Fuzhou. The new carrier has begun flying to Beijing, and other early destinations will be Shanghai, Xian, Haikou, Taiyuan, Chongqing, Hefei, Kunming and Tianjin.

Airbus is launching the second generation of the outsize cargo aircraft that will be based on the larger and heavier A330-200. Five new Belugas will be built, the first of which will enter service in 2019 after a five-year development phase. They will progressively replace the current fleet and take over all special cargo flying for Airbus by 2025.

The danger of a hobbyist or troublemaker flying a small, light, remotely piloted aircraft into the path of a commercial aircraft may be overblown due to the rigorous certification standards already in place for other unidentified flying objects—birds.