The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has thrown a harsh light on the fragile nature of internal and cross-border relationships in Southeast Asia, as a lack of coordination hampered both detection of the flightpath and response to its disappearance.

Although Airbus remains publicly ambivalent about its willingness to develop a reengined A330, a growing sector of the market is voicing support for the move.

Emirates has seen significant double-digit growth each year since it started in 1985, but this year promises to be more muted due to infrastructure work at its main hub.

When presenting Brussels Airlines' results for 2013 and outlook for this year, CEO Bernard Gustin compared the carrier's efforts to become profitable to the grueling bicycle ride to the top of 1,912-meter-high (6,273-ft.) Mont Ventoux in the French Alps. “We covered 40 to 50 percent of the slope; we still have challenges but we will get to the top,” vows Gustin, an avid cyclist.

A joint safety effort between Boeing and Embraer launched in late 2012 is yielding its first fruits to help with runway excursions, events where an aircraft veers off or overruns the runway. Products of the collaboration include new training aids and updated operating procedures for both manufacturers' aircraft and, coming in late 2015, new flight-display safety tools for the Boeing 737NG.

Advani is owner and president of International Development Technology

It will be summer before an FAA preliminary rule to upgrade full-motion simulators with extended models to handle full stall training hits the streets, and nearly five years before airlines have to officially put the updated machines to work. Despite the long grace period, the industry is taking a proactive stance on the safety improvements triggered by new flight-training rules, finalized in November and designed to help pilots recognize and recover from fully developed stalls and attitude upsets, often caused by stalls.

As industry tackles areas like runway safety and inflight loss of control, which are seen as ripe for safety improvement, a working group is zeroing in on ways to minimize the most common contributor to airline accidents: inadequate flightpath monitoring.