Delta moves toward renewing its long-haul fleet

Tom Captain is vice chairman of Deloitte LLP and is based in Seattle

Emissions regulations apply only to Europe through 2016

After several years of talking about the overhaul of Europe's air traffic management technology, the time for action finally may be arriving. European regulators and their industry partners have been working to develop detailed blueprints for a next-generation ATM system that would be standard across Europe, and in some cases provided collectively. Now they are launching two initiatives that represent the transition to implementation.

Has high hopes of establishing 'Lakeresque' low-cost, long-haul model

The Single European Sky (SES) initiative has been touted as the largest climate-protection project undertaken in the European aviation sector. The full implementation of both pillars of the project—airspace consolidation and technology upgrades—could reduce fuel consumption and carbon-dioxide emissions by 10% per flight, according to the European Commission.

The political situation in Ukraine may force the U.S. to reconsider its airborne supply route into Afghanistan. Tensions on the Crimean peninsula have remained high since Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from government in February. Last week, Russia announced it was sending troops and attack helicopters for new exercises near the border with Ukraine. The U.S., meanwhile, is assisting NATO training efforts, deploying 12 F-16s and 300 personnel to Poland and six F-16s to Lithuania.

The story of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 reads like bad fiction—a perfectly safe aircraft disappears from radar on a scheduled flight, and the extensive international search-and-rescue effort that ensues finds few clues. It is not fiction, but it should be in light of the technology to monitor aircraft and the massive amounts of operational data available.