Production ramp-ups amid a transition into new products, particularly the CFM Leap single-aisle engine series and GE90 successor for Boeing's proposed 777X, are behind the late 2012 surge of acquisitions and joint ventures by GE Aviation, including the $4.3 billion purchase of Italian gearbox, turbine and transmission specialist Avio.

The future of the Tupolev Tu-204 narrowbody airliner looks ever more uncertain after Russian authorities suspended the air operator's certificate of the largest operator, Red Wings. The program is already in limbo, with no commercial orders at the moment.

The truth is that the future of air traffic management is already here and it is time to start running to meet it. It may be an uphill run, but to achieve our common vision of a globally harmonized and interoperable air navigation system we need to recognize what needs to be done and set about doing it.

Continued grounding poses growing program issues for Boeing

Has increasing difficulty keeping pace with Emirates' growth plans

Looking for ways to streamline busy oceanic routes.

Hop!, Air France's new regional subsidiary scheduled to be established in the next few weeks, is the French legacy carrier's latest attempt to slash direct operating costs on its domestic/short-haul route system, lower fares and thwart discount competitors from acquiring a significantly bigger market share. The initiative confirms the emergence of an increasingly more aggressive strategy but one that is still not aggressive enough. Moreover, Air France is still paying the high price for adapting too late and too slowly to the deregulation of Europe's airline industry.

The nationwide rollout of a data communication network highlights that Nav Canada has a lead role in the global trend of shifting essential ground-to-air exchanges from voice to text. Nav Canada will this year complete the phased introduction of controller-pilot data link communications (CPDLC) throughout its high-altitude airspace. Nav Canada Chief Technology Officer Sid Koslow says that while CPDLC is hardly a new concept—the industry has been talking about it for at least 20 years—this will be its most extensive deployment for domestic airspace.