Taiwan carrier China Airlines (CAL) is hoping for another round of liberalization between China and Taiwan so it can further expand its services to mainland China as well as cater to transit traffic.

Royal Brunei Airlines is hoping the opening of a new airport terminal at its home base of Bandar Seri Begawan, and the introduction of Boeing 787-8s, will transform its business. The Sultanate of Brunei's flag carrier will be the first in Southeast Asia to operate the 787, says Deputy Chairman Dermot Mannion, who joined Royal Brunei in 2010. He has served as CEO of Aer Lingus and president of group services for Emirates.

Limiting congressional terms brings in fresh blood, but that also means a change in direction. House Republicans are capping leadership terms at six years, which means that Rep. John Mica (Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will hand over his gavel next year. Mica may have rubbed colleagues the wrong way with his continued war against the Transportation Security Administration. But he was a strong advocate for the FAA's NextGen air traffic modernization system who came up through the aviation subcommittee.

Technology may take a backseat to customer and training value in the flight simulator of the near future. Though work on potentially breakthrough technologies continues in academia and in the laboratories of simulator manufacturers like CAE, Lockheed Martin, Rockwell Collins and Thales, there is a growing call from the safety and user communities to figure out the optimum use of investments already made and technology already available.

Bob Smith Chief Technology Officer, Honeywell Aerospace Age: 48 Education: Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, University of Texas; advanced degrees in engineering and applied mathematics from Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.

The jigsaw pieces are coming together for a future “all-electric” commercial airliner by the second half of the 2020s. Seeking higher efficiencies, lower costs and easier maintenance, airframers and equipment manufacturers alike are pushing ahead with development of electrically powered replacements for today's pneumatic, mechanical and hydraulic systems.

But whether the low-cost model will be a success will depend on much more than just airline economics.

Rolls-Royce will be introducing a new maintenance program for Fokker 70s and 100s that promises to reduce the cost of overhauling their Tay engines. Fokker, however, is being a little coy about releasing the details just yet. “Rolls-Royce is working on a dedicated program to reduce the cost of the heavy checks for the Tay engine. More detail than that cannot be provided due to the fact Rolls-Royce first needs to inform our operators,” says a Fokker spokesman.