Central Asia has the potential to be the next boom market for international air travel, but the European Union's blacklist is keeping a damper on the market.

The big names in commercial aircraft manufacturing no longer have Southern California addresses, but the area abounds with suppliers. Twice as many aerospace engineers, mechanics, technicians and assemblers work in California as in any other state, and the bulk of them are clustered from Los Angeles to San Diego.

Airbus and Rolls-Royce are keenly aware that Qatar Airways and Emirates, two of the most outspoken and demanding airline customers for the A350, are watching flight-tests of the Trent XWB engine like hawks—particularly as the engine endures the heat and dust of recent flight trials in the Middle East.

Finnair had a problem that cost it about €100 ($130) per minute and it needed a solution. The culprit was the dual engine bleed air system on its Airbus A330s. The airline suffered two incidents because the system failed—each malfunction resulted in loss of aircraft pressurization and resultant emergency descents.

The ARJ21 program was always supposed be a learning experience. If people learn when things go wrong, then Comac must be learning a lot, and it is giving itself more time for its lessons.

The future of Airbus is riding to a large extent on the success of its new A350 widebody, designed to compete head-to-head with Boeing's hugely popular 787 and 777. And while final assembly is underway at last, the European airframer still faces major challenges before the first jet is delivered in 2014—and even before first flight next year.

“I'm not Richard Branson,” says Tony Fernandes, co-founder and CEO of the AirAsia Group, when asked about the similarities between him and Branson. “I have zero interest to go to the Moon. My sense of adventure is more down to Earth.” Fernandes, who worked for Virgin Records in the U.K. and counts Branson as a personal friend, says the Virgin Group boss is a serial entrepreneur. Branson establishes a business, then finds people to manage it for him so he can move onto the next venture; says Fernandes, noting, “I like to manage the business.”

Europe's big three airline groups are making serious cuts to stem mounting losses. But if British Airways CEO Keith Williams is right, it will be a very long time before they are remotely near the healthy profit margins of 4-5 years ago.