JetBlue Airways Chief Operating Officer Rob Maruster says the FAA has a “credibility” problem implementing the satellite-based NextGen air traffic control (ATC) system, leading many U.S. airlines to worry that expensive investments in equipment deemed critical to NextGen’s success will not “pay off.”

Installation of JetBlue Airways’ long-awaited Wi-Fi service is set to begin in the coming weeks following the FAA’s approval of the system for Airbus A320s. The airline has selected Aviation Technical Services (ATS) to retrofit up to 130 Airbus A320s with the Internet system, which JetBlue calls Fly-Fi. The first aircraft is set to be modified in November or “possibly sooner,” ATS CEO Matt Yerbic tells Aviation Week. JetBlue says the fleet will be completed by 2015, with some work being handled by its LiveTV subsidiary in Orlando, Fla.

Three important merger activities should be completed this week at Kellstrom Materials, the company formed through Kellstrom Commercial Aerospace’s May 17 purchase of AirLiance Materials from Lufthansa Technic. The combined company will start using Kellstrom’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system Phoenix, which will go live at the legacy AirLiance facility near Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

The Pentagon has added $12 million to its 2014 spending plans to equip its Boeing 737-based C-40s with a fuel-tank inerting system, the same upgrade mandated for U.S. operators of Boeing commercial aircraft. The 2013 spending plan anticipated about $1 million more than fiscal 2014-17 for various required modifications. In the fiscal 2014 request, the figure jumped $6.1 million for 2014 and another $6 million for the outyear estimates through fiscal 2017.

AAR has received FAA approval to start operating the 520,000 sq. ft. facility in Lake Charles, La., previously occupied by Aeroframe. The FAA granted the operational approval three weeks after AAR signed an agreement to acquire the facility. The company started seeking FAA approval for the site—its sixth—immediately after signing the agreement, and had hoped to receive the agency’s sign off “within weeks,” according to Dany Kleiman, AAR’s aviation services group vice president-repair and engineering.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) late last week ordered inspections of wing leading-edge lift device components on 46 early-build Airbus A380s to correct an issue introduced on the production line. EASA says “a deficient assembly process” could cause small gaps to form between bolt heads and bushings installed on droop nose hinge arm forks. Gaps can transfer stress to the affected fork, causing fatigue damage and possibly breaking them, EASA explains. The directive is based on a July 9 Airbus service bulletin.

The long-predicted consolidation of the aviation used-parts business appears to be finally happening, or at least accelerating significantly. The case for consolidating aircraft aftermarkets, both in repair work and in supply chain provision, always has been strong. The logic is that bigger, more diversified companies can provide more comprehensive services to airlines that want to outsource functions that others can expedite more efficiently. But several factors have slowed integration.

It pays to be the new guy, according to data gathered for the 2013 Aviation Week Workforce Study. Pay for new college graduates rose by 3.4% between 2011 and 2012, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). In the aerospace and defense industry, the increase was slightly lower, at 3.2%. Companies with fewer employees worked to retain their workforces, awarding pay increases on average of 4.1%.