The cutthroat competition in the Australian long-haul market is just as prevalent in the regulatory arena, as several airlines are proving with their vociferous opposition to a partnership proposed by Qantas and Emirates. While it would be a major surprise if permission were not granted by Australian regulators, the heated debate underlines how high the stakes are—not only for Qantas and Emirates, but for all of the international carriers serving this region.

United Airlines today will break ground on its first widebody aircraft maintenance hangar at the Washington Dulles International Airport hub. The airline, which is investing almost $45 million in the 125,000-sq.-ft. facility, expects construction to take a year. When opened, the hangar will enable United to perform maintenance simultaneously on two widebodies. United employs some 300 technical operations workers at Dulles.

AAR Corp. will provide airframe heavy maintenance service for Air Canada’s Airbus A320s under a letter of intent signed with the carrier. Should the deal proceed, AAR would provide scheduled maintenance and modifications for about 89 A320s through September 2017.

Aeronautical Engineers (AEI) reached an agreement with Bombardier Aerospace to “explore market interest” in CRJ200 freighter conversions because of the potential to broaden the scope to larger CRJ700s as well as developing a niche cargo market for up to 50-75 cargo variants of the smaller twinjet.

Evergreen Aviation Technologies plans to start constructing a fourth hangar in 2013 to keep pace with the fleet renewals of its 40 airline partners.

Garuda Indonesia’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) company, GMF AeroAsia, in December expects to start construction of a fourth hangar at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. The company was hoping to lease a hangar at the airport, but now plans to appoint a contractor to build its own hangar, GMF AeroAsia President Director Richard Budihadianto told Aviation Week on the sidelines of a Garuda Indonesia event in Makassar Friday to mark the inaugural flight of the airline’s first Bombardier CRJ1000.

The FAA is urging transport category aircraft operators and repair stations to check inventories and maintenance records for windows and other glass parts that may have been part of an elaborate records falsification scheme by a former repair station in Florida.

Aviation Week & Space Technology spotlights 40 rising stars under the age of 40, including several involved in the aftermarket.