Rolls-Royce named Paul O’Neil director of its Seletar Campus in Singapore.

The decline in the average age of jets being retired is having an impact on aircraft valuations, financing and spare parts suppliers.

Indian MRO provider Air Works has invested $22m in Dubai’s Empire Aviation Group.

Bankrupt Mexicana de Aviacion’s planned August relaunch has slipped as negotiations with creditors continue longer than expected. The airline in April unveiled plans to relaunch in June, but the date quickly slipped to August as terms of the deal with new owner, Med Atlantica, were finalized. Med Atlantica also initiated talks with the airline’s two largest creditors, Bancomext and Banorte, over outstanding debt.

International Aero Engines (IAE) continues to work on a permanent fix for a corrosion problem that has cracked about 90 V2500 high-pressure compressor drums in three years and forced the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) into recommending more stringent actions than the FAA settled on in a mandatory directive.

Silver Airways will continue to grow its in-house maintenance capabilities in Gainesville, Fla., and will add the Saab 340B+ heavy check program to its workload, the U.S. regional carrier says. The Florida-based operator currently operates 21 Beechcraft 1900Ds and five Saab 340B+ aircraft, but it plans to replace most of its 1900Ds with Saabs by next May. It will use Saab aircraft for all services in its Florida and Bahamas markets, retaining eight 1900Ds for its Cleveland and Billings, Mont., routes.

Low-cost carriers and charter operators in Central Europe face stiff competition, among themselves and from state carriers that “run on an emotional basis and are treated like they will go on forever,” says Sandor Szomora, deputy chief executive of Lufthansa Technik Budapest. Szomora, who worked for a Malev Hungarian Airlines joint venture before joining LHT, says these state carriers often are “not nimble or adaptive.”

Emirates is preparing for negotiations with Airbus about compensation