Airbus replaced the head of its troubled A380 superjumbo program, two months after a crisis over production delays led to the resignation of the company's chief executive and the co-head of parent EADS. Airbus said Champion had been replaced by Mario Heinen, a 50-year-old executive from Luxembourg, who until

now has been in charge of the European aircraft manufacturer’s chief cash engine, its single-aisle range of A320-family jets. The move is CEO Christian Streiff's first key appointment since he was drafted in from outside the aviation industry to replace Gustav Humbert as the head of Airbus in July. Champion will serve Streiff as an adviser, Airbus said.

A project to build Japan's first passenger jet led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will start with around USD$1 billion in funding, up to 30 percent of which will come from government subsidies, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. Commercial production of the small jet, dubbed the MJ jet for Mitsubishi Jet, is due to start in the business year from April 2012. Some JPY120 billion yen (USD$1.03 billion) in funding will be provided by Mitsubishi Heavy which is the nation's biggest heavy machinery maker, Japan's trading houses, financial institutions and the government, the Nihon Keizai business daily said. Mitsubishi Heavy spokesman Hideo Ikuno said the firm plans to set up a special purpose company as early as 2008 to finance the MJ project and seek investment from the government, major banks and trading companies to diversify financial risk.

US air safety investigators called for earlier maintenance of certain widely used commercial jet engines after a turbine piece was flung across two runways at Los Angeles International Airport in June. The National Transportation Safety Board wrote to the Federal Aviation Administration recommending work to detect and prevent cracks in disks holding high-pressure turbine blades be performed after 3,000 takeoffs and landings. The call came after an American Airlines Boeing 767 experienced a spectacular engine failure on June 2 while mechanics were investigating a pilot complaint of poor performance in one of its two General Electric CF6-80 jet engines. During ground testing at full power, there was an explosion followed by a fire. No one was hurt but a piece of disk from the left engine was found about 2,500 feet from the plane against an airport perimeter fence. The FAA said earlier this month it had issued an airworthiness directive to speed up inspections using a sliding scale that would have the greatest impact on disks with more than 9,000 takeoff and landing cycles.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that it will not change its current rule and enforcement policy on airline price advertising. The decision follows a review of comments filed in response to a notice issued last December regarding possible changes. The DOT concluded that the current practice protects consumers and helps them compare prices. It also found that the current rule promotes fare competition and provides sellers of air transportation with freedom to innovate. Supporters of other options did not provide compelling reasons for eliminating the rule that has been in place for 21 years, DOT said, noting that the vast majority of people filing comment opposed any relaxation of the rule's provisions. The current rule requires that the advertised price for air transportation list the entire amount a customer will have to pay for the ticket. DOT has a long-standing enforcement policy that allows carriers to list only government-imposed taxes, fees and other charges separately from the listed fare, and only as long as these charges are collected on a per-passenger basis, are not based on a percentage of the ticket price, and are clearly disclosed in the advertisement.

US airlines are doing more with less and carrying more passengers than they did last year but flights are noticeably longer, government figures showed. Airlines flew 369.5 million passengers on scheduled domestic and international flights during the first six months of 2006, nearly 1 percent more than the same period last year, the Transportation Department said in its most up-to-date figures. Carriers operated 5.2 million domestic and overseas flights during the January- June period, nearly 5 percent fewer than the first six months of 2005, according to data from 90 airlines. The number of domestic flights fell while the frequency of international flights went up. Nonstop flights overall were more than 3 percent longer and average trip length per passenger on all flights was up nearly 2 percent for the period that did not include the heaviest summer travel. Airlines flying domestically have cut flights to save money and boost fares but most flights run full or nearly full. Those that fly internationally, like United Airlines have boosted service on routes commanding higher fares.

US passenger and cargo airlines sought to stop, or at least change, a Federal Aviation Administration proposal to overhaul management of structural fatigue in older aircraft. The biggest passenger carriers and their cargo counterparts said the agency's proposal last April was premature and incomplete. They also said the FAA significantly underestimated what it would cost the airlines in maintenance and aircraft retirement costs to comply with the regulation.

To promote greater collaboration between the U.S. and China aviation sectors, United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) in cooperation with the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), is sponsoring a U.S.-China Aviation Summit that took place September 19, 2006 at the Washington Convention Center. The event, which attracted more than 300 participants, seeks to encourage a high-level dialogue between the United States and China to face the growth challenges of the sector. Specific plans for upgrading the sector are outlined in China’s current fiveyear plan (2006-2010), which stresses the...