LIKE MUCH ELSE ABOUT UNITED Parcel Service, which was launched more than 100 years ago as a Seattle messenger service relying on a team of fast…

WHEN AIRBUS ANNOUNCED THE A350 XWB featuring a completely new wing and wider fuselage made with carbon fiber, engineers at Airbus, Thales and Honeywell no doubt were eager to turn their talents to the cockpit and avionics and improve upon the A330 and A380 configurations proposed for earlier A350 studies. Judging from the resultant transformation, they must have taken a good, hard look at the 787's futuristic cockpit and integrated avionics and avidly set themselves the goal of not only meeting but exceeding this state of the art.

DERMOT MANNION IS NOT SHY ABOUT EXTOLLING the virtues of the airline he joined as chief executive in August 2005. "We believe that Aer Lingus is the most successful of the European flag carriers in the way the business has been reengineered in recent years to operate on a low cost basis," he tells ATW at the airline's headquarters here. "Carriers tend to be either legacy full-service or LCC. We operate a hybrid model, which is quite unusual by industry standards, but we think it works well."

S7 Airlines took delivery of two new 164-seat A320-200s last week on lease from ILFC. The aircraft already are in service. S7 plans to take six more A320s this year. Its fleet now comprises 17 A319-100s, two A310-300s, five A310-200s, four A320-200s, three 737-500s, two 737-400s, nine Il-86s and 27 Tu-154Ms.

Cathay Pacific Airways plans to phase out 23 747-400s beginning in 2013 in an effort to realize fuel savings of 22% per seat. COO John Slosar told Hong Kong media that the carrier is considering a variety of replacement aircraft and that "the A380 is also an option." In the interim, it will raise its fuel surcharge 37% from June 1 in an effort to negate 40%-50% of the increase in fuel prices. CEO Tony Tyler said fuel now accounts for 40% of CX's total operating costs, up 10 points from last year.