International Lease Finance Corp. announced it will open a regional office in Amsterdam this summer, which will be managed by SVP, Head of ILFC Europe, Middle East and Africa Colin Bole. ECC Leasing arranged the lease of three Embraer ERJ-135s operated by Air France subsidiary Regional to Air Namibia. The aircraft are intended to replace some of the African airline's turboprops and are slated for delivery in March.

Emirates Airline plans to take delivery of 14 new aircraft in its upcoming fiscal year beginning April 1, and retain four others it had planned to remove, owing to strong traffic demand. The carrier operates 15 Airbus A380s, a number that will grow dramatically as deliveries ramp up.

Boeing announced that South Africa's Comair ordered eight 737-800NGs. The order was valued at $646 million at list prices and had previously been attributed to an unidentified customer on Boeing’s orders and deliveries website.

Engine reliability continues to improve, catastrophic one-off events notwithstanding.

When Donald Douglas Sr. said in 1958 at the first flight of the DC-8 that every major advance in aviation had been due to the development of the engine, he couldn’t possibly have imagined the GE90.

Republic Airways Holdings said Monday it will transfer eight Embraer E-170s from Frontier Airlines to contract flying for Delta Air Lines. The aircraft are expected to be placed into Delta Connection service between May and September and will have a term of six years from the in-service date for DL, RAH said. After the addition of these aircraft, the company and its subsidiaries will operate a total of 48 aircraft on behalf of DL: 16 E-175s, eight E-170s, and 24 E-145s.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker is still "happy" with the airline's relationship with Boeing despite the seventh delay of the Dreamliner program announced last month (ATW Daily News, Jan. 19).

ATR announced that Caribbean Airlines finalized an agreement to order nine ATR 72-600s valued at $200 million at list prices.