Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a SkyWest Inc. subsidiary operating as a Delta Connection partner, grounded 60 CRJ200s late Tuesday for engine safety inspections. ASA officials expected to complete the inspections early today. The grounding of the 50-seat aircraft was voluntary after an internal paperwork audit raised questions about whether maintenance was in compliance with manufacturer recommendations. The CRJ200 is powered by the GE CF34. "We are rolling through the inspections and expect them to be completed by mid-morning [Thursday]," an ASA spokesperson told ATWOnline.

WHEN EMIRATES ORDERED EIGHT additional A380s at the 2007 Paris Air Show, President Tim Clark explained the new order to take the airline's then-commitment to 55 quite simply to ATW: "We believe that once the A380 is in service, airlines will want to order it." Clark hadn't reckoned on the global financial meltdown when he made his prediction, and carriers may be reluctant to commit to any major new investment until the industry is on sounder financial footing.

TRANSAERO AIRLINES CAN BOAST OF A LOT OF FIRSTS IN THE Russian airline industry. It was the first carrier to be awarded an AOC following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was the first 100% privately owned passenger airline in Russia and the first to operate Boeing aircraft. It was the first Russian carrier to introduce business class on domestic routes, to ban smoking on all routes, to develop and introduce a loyalty program for frequent fliers and to open its own business class lounge at its hub at Moscow Domodedovo.

Bombardier landed another order for its CSeries, with Dublin-based Lease Corp. International Aviation signing a firm purchase agreement valued at an estimated $1.44 billion for three CS100 and 17 CS300 aircraft along with 20 unspecified CSeries options. Privately held LCI was founded in 2004 and currently has one A320-200, one A330-200, one 737-600, one 737-800 and one 747-400 in its portfolio. It has six A330-300s on order scheduled to be delivered by the end of next year. It sold 21 aircraft in late 2007 as part of a fleet renewal program.

Royal Air Maroc placed firm orders for two ATR 42-600s and four ATR 72-600s with options for an additional two 72-600s. The aircraft will be operated by new regional subsidiary Royal Air Maroc Express, which will launch service this summer.

SAS took delivery of its first of 12 88-seat CRJ900s last week. All aircraft should be delivered by January 2010. The carrier also holds options for another 17. It told reporters in Copenhagen that talks to turn the options into firm orders will be held in September for possible deliveries starting in 2010. The 12 CRJ900s a part of a settlement with Bombardier and Goodrich over the Q400 landing gear incidents that led the airline to retire its 27 Q400s in October 2007 and have forced it to wet-lease aircraft to fill the gap.

Embraer reported 2008 net income of $388.7 million, a 21% drop from $489.3 million the previous year, citing losses on currency hedges as the value of the real fell and sagging sales owing to the global economic downturn. Full-year revenue rose 20.8% to $6.33 billion. Fourth-quarter profit plunged 44% to $111.6 million from $200.9 million a year ago and revenue for the quarter was down 3% to $1.81 billion.

While it still is completing evaluations of three recently conducted biofuel test flights, Boeing already has drawn enough conclusions to state that it is "very confident. . .high quality jet fuel" can be composed of plant-derived oils, a company official told US lawmakers last week.