Finnair yesterday announced the conversion of one of its three A330 options into a firm order for delivery in spring 2010. "Asian traffic will continue to grow in the long run and we want to prepare for this by increasing our capacity," Executive VP-Scheduled Passenger Traffic Henrik Arle said. Finnair currently operates three A340s and seven MD-11s, which it will replace with A330s over the next three years.

Airbus operated a successful A380 test flight Friday using a liquid fuel processed from gas, touting it as the first-ever flight by a commercial aircraft that was partially powered by an alternative fuel. The Gas to Liquids test flight from Filton to Toulouse lasted 3 hr. During the flight, one of four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines was fed with a blend of GTL and jet fuel while the remaining three were fed with standard jet fuel.

Boeing got off to a solid start to the year with orders for 61 aircraft. Last week the company booked 18 737s, one for Southwest Airlines and 17 unidentified. So far this year it has sold 19 737s, 1 747, 1 777 and 40 787s.

WHETHER BY design or by circumstance, the competitive battle between Boeing and Airbus is morphing day by day into a titanic tussle between Boeing/General Electric on the one hand and Airbus/Rolls-Royce on the other. Boeing's 777-300ER/-200LR/-200F and 747-8 are all single-source GE engine programs and the 737NG is exclusively a CFM56 program. Airbus's A350 XWB and A340-500/-600, by contrast, are powered exclusively by the UK engine manufacturer's Trent family.

WITH A DEMONSTRATOR ENGINE IN

China Eastern Airlines signed an aircraft purchase agreement with Boeing for 30 737NGs yesterday in Shanghai, according to a statement released by the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Boeing did not acknowledge the specifics of the order, saying only that CEA "announced the selection of additional" aircraft and that it will issue a statement "when the order process is completed." The deal is worth CNY13.98 billion ($1.94 billion) at list prices, but CEA said it will pay less.

The Alitalia board met this week to approve its 2008 budget and said it would look to raise about €750 million ($1.1 billion) over the next five months in order to maintain its cash in hand "at adequate operating levels" as speculation swirled in Italy about the effect that the fall of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government will have on AZ's merger with Air France KLM.

Virgin Group is in talks with a potential Russian partner about launching an airline in the market, Chairman Richard Branson said in Moscow yesterday. "Now is the time for Virgin to come to Russia," he said at a news conference during an investor conference he is attending. His remarks were reported widely. "We are in discussions with a Russian partner," he said. "We will announce in three months who that partner will be." Branson added that it would be better to do "something from scratch" rather than partner with an existing carrier.