ANA grounded its 13 Q400s yesterday following an incident at Kochi Airport where an aircraft with 60 people onboard circled while the pilot unsuccessfully attempted to lower the nosegear before bringing the plane down on its main wheels with the nose up. The nose reportedly then hit the runway but the pilot kept the Q400 on the tarmac. No one was hurt. The aircraft was delivered new to ANA in July 2005 and had flown just 2,966 hr. and 4,197 cycles. The Q400 fleet operates 45 sectors per day on 15 routes and carries more than 3,250 passengers.

Boeing Chairman, President and CEO James McNerney is taking China's plan to manufacture large commercial aircraft seriously (ATWOnline, March 13). He told Germany's Der Spiegel this week that "The Chinese have well-trained people, a strong spirit of enterprise and an enormous domestic market," adding that it is wrong to think Boeing and Airbus always will have the large aircraft market to themselves.

Cebu Pacific signed up for 10 more A320s with options and purchase rights on an additional 10. It placed an initial order for 12 A320 family aircraft in September 2004 (ATWOnline, May 24, 2005) and took delivery of the last of that order this month. Cebu has been phasing out its fleet of DC-9-30s and 757s. The order is worth $1.3 billion, the Philippine carrier said. No engine choice was announced. Firm aircraft will be delivered in 2010-12 with options arriving in 2011-13.

Boeing enjoyed a $4.6 billion day Monday, announcing orders from Volga-Dnepr Group's AirBridge Cargo for five 747-8 freighters, Continental Airlines for five 787-9s and Kuwaiti lessor ALAFCO for 12 787-8s and six 737-800s. Volga-Dnepr Group's order is valued at $1.4 billion. Aircraft will be powered by the GEnx and are scheduled for delivery in 2010-13. The order includes five options. V-D is the type's seventh customer.

Airbus has received authorization to boost A330/A340 production from eight aircraft per month to nine and is contemplating a further increase to 10 owing to the strong sales performance of the A330, COO-Customers John Leahy said yesterday. Speaking to the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading's 24th annual conference in Phoenix, Leahy said the bump to nine will occur in 2009. Should the company decide to raise it to 10, this could occur at the end of that year, he said.

BAE Systems Regional Aircraft concluded a long-term lease of an additional BAe 146-200 to Romavia. The Romanian carrier also extended the lease on its first -200.

China plans to enter the large aircraft manufacturing fray, announcing yesterday via the official state Xinhua News Agency that the "dream" of challenging Boeing and Airbus with domestically produced jets "is expected to come true by 2020 if everything goes well." Liu Daxiang, deputy head of the Dept. of Science and Technology Development at China Aviation Industry Corp. I, said, "We are now fairly well conditioned for making large aircraft with the sound support from growing national economic strength, technological development and experience in manufacturing."

Difficulties at Airbus "dominated" EADS' full-year results, the European aerospace giant said Friday when it reported a 94% plunge in net earnings to €99 million ($130.3 million), compared to a €1.68 billion profit in 2005, owing to a €572 million operating loss at its commercial aircraft subsidiary.