BEIJING—China’s newly formed military aircraft and missile company, Avic Defense, is emphasizing maintenance as part of a business model that it has expanded far beyond just making original equipment. General Manager Wang Yawei says the company will forge a complete value chain covering the whole life cycle of its products, from weapons system predevelopment to maintenance and support guarantees for equipment that it has sold.

A flight crew’s faulty data entry resulted in an Emirates A340-500 overrunning on takeoff by almost 300 meters at Melbourne on March 20, preliminary results from an Australian investigation show. Investigators will follow up with examinations of human performance and risk controls in relation to data entry, the effectiveness of computer system interfaces, and the management of risks in reduced-power takeoffs. The latter, a standard procedure intended to reduce costs, was used during the takeoff.

AirAsia is maintaining its interest in setting up affiliates in Vietnam and the Philippines, despite the limited success that it and its fellow Asia/Pacific budget carriers have had so far in franchising their brands internationally. CEO Tony Fernandes says he wants AirAsia-branded airlines in the two countries but is still looking for the right partners. He has previously identified Southeast Asia (Asean) as the territory that he wants AirAsia to cover.