Australia’s new Labor government is likely to join Japan in seeking to overturn the U.S. ban on exporting the F-22 Raptor, although Canberra is far from deciding it wants to buy the Lockheed Martin stealth fighter. The government of incoming Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who won a landslide Nov. 24 election victory, is showing a commitment to the armed forces at least as strong as its predecessor’s, with a defense policy that calls for greater readiness for the Australian Defense Force (ADF), not cutbacks.

Korean Air will start a budget airline in May with an unconventional fleet of three Airbus A300s and two Boeing 737s and plans to turn it into Asia's largest no-frills carrier. The new company is the third South Korean budget airline to be announced in a month, following the Nov. 5 statement by Singapore's Tiger Airways that it would start a franchisee in the country and barely a week after local turboprop operator Jeju Air said it planned to step up to 737 no-frills operations.

Shanghai Airlines is a likely focus for further consolidation of Chinese commercial aviation as larger carriers, especially Air China, look for greater access to the country’s biggest city. An Air China takeover of the second-level carrier would be a big step toward creating the balanced nationwide operator that China still lacks in any of its big-three airlines—China Southern, Air China and China Eastern.