The Chinese aircraft industry may still be in the early stages of developing its own range of commercial jets, but Western executives say it already ranks with the world’s best aviation parts suppliers. The businesses grouped into conglomerates Avic I and Avic II still have challenges to overcome, but they no longer need to rely on favoritism from Western manufacturers in seeking work—even if they still enjoy that advantage from time to time.

Chinese moves to control the rapid airline growth that’s taxing its infrastructure will probably boost demand for small to medium wide-body aircraft such as the A330 and 787 at the expense of narrowbodies, manufacturers say. Airbus sees the clampdown as one of a series of developments in Asia that will stimulate sales of the A330. Its brisk sales over the past year or so have surprised even Airbus.

Bombardier’s proposed CSeries airliner will benefit from engines with bypass ratios around 10:1, a figure unheard of for a narrow-body airliner and only recently heard of for widebodies. The company says each of the three engines it’s reviewing—from Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and CFM International—offers such a high bypass ratio. It hopes to choose one of them, or maybe two, by year-end as it works toward a launch decision on the 110- and 130-seat aircraft within 12 months.