Struggling Asian carrier China Eastern Airlines is relaxing restrictions on ownership of its shares, opening the way for another carrier, probably Singapore Airlines, to buy a stake in the company and offer much-needed management help. The move may give Singapore Airlines (SIA) some of the beyond rights that it is always hankering for, connecting China with the U.S., though at the risk of putting money into a money-losing business that could be quite a challenge to reform.

Singapore Technologies Aerospace, already the world's largest third-party maintenance, repair and overhaul business, is targeting rapid growth and reckons it can achieve it without damaging its superb profitability. The company is developing a growth strategy based on its global spread of facilities and on packaging services as so-called total aviation support--doing almost everything for an airline except flying the aircraft and selling the tickets.

Eurocopter's Australian Tiger program is on budget and running smoothly after a bumpy start, as the EADS unit executes its plan to take over a national market that U.S. contractors once ruled. With the NH90 now holding the whole order for Australian Army troop-lift helicopters, the company may be just one competition away from dominating the core of Australia's planned rotary-wing fleet, leaving rivals with slim pickings.