Sydney International Airport is up for sale, but the Australian government will limit foreign ownership to 49 percent valued at approximately $5.8 billion. The successful bidder will receive the option to build and develop a secondary airport within 100 km of the city's center -- but only if the need can be justified. Potential bidders are believed to include the U.K.'s BAA, which operates Melbourne Airport; the Dutch Schipol Group; and the Changi Airport Group from Singapore, which already holds a share in Auckland International Airport in New Zealand.

Geneva-based charter operator PrivatAir has acquired Ogden's Flight Services Group operations in the United States and its Transair FBO at Paris' Le Bourget airport. FSG says it will keep its corporate identity for the immediate future, though it will be identified as part of the PrivatAir group.

Bombardier Aerospace delivered its 600th production Dash 8 aircraft, a Q300 model, to Air Nippon Co. Ltd. (ANK) of Tokyo, Japan on March 6. This milestone was reached just a few weeks short of 18 years from the original rollout on April 19, 1983. Both the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet and Dash 8 Q100 already are in service with Japanese carriers, and in March, Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau certified the Q200 and Q300.