Aircraft & Propulsion

Searches through the weekend involving nine aircraft and eight ships failed to find any wreckage from the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200.

Bombardier’s CSeries regional jet may already be flying with its fly-by-wire (FBW) system operating in fully operational mode.

SkyWest Inc., the Utah-based parent of regionals SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet, has taken delivery of the first of 40 new Embraer E-175s for operation under a capacity purchase agreement (CPA) with United Airlines.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) announced it will place firm orders for 70 new Airbus and Boeing aircraft worth $16.4 billion at current list prices.

Okinawa-based Japan Transocean Air (JTA), a member of JAL Group, has selected 12 Boeing 737-800 aircraft in an order valued at $1.1 billion at list prices.

Indonesia is shaping up as a major potential market for future variants of Bombardier’s Q400 turboprop—particularly the newly announced Combi version—according to Bombardier Commercial Aircraft president Mike Arcamone.

Calgary’s WestJet, which has 20 Bombardier Q400s on firm order, has converted five of its 25 options into firm orders.

The first A380 for Asiana Airlines has rolled out of the Airbus paint shop in Hamburg.

Aircraft News

New satellite images from over the search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 have identified 122 potential objects of interest in the ocean.

China Aviation Supplies Holding Co. (CAS) has signed a general terms agreement to purchase 70 Airbus aircraft, comprising 43 A320 family aircraft and 27 A330s as part of a deal to extend the A320 assembly at its Tianjin final assembly line (FAL) for 10 years.

GE Aviation announced it will break ground in 2014 on a new $100 million jet engine assembly facility in Lafayette, Indiana.

Russia’s Transaero has signed a leasing deal with China’s ICBC Leasing for six new Airbus A321s.

Turkmenistan Airlines has taken delivery of the first out of two ordered Boeing 777-200LRs.

C&L Aerospace and Rockton, through a joint venture, have purchased 14 Saab 340Bs from Endeavor Airlines, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines.

FAA has issued an airworthiness directive (AD) mandating the removal of “defective software” on GE Aviation GEnx-powered Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental and 747-8 freighter aircraft.

AirAsia India has received its first aircraft, an Airbus A320, in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

Lufthansa Technik (LHT), which has been performing some Airbus A380 wing rib feet repairs for over a year, is about halfway through the repairs.

Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJet has taken delivery of the third of its recent four-aircraft Airbus A320 order from leasing company AWAS.

Aircraft News

Debris spotted in the south Indian Ocean appears to be wreckage from missing Malaysia Airlines MH370. Malaysia’s prime minister and the airline’s Group CEO have both issued statements saying new data and analysis shows the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200, went down in a remote area of the ocean west of Perth.

Singapore-based Tiger Airways Holdings, parent company of the Tigerair group of low-cost carriers, has placed an order for 37 Airbus A320neos—but canceled nine Airbus A320ceos currently on order.

Air France-KLM has selected GE Aviation GEnx-1B engines to power 25 Boeing 787s on order plus 12 leased Dreamliners.

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co. (SCAC) delivered the first of two leased Superjet SSJ100s March 21 to new Russian customer Centre-South Airlines.

Debris spotted in the south Indian Ocean appears to be wreckage from missing Malaysia Airlines MH370. The Boeing 777-200, with 239 people on board, went missing March 8 during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.