Richard Branson will be pulling his unkempt locks out over the "woefully inadequate" deal which brings British Airways (BA), American Airlines and Iberia closer to an alliance.

 China Ex-Im Bank is to provide a $190m loan to Sri Lanka for the construction of the island’s second airport.

 United Airlines has committed to the purchase of 25 A350-900 XWB aircraft with deliveries beginning in 2016 and running through 2019.

 Aer Lingus is to end the employment of its cabin manager crew, offering some reemployment under a much lower salary.

 Global airline capacity has risen above the pre-recession figures of 2008, according to aviation intelligence company OAG.

 Swiss International Air Lines (Group) recorded a CHF146m profit for 2009 which compares to a CHF472m profit the year before, a drop of CHF326m.

Bombardier, the world's third-largest airframer, has announced that due to the current unfavourable conditions in the debt capital markets, it has decided to withdraw its proposed institutional private placement of new senior notes.

Airbus parent company EADS reported that 2009 revenues stood at EUR42.8bn, supported by record commercial aircraft deliveries at Airbus (498 units compared to 483 in 2008).

Aéroports de Montréal has announced its audited consolidated financial results for the year ended December 31, 2009. EBITDA totalled $151.5m for the year, down $21.6m, or 12.5 per cent, from the previous year.

UBS, the financial services firm, has upgraded its rating for Boeing from ‘sell’ to ‘neutral’ and pushed its price target on the stock from $50 to $68.

Triumph Group has acquired Fabritech, a component manufacturer and repair station for critical military rotary-wing platforms.

A Ryanair 737 on approach to Leipzig Altenburg airport in Germany diverted to Berlin Schönefeld airport last Sunday (March 7), because the tower at Altenburg was temporarily unstaffed and the pilots could not establish radio contact. 

Aer Lingus is planning to close its maintenance hangar at Shannon by the end of 2010.  

City Airline has selected SAS Tech to provide line maintenance for its entire fleet, and production planning for the introduction of MD-87 aircraft. 

Era, a subsidiary of Virginia-based SRA International, has installed a wide area multilateration (WAM) system for Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland (LVNL), the Dutch air navigation service provider, in the Netherlands North Sea area. 

The Danish airline Jet Time has contracted spare parts distributor Leki Aviation to supply four ship sets of refurbished seats for 737 aircraft. 

The Indian government has chosen four new independent directors to join the board of Air India as part of a plan to turn around the loss-making national airline.

Sid Ashworth will serve as VP of GE Aviation's Washington, D.C. operations, effective March 22.

Angelo Quabba has been appointed CFO of SR Technics and member of the group's executive leadership team. He assumed his new position on March 1, 2010, succeeding James Stewart, who took the position of CEO on February 1, 2010. Quabba will report directly to Stewart.