Aircraft orders should begin to pick up this year because Airbus and Boeing have announced their intention to increase the monthly production rate for the A320-family and the 787 Dreamliner.

 Cathay Pacific has returned to profit with a second-half figure of HKD3.9bn ($503m) in the black; this compares to a loss of HKD7.9bn in the year-before period.

Hawaiian Airlines has increased its order for Airbus aircraft with an additional A330-200.

 Finnair's overall traffic declined nine per cent in February, mostly due to a fall in leisure traffic, the airline said.

 Egyptair took delivery of one of six 777-300ERs from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), which acquired the new aircraft directly from Boeing.

 Passenger traffic at BAA's UK airports rose 2.4 per cent on a year-on-year basis to 7.13 million in February.

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.

Continental Airline shares slumped yesterday (March 2) after the carrier said it lost $25m in revenue when a slew of winter storms in February caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

The start of the first 787 flight-test operations to take place outside of Washington has been marked by the landing of the second Dreamliner aircraft at Victorville, California.

Spanair has extended its Total Technical Support (TTS) agreement with Lufthansa Technik (LHT) for another ten years.

The SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) entity has announced that 1,400 engineers across member organisations are already involved in the modernisation of the European sky.

Aeronautical Engineers (AEI) is to become a supplemental type certificate (STC) holder for MD-81, MD-82, MD-83 and MD-88 passenger to freighter conversions.

Plans for the first independent aircraft MRO facility in India have been abandoned.

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.

Li Kun, president of Shenzhen Airlines, has been removed from his position and is under investigation for unspecified "economic crimes", according to the airline.