Dublin-based international travel software provider, Datalex has said it remains on course to achieve previously-guided earnings growth of between 18% and 20% this year, despite market challenges.

Travel software company Datalex expects to announce its first non-aviation-based customer partnership this year, with the addition of rail operators.

Datalex — the Dublin-headquartered international travel software company — hopes to show 25%-30% adjusted earnings growth for this year.

Datalex has forecast “strong cash generation” and continued profit growth for 2013, following the generation of its first annual profit in six years in 2012.

European aviation stocks declined, following a drop among Asian carriers, on concern an outbreak of the bird-flu virus in China will clip travel and hurt demand already unsettled by rising military tensions with North Korea.

Dublin-based international travel software provider Datalex has forecast earnings growth of between 25% and 30% for this year, on the back of reporting its first profit in six years.

Travel software company Datalex expects its 2012 performance to be in line with its objectives, despite the economic challenges facing its customers.

AIRLINE software provider Datalex is set to announce a deal with one of the world’s top airlines which has the potential to double to 150 million the number of bookings its software processes each year.

Dublin-based travel retail solutions provider Datalex has seen a 1.3% increase in revenues to $13.3m in the first half of the year.

Air China, one of the country’s three major state-owned airlines, said today its first-half profit fell 12% as surging fuel costs offset a double-digit rise in revenue.

A RADIATION cloud drifted from an earthquake-stricken nuclear power plant toward Tokyo yesterday sparking panic in one of the world’s biggest and most densely populated cities.

Foreigners have begun leaving Japan in large numbers, with lengthy queues forming at Tokyo's Haneda airport.

The exodus of foreigners from Cairo continued today as dozens of evacuation planes arrived, but the airport itself was still in disarray with crowds of more than 4,500 stranded passengers.

Rolls-Royce today unveiled an order worth $1.8bn in its latest deal from the fast-growing Chinese market.

Airbus parent EADS today plunged to its first loss in two years amid lingering uncertainty over major aircraft programmes.

The FTSE 100 Index set a new 14-month high today after mining stocks improved by as much as 8% in morning trading.

Profits at China’s top state-owned companies fell 30% last year, hurt by the global financial crisis, but assets have increased.

Taiwan’s president appealed to protesters to keep rallies peaceful as the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit since 1949 arrived on the island for economic talks today amid a warming of ties between the long-time rivals.

China ordered 150 Airbus single-aisle A320 airliners today, more than twice as many plane orders than the company’s US-based rival Boeing received from China last month.

Insurers helped propel the London market higher today after a financier confirmed he was looking at bidding for Royal & Sun Alliance.

Aerospace group Rolls-Royce today said it had won an $800m (€663.3m) jet engine deal from Air China.

Chinese planes touched down in Taiwan today, completing the first non-stop flights between the rivals since a bloody civil war split the two sides 56 years ago.

Air China is to raise an estimated $1bn (€744m) in a dual listing in Hong Kong and London.

A CHINESE jetliner bound from Beijing to southern China made an emergency landing yesterday after a passenger shouted that he wanted to hijack the flight to South Korea. But the unarmed man was detained and the plane took off again, state media and an airport spokeswoman said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao will on Thursday visit the headquarters of European aircraft manufacturer Airbus in the French city of Toulouse where company officials will bid for a larger share of the growing Chinese market.

CHINA, where the government has admitted the number of SARS cases in Beijing is far higher than had been disclosed previously, may be facing a "very big outbreak" in the provinces, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.

The flight recorder of an Air China plane carrying 166 passengers which crashed has been recovered, Transportation Ministry official Kim Young-woon said.

More than 160 passengers aboard a Chinese plane were feared dead after the aircraft crashed near one of the World Cup host cities in bad weather early today.