AVIATION Lease & Finance, a Kuwaiti company that rents planes to airlines, has signed a letter of intent to buy Ireland-based AerVenture’s contract with Airbus SAS for seven A320s.

The curtain has been raised on the first fully assembled Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet to an audience of thousands in the company’s plant in the US.

The European Union has imposed $9.1m (€7.2m) in additional retaliatory sanctions against the US in response to antidumping measures meant to protect US companies.

US Airways Group Inc has ordered 20 Airbus A350 planes honouring its promise to buy the fuel-efficient aircraft aimed at trans-Atlantic flights as part of a financing deal for the airline’s acquisition by America West Airlines.

Boeing is launching a bigger, more efficient version of its 747 jumbo jet in a move that will put more competitive pressure on rival Airbus SAS and ensure continued production of the plane.

THE US government and European Union authorities are on a collision course at the World Trade Organisation over subsidies to planemakers Airbus SAS and Boeing.

Disappointing growth in the gross domestic product in the United States pushed stocks lower today even as investors welcomed a US$57bn (€43.7bn)merger between Procter & Gamble and Gillette.

Airbus SAS’s development costs for the A380, the world’s biggest passenger jet, will exceed budgets by an “alarming’ €1.45 billion, European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. said.

The owners of Airbus SAS approved the launch of a new A350 passenger jet today to rival Boeing’s 7E7, a spokesman for Airbus parent EADS said.

Airbus SAS, the world’s biggest planemaker, will win approval from its parent to invest $3.3 billion in developing a 250-seater jetliner to compete with a new model from Boeing Co, said people familiar with the matter.

Commission president Romano Prodi said he expects the US and Europe to settle the trade clash over aid to Boeing and European rival Airbus SAS once a new US administration has been put in place.

The airline controlled by billionaire Richard Branson Virgin Atlantic, has ordered 26 A340-600 planes from Airbus SAS worth about €4.56bn as it seeks to double in size over the next five years.

The Virgin Group’s new low-fare airline has agreed to buy and lease up to 105 narrow-body jets from Airbus SAS and name the carrier Virgin America.

Boeing chief executive Harry Stonecipher said he plans to “raise the rhetoric” on the long-time dispute over what he says are government subsidies given to European plane-maker Airbus SAS.

Boeing, the world's largest aircraft maker, is expected to announce it will lay off up to 5,000 workers from its Seattle-based commercial jet unit, and a formal announcement may be made today.

AIRBUS SAS and Boeing Co, the world’s two biggest planemakers, won orders from Emirates, the Middle East’s fastest-growing airline, for 67 new planes, which the carrier valued at as much as $19 billion.