This week the world’s aviation finance community gathers in Dublin.

THE entrepreneur Domhnal Slattery’s Jetbird venture accumulated losses of €11.4 million before the appointment of a wind-down manager for the ill-fated project.

At least one airline had questioned the safety of night-time landings at the relatively new airport in north-east China where a passenger jet crashed and burned while trying to land at night on a fog-shrouded runway, killing 42 people and injuring 54, it was revealed today.

JetBird, an Irish company planning a private jet service in Europe, said it sold €10 million of share capital to an unidentified Middle Eastern investor, boosting the startup’s value to more than €100m.

The boss of Rolls-Royce today said the company’s earnings outlook would not be hurt by its recent suspension in production of engines for the Airbus A380.

The Brazilian air force continued searching this morning in the densely forested Amazon region for a Gol airlines jet with 155 people aboard that went missing yesterday, Brazilian aviation authorities said.

Rolls-Royce today agreed to supply engines to China’s Hainan Airlines in a deal which could be worth more than $500m (€393m).

No-frills airlines adding to their roster of destinations helped the seven UK airports run by BAA to handle 5% more passengers in May.

START-UP airline Jetmagic has stopped taking bookings on its proposed Paris route because it has been unable to secure landing slots at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Workers at aircraft maker Embraer, Brazil’s biggest exporter, will go on strike tomorrow unless the company backs down on job cuts it announced in the wake of diminished deliveries after the terror attacks in the United States, a union official has said.