World Routes

At the start of the 21st century, the only all-business class service was Concorde. Now after a short-lived flurry of all-premium transatlantic start-ups in the mid-2000s a second wave is having mixed success. Those who appear to be making the model work albeit in a modest way are British Airways, with its Airbus A318 service from London City to New York, and a French boutique airline , La Compagnie, which serves the US city from London and Paris with a pair of Boeing 757-200s.

With Beijing Capital International airport (BCIA) bursting at the seams, and the city s second airport to be operational only in 2019 at the earliest, China is using a coordinated approach to manage traffic in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

After two decades of European resistance to permitting commercial single-turbine operations at night or in instrument meteorological conditions (SET-IMC), EASA is drawing up the final regulation that would approve it across all contracting states.

Chinese airports are not only shifting gears, but also stepping on the accelerator to drive international traffic and expand their networks, after decades of relying on domestic traffic for growth.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce is savouring the sweet taste of success following his transformation of the Australian national carrier.

Tasked with running an airline in one of the world's most promising aviation markets, with a rising middle class and a sprawling geography which render air transport indispensable, Arif Wibowo knows he has a big job to do.