Business: Good Week - Bad Week

Good Week

© Boeing

SYRIAN ARAB AIRLINES The carrier has suffered from US sanctions that have prevented it accessing the market for new aircraft and spare parts, but now Syrian media reports say it has secured US approval for an export licence to maintain two Boeing 747SPs that it otherwise could not fly. If true, the exemption echoes a similar, 2006, US concession to keep Iran Air's fleet airworthy by allowing export of parts to maintain its long-haul Airbus A310s.

 

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Bad Week

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BOEING COUNTRY If the Everett Herald's Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance conference report is anything to go by, an "unusually long cyclic downturn" could combine with American protectionism and high Washington state business taxes to push Boeing to build its next aircraft in, say, Alabama. And, if reader comments are anything to go by, plenty of citizens have had enough government kow-towing to the airframer - and are ready to cheer its departure.

Source: Flight International