The way that take-off and landing slots at Mexico City's airport are assigned is anti-competitive and negatively affects the cost of services, Mexico's federal competition commission said. The investigative arm of the commission, known as Cofece, proposed that a reserve fund be created for slots that had not been assigned correctly, which could then be distributed to help smaller airlines and new entrants. Carlos Mena, head of the investigative arm, said that in 2014, 2 airlines - which he did not name - had 65% of the landing and take-off slots. The investigative arm's recommendations will now be presented to the Cofece board, and time given for interested parties, airlines such as Aeromexico, Interjet and Volaris, as well as the airport authority, to respond. The Cofece board can then publish final measures. <br/>
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China’s political leaders identified aerospace as one of 10 key industries in the country’s quest to become an advanced industrialised nation. Ahead of this weekend’s annual legislative session, Western planemakers -- their future competitors -- are helping them toward that goal. Airbus will break ground Wednesday on a finishing centre for its wide-body A330 jets in Tianjin, near Beijing, a decade after it opened an assembly facility there for single-aisle planes. Boeing also is seeking a location in China for a plane-completion facility. Opening plants in China, poised to become the world’s largest aerospace and air-travel market in 2 decades, is as much a political as an economic decision. One factor is proximity to customers: Chinese airlines order billions of dollars of planes from Airbus and Boeing every year. <br/>
Asia-Pacific carriers reported carrying 24.5m passengers in January, up 9.2% year-over-year, as traffic continues to climb across the region, according to AAPA. The group said these numbers were partly boosted by the traditional Chinese New Year domestic migration. During the month, overall demand rose 9.9% as measured in RPMs. This demand growth outstripped capacity growth of 7.1% over the same period, leading to a corresponding growth in load factors, which increased 2.1% from 77.5% to 79.6%. AAPA DG Andrew Herdman said the figures were “a very welcome start to the year, against a backdrop of volatile markets and an increase in global economic risks.” Herdman said carriers would need to “remain vigilant” despite a broadly positive outlook. <br/>