Civil Aviation

                 Civil aviation includes all non-military flying, bothgeneral aviationandscheduled air transport.

                  Boeing, Airbus,IlyushinandTupolevconcentrate on wide-body and narrow-body jetairliners, while Bombardier, Embraer andSukhoiconcentrate onregional airliners. Large networks of specialized parts suppliers from around the world support these manufacturers, who sometimes provide only the initial design and final assembly in their own plants. The ChineseACAC consortiumwill also soonenter the civil transport market with itsComac ARJ21regional jet.[14]Until the 1970s, most major airlines wereflag carriers, sponsored by their governments and heavily protected from competition. Since then,open skiesagreements have resulted in increased competition and choice for consumers, coupled with falling prices for airlines. The combination of high fuel prices, low fares, high salaries, and crises such as theSeptember 11, 2001 attacksand theSARS epidemichave driven many older airlines to government-bailouts, bankruptcy or mergers. At the same time,low-cost carrierssuch asRyanair,SouthwestandWestjethave flourished.