BIO Paul was named in the top three of aerospace stock pickers in the Wall Street Journal’s All-Star Analysts’ Survey in 1997, 1998 and 2000.  Before forming JSA Research, Inc., he was a First Vice President at Prudential Securities, Inc. where he had been employed for 13 years. Paul's 27 years in the securities business include six as a defense/transportation analyst with Smith Barney’s Research From Washington (RFW), Inc., where he became a Vice President of Smith Barney and Managing Director of RFW. This was preceded by over a decade of technical, management and consulting experience in the aerospace industry. Paul’s education includes studies in engineering, business administration and information systems at the Ohio State, George Washington and American Universities. He received a bachelor’s degree from the latter.

Airline expert Paul Nisbet of JSA Research, featured in the May Global Business cover story, answers readers' questions about the airline industry.

Q: Boeing is going to build a faster but certainly smaller plane called Sonic Cruiser. Would you agree with me if I say that Boeing has got it right since not many airports around the world can accommodate Airbus' much larger A380?
Edward Kon, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

A:The outlook for Boeing is healthier than it has been in many years. The proposed faster and probably longer-range Sonic Cruiser will likely be a much better seller than the Airbus' A380-800. I agree that probably no more than a dozen airports worldwide will make the alternations necessary to accommodate the A380 this decade.

Q: Will aviation in China change progress a lot in the following decade?
Zheng Chen, Rolla, Misouri

A:The expansion of China's airlines have been on hold for about three years to allow the infrastructure to prepare for expanded airline operations. That is about over now, and we expect that China will resume expansion of its air traffic services shortly. We expect a considerable advancement of services over the next ten years.

Q: Do you think after China joins the WTO, the airlines in other countries, especially the U.S., will swallow up Chinese airlines, which have serious redundancy problems? What opinion do you have of the Chinese airline industry? If you were the president of the Chinese airline industry, how would you deal with those problems?
Denver Lee, China

A: I believe it is unlikely that we will see any Chinese airlines being taken over by U.S. airlines in the foreseeable future. The Chinese airline industry, being in the initial throes of converting from government-run to privately owned, is still in poor shape. We expect that the industry will come of age over the next decade or two, becoming more efficient and effective as it fully privatizes. And the Chinese government should push this process along as rapidly as the private sector can absorb the added responsibilities.

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