April 24 - The unmanned aircraft RQ-4 Global Hawk flies automatically from Edwards Air Force Base in the US to Australia non-stop and unrefuelled. This is the longest point-to-point flight ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft, the first pilotless aircraft to cross the Pacific Ocean, and took 23 hours and 23 minutes.
October 3 The TU-154 Sibir airlines jet took off from the Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel bound for the Siberian town of Novosibirsk and Russian aircraft with up to 78 passengers aboard crashed into the Black sea.
October 8 The aircraft SAS MD87 was taking off from Milan's Linate airport in Italy for a flight to Copenhagen when it collided with a Cessna Citation on the fog-shrouded runway. The airliner then crashed into a nearby hangar and caught fire. All six crew members and 104 passengers on the airliner were killed, as were the four occupants of the business jet and four airport workers on the ground.
British Airways aborts a plan to take over KLM due to technical issues in the open skies treaty between the U.S. and the Netherlands.
British Airways also drops its controversial ethnic tailfins; first adopted in 1997 the process was slowed in 1999, finally Chief Executive Rod Eddington that all aircraft would be painted with the new Union flag livery (one of the "ethnic" designs).