The Queensland regional carrier and resources industry charter airline MacAir has entered voluntary administration with local press reports of debts of around $14 million.
The state government refused a request from its owner, former fisherman and prospector Terry Byrt, for a $7 million ex-gratia payment in order to continue in business last week.
Schedule flights by MacAir [...]
Monthly Archives: January 2009
MacAir stops flying as debts rise and contracts dry up
January 30, 2009 – 3:26 pm
Boeing still doesn’t get it
January 29, 2009 – 8:37 am
Boeing provided more insights into its decline into incompetency overnight which deserve to be studied by large businesses in general.
Chief executive Jim McNerny said that it would cut a total of 10,000 jobs this year in response to the effects of the global financial crisis, saying “We must prepare the company, including [...]
Another perfect ditching from way back
January 27, 2009 – 9:14 am
The perfect precedent for the recent Hudson River ditching of a US Airways jet occurred on 16 October, 1956, when a Pan American World Airways Stratocruiser ended up in the Pacific Ocean halfway between Honolulu and San Francisco.
The story behind these images appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. It was a different era in flight. [...]
Changi gets a Singapore trim
January 26, 2009 – 6:58 pm
The longest scheduled flight in the world from Singapore to Newark will be reduced below daily frequency from mid February by Singapore Airlines because of the global financial crisis.
Reports in Singapore say that four of the daily non-stops the carrier currently flies between Changi Airport and Los Angeles as well as Newark (for Manhattan) will [...]
The silent revolution gathers speed at Qantas
January 24, 2009 – 3:57 pm
The cone of silence is well and truly in play at Qantas as it builds up the number of mobile phone enabled jets in advance of launching in-flight connectivity for the non voice use of smart phones like Blackberrys and iPhones on domestic routes.
Sometime in the near future Qantas will have enough of these jets [...]
Gone at last. The biggest looser in the Qantas fleet
January 21, 2009 – 7:28 am
The last of the delay prone ‘classic’ era Qantas jumbo jets, a Boeing 747-338 left Sydney for the desert scrap heap at Marana, Arizona, last night. Its departure, a mere 45 minutes late, is believed to have been held up by air traffic control delays.
The jet built in 1985 spent much of its final year [...]
Tiger wants a cut from your hotel room rate
January 20, 2009 – 4:40 pm
Tiger Airways might just be after a portion of your hotel bill, maybe even a bit of what you spend on food and drinks.
The budget priced carrier is moving to enforce the same one-stop on-line sales strategy that Ryanair and easyJet have perfected in Europe by putting an extensive inventory of hotel and resort bargains [...]
Why the Singapore Airlines Paris match could burn Qantas
January 20, 2009 – 11:44 am
Singapore Airlines has confirmed rumours that its next A380 destination is Paris.
The puffery that accompanies the announcement of daily links between its Australian flights and a new daily schedule for the giant Airbus between Singapore and Paris from 1 June doesn’t go into the strategic implications for Qantas but they are considerable.
Qantas has seen its [...]
Miracle in the Hudson River
January 16, 2009 – 9:21 am
The last major bird strike accident to a passenger flight was on 4 October, 1960, when an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Electra turbo prop struck a flock of seagulls on leaving Boston’s Logan Airport and crashed killing 62 out of the 72 people on board.
It was later found that the birds had stopped three of [...]
Copyright © 2008 Private Media Pty Ltd, Publishers of Crikey.com.au. All Rights Reserved.
Independent news, blogs and commentary on politics, media and business.
Editor: Jonathan Green.
Publishers: Eric Beecher, Diana Gribble.
Level 7, 22 William St, Melbourne, 3000. Ph: 1800 985 502 Fax: (03) 8623 9975