August 31, 2010 – 4:38 pm
Canberra Airport will break Sydney Airport’s monopoly grip on international flights in much of NSW within two years according to its managing director, Stephen Byron. He told a Canberra Business Council luncheon this afternoon that the breakthrough would come in the form of four to five weekly trans Tasman flights to Auckland and Wellington and [...]
August 31, 2010 – 7:31 am
Here is something not too many southern states domestic sky warriors get to experience, the Fokker F100, which temporarily took over some Qantaslink Bombardier Q400 services last week after some of them experienced yet another grounding over landing gear issues. David Blackwell took these photos at Rockhampton Airport, and some others I’m saving for the [...]
August 30, 2010 – 8:35 pm
There are some odd things going on in the latest domestic air travel war, where Jetstar won the headline honours today with a 50% increase in seat numbers across ‘selected’ routes, and mainly from dates in December. 1.So far it’s been about ‘capacity’ not $1 fares or $29 fares or whatever fare is likely to [...]
August 29, 2010 – 11:16 am
There is more to the overnight news of changes in the leadership of the Boeing 747-8F freighter and 747-8I passenger jet programs. Boeing refused to show the jet off at the Farnborough Air Show in July citing program delays. It has never dealt in any categorical manner with claims that the wing is flawed by [...]
August 27, 2010 – 4:22 pm
There is yet another telling insight into spin doctoring in Boeing in Flightblogger’s scoop on the latest delay to the 787 Dreamliner. In update 3 of this particular part of the saga the author of the blog, Jon Ostrower, reported that the announcement was also running late because Boeing and engine maker Rolls-Royce were working [...]
August 26, 2010 – 6:57 pm
While Qantas pursues a dual brand strategy and the basing of jets in Singapore to lower costs and grow in a larger market, Virgin Blue today went for a single branded future linked to major hubs in Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles. Within a year Virgin Blue’s V Australia 777-300ERs will be feeding the rapidly [...]
August 26, 2010 – 10:52 am
Some big changes began rolling out at Virgin Blue today. The decision to equip and expand the domestic and international routes with A330-200s will come with the yet unannounced cabin product changes that bring the airline Virgin America style seating in a very upmarket and exclusive business class across its entire fleet which also gets [...]
August 26, 2010 – 9:56 am
Virgin Blue has just reported underlying PBT from operating airliners of $20 million in the six months to June 30, beating the combined Qantas Jetstar passengers earnings performance of $17 million already reported for the same period. It is also introducing Airbus A330-200s initially for domestic transcontinental use in 2011, and is cancelling its Boeing [...]
August 24, 2010 – 6:38 pm
Tiger has just released a statement in response to today’s ATSB report which raises the question as to whether it is fit to hold an AOC, or has a management that has no respect for, or understanding of, the requirements of Australian regulations. Follow these two steps: Read the ATSB report, and then read this [...]
August 24, 2010 – 1:37 pm
The ATSB has again failed to prosecute a main line carrier for a fundamental and important breach of the reportable incidents provisions of the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003. This time it involves Tiger Airways, which only told the ATSB it had experienced a malfunction in the aileron system of one of its Airbus A320s [...]
