December 31, 2011 – 11:26 am
If any of the more dire predictions about a Eurozone crisis come true in 2012 the issues affecting Australian airlines in 2011 will, like those carriers, cease to be relevant. But if the global economy doesn’t implode, then safety related regulatory and public policy failures will become the main threat to aviation in this country, [...]
December 29, 2011 – 7:24 am
It might seem odd to some airline industry watchers that Jetstar Japan needs a fourth cornerstone investor after Japan Airlines, Qantas and Mitsubishi. After all, a well run low cost carrier in Japan, associated with three household name airline brands in Japan Airlines, Qantas and Jetstar looks like the dream team, now that everyone has [...]
December 27, 2011 – 4:27 pm
Whatever else happens to the business of airlines in 2012, the big issues than can be seen in advance are pilot training, and safety regulation. Outside Australia, these issues are being fiercely argued in relation to the crash of Air France flight AF447 in the mid Atlantic on 1 June 2009, which killed all 228 [...]
December 24, 2011 – 2:06 pm
Airbus has sent us some more contributions to industrial photography with these photos of the forward section of the static test frame of its A350 medium capacity twin jet being flown from Saint-Nazaire to Toulouse for final assembly. The Saint-Nazaire plant is adjacent to la Brière, a vast swamp and Atlantic coast bird life sanctuary [...]
December 23, 2011 – 5:13 pm
It is a near certainty that the leaking of the choice of a Nepean site for a second Sydney Airport is a largely accurate ‘soft release’ of the key recommendation of a joint Federal/State task force set up to find a solution to impending gridlock at Sydney’s existing airport. The only flaw in the leak [...]
December 23, 2011 – 2:33 pm
A strong 5.8 magnitude earth quake in Christchurch earlier today and a series of damaging aftershocks have made it impossible to predict further flight disruptions to the New Zealand city at this stage. Services from Australia were either diverted mid flight to other NZ cities or cancelled, and all passengers with bookings in the near [...]
December 23, 2011 – 7:00 am
The story broken here on 2 December about Air Australia losing its insolvency insurance cover is well and truly in the broader media today and consumers need very clear or very direct statements from the airline and Flight Centre, the travel retailer associated with Cover More Insurance, as to what is going on. Flight Centre [...]
December 22, 2011 – 12:04 pm
If there is one thing that troubles me as much as the death threats against Qantas management that tied up the NSW Police with nothing found except a lot of shabby stunt headlines, it is the disconnection between the claims that cutting London flights will free up resources needed to save the carrier by starting [...]
December 22, 2011 – 7:20 am
Updated (above) with this morning’s clear view of Comet Lovejoy over WA Pilots and passengers have reported the appearance of a great comet in the pre dawn skies from flights between Perth and the eastern cities this morning. The ghostly crescent tail, rising like a searchlight above the eastern horizon, is that of Comet Lovejoy, [...]
December 21, 2011 – 12:36 pm
The only surprising thing about Emirates replacing a Boeing 777 with an Airbus A380 on flights between Melbourne and Dubai and Melbourne and Auckland from next October is how long it has taken. There is no doubt it would pull enough passengers off the competition if it was offered tomorrow, especially when Qantas is cutting [...]
