Some of Australia's highest-profile business leaders say they'd like major airlines to ban children from traveling in business class, due to their often disruptive behavior ruining the expensive "up-market" experience. The chairman of Australian flight booking company Web Jet, David Clarke, said he would prefer "screaming kids" to be barred from the premium end...
Australia’s two busiest airports have posted healthy gains in international passengers led by a strong rise in the number of Chinese visitors. Melbourne Airport said the number of overseas travellers through Tullamarine in October rose 10.2 per cent to 764,998, compared with the prior corresponding period. Meanwhile, Sydney Airport said international passengers passing through its term...
Malindo Air has joined AirAsia X and Malaysia Airlines on the Perth-Kuala Lumpur route after its inaugural flight touched down in the West Australian capital on Thursday. The Boeing 737-800 operating flight OD151 received an ARFF monitor cross salute after landing at Perth Airport at 1440 local time on Thursday. The aircraft, registration 9M-LNW, was on the ground for about an hour before...
Emirates and Etihad have been granted additional traffic rights to Australia following the signing of a new air services agreement. Under the new arrangements announced on Friday Dubai-based Emirates will be able to operate 105 services to Australia each week to the four major gateways of Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, an increase of seven from the previous agreement. Meanwhile, Abu...
Adelaide-based Central Operations of the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) has taken delivery of the first of five new Pilatus PC-12 aeromedical aircraft. The $7 million aircraft has been described as a “flying intensive care unit” with its new-technology emergency medical equipment. Central Operations has begun the replacement of five ageing PC-12s, with the first to be retired...
Virgin Australia is extending the use of its Airbus A330-200 widebodies on international routes, with services to Fiji from Melbourne and Brisbane to start in June 2016. The A330 began flying internationally in April when Virgin deployed the aircraft on the Sydney-Nadi route on Saturdays during busy travel periods. As with the Sydney service, A330 flights from Melbourne and Brisbane to Nadi...
Virgin Australia chief executive John Borghetti says he expects travel to Bali will rebound once the disruption from the ash cloud from the Mount Rinjani volcano clears up. Thousands of Australians have found themselves stranded in Bali in recent weeks, with both Virgin and Jetstar, as well as a number of other carriers, cancelling flights for safety reasons. While the backlog of passengers...
Virgin Australia chief executive John Borghetti says the airline group is on track to return to profitability in the current financial year, reaffirming previous guidance. Borghetti told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting in Brisbane on Wednesday that Virgin was continuing to gain more higher-yielding customers and was “well advanced in reaching our goal of 30 per...
Qantas will deploy its flagship Airbus A380 daily to Dallas/Fort Worth from April 2016 as part of broader changes to the airline’s international network. Currently, the oneworld alliance member serves Dallas/Fort Worth with six flights a week from its Sydney hub. However, it will add an extra service to the largest hub of its partner American Airlines to meet the strong demand on the rout...
While the centenary of the Royal Australian Air Force will not take place until March 31 2021, planning has already begun for the best way to mark the milestone. And the Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Leo Davies, wants the public to be involved. To that end, AIRMSHL Davies launched Air Force 2021 in Canberra on Tuesday. “The first stage of planning for Air Force 2021 is our consult...
Qantas has received a welcome 95th birthday gift in the form of a return to an investment grade credit rating that chief executive Alan Joyce describes as a “welcome endorsement” of the hard work from everyone at the airline in recent times. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday upgraded its long-term corporate credit and issue ratings on Qantas to ‘BBB-‘...
A Qantas 737 jet carrying 152 passengers and crew scraped its tail on the tarmac at Sydney Airport after the pilots tapped the wrong data into an iPad linked to the aircraft's computer, air safety investigators have found. Shortly after the Boeing 737 departed Sydney bound for Darwin, a flight attendant who had been sitting in the plane's rear galley reported hearing a "squeak...
