American Airlines’ arrival in New Zealand has received a traditional welcome after touching down in Auckland on Saturday morning. Flight AA83, operated by Boeing 787-8 registration N814AA, took off at about 2300 Thursday (local time) from Los Angeles and landed in Auckland a little over 12 hours later just after 0620 Saturday. The inaugural
Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Virgin Australia say they will develop systems to better recognise their high value guests travelling on each other’s networks as they seek a 10-year reauthorisation of their alliance. In their application to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to renew their alliance, which was lodged in May, SIA and Virgin
Virgin Australia has received a $159 million boost to its balance sheet after completing a share placement to Chinese airline and aviation company HNA Group. The company said on Thursday the transaction, first announced on May 31, was finalised after HNA received the necessary approvals from Chinese authorities. HNA was expected to have a board seat
Australian domestic carriers bar QantasLink suffered a decline in punctuality in May, latest figures show. The Qantas regional carrier was the only airline to record an improvement in on-time performance in May, with the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) monthly report showing 88.4 per cent of its flights departed within 15 minutes
Air New Zealand has confirmed the sale of 19.98 per cent of Virgin Australia shares to Chinese conglomerate Nanshan Group. The sale, first announced on June 10, was completed on Tuesday, the company said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange. Air New Zealand pockets about A$267 million from the transaction, based on the
Moody’s has maintained its B2 corporate rating on Virgin Australia following the announcement of the airline group’s $852 million capital raising. In April, the ratings agency placed Virgin under review for a credit downgrade in response to the company’s stretched balance sheet and after the Air New Zealand said it wanted to offload its stake
