Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce says the airline group’s strong Asian network and high-calibre partners in the region leave it in a strong position to compete against anything the recently announced Virgin Australia/HNA Group tie-up comes up with. Virgin Australia has applied for an allocation of capacity to serve Beijing and Hong Kong with its
The world’s airlines are collectively expected to post close to US$40 billion in profits in calendar 2016 as lower oil prices and demand for air travel buoy the bottom line. The forecast, presented by International Air Transport Association (IATA) chief executive Tony Tyler at the industry body’s annual general meeting in Dublin on Thursday, was
Qantas says it will add Dallas/Fort Worth to its dedicated Boeing 747-400F freighter network from June 9. The 747 freighters, which are operated by Atlas on behalf of Qantas, will stop in Dallas/Fort Worth every Thursday morning as part of a triangular routing from Australia to China and the US. Qantas, which holds cargo traffic rights from the
Etihad Airways has deployed the Airbus A380 on the Melbourne route, with the Gulf airline’s first service operated by the 496-seat flagship touching down in Australia’s second largest city on Thursday evening. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad will now operate the A380 on one of its twice daily flights to Melbourne, replacing a 777-300ER on its EY460-EY461 rotation. The
Etihad Airways has introduced the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner onto its daily flight to Perth, replacing the Airbus A330-200. The change of equipment was officially marked on Thursday, but the airline’s first 787 flight to Perth in fact landed on Monday thanks to an unscheduled aircraft substitution. 787-9 A6-BLF operated that unofficial first flight, touching down at 1:47pm on Monday
The US Department of State has approved the possible sale of Raytheon SM-2 Block IIIB missiles, equipment and support to Australia for use in Hobart class Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) trials. The potential Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program deal, which has an estimated cost of US$301 million, covers up to 80 SM-2 Block IIIB vertical-launching
