The World of Aviation

A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 pilot and the owner of a helicopter training business have been recognised at the 2014 Telstra Queensland Business Women’s awards. Squadron Leader Samantha Freebairn, who is based at Amberley, took out the business innovation award. Freebairn was the RAAF’s first female pilot to return to operational flying after having

The recent rebound in cargo led by markets in the Asia-Pacific, North America and the Middle East may be tempered by global political uncertainty and economic jitters, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says. Cargo volumes, measured by freight tonne kilometres (FTK), rose 5.1 per cent in August, compared with the prior corresponding period. It

Virgin Australia has moved a step closer to completing the partial sale of its Velocity frequent flyer program and boosting its balance sheet by $336 million after the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) gave the deal the green light. FIRB had “no objections” to the proposed transaction, Virgin said in a statement on Thursday. “The transaction

The second F-35A Lightning II for the RAAF made its first flight on October 1. Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti was at the controls of aircraft AU-2 (RAAF serial A35-002) for the approximately 90 minute flight, from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, adjacent to Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth production facilities. AU-2’s first flight

The E-7A Wedgetail and KC-30A tanker transport deployed to the Middle East as part of the RAAF’s Air Task Group flew their first operational missions over Iraq on October 1. “The E-7A conducted a support mission over central Iraq while the KC-30A conducted a support flight over Iraq,” the Department of Defence said in a

Air New Zealand has been prompted to release its on-time performance figures for July and August “in the interests of transparency” after competitor Jetstar noted the “puzzling” absence of any punctuality data from the airline over the past two months. Jetstar head of New Zealand Grant Kerr says Air NZ stopped including OTP performance statistics