The World of Aviation

The hull of Australia’s first Landing Helicopter Dock, the HMAS Canberra, has departed Spain on its way to Melbourne. Carried by heavy lift vessel the Blue Marlin, the hull is expected to take 40 to 50 days to reach Australia, where assembly of the vessel’s superstructure will take place at BAE Systems’s Williamstown shipyard. “In

Etihad Airways has purchased more than $10 million worth of Virgin Australia shares in the past three weeks as it increases its stake in its alliance partner. The Abu Dhabi based carrier earlier won approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board to increase its stake in Virgin Australia form five to 10 per cent. The

Helicopters Australia (HNZ) has reached a $125 million deal with Rio Tinto to provide three new AgustaWestland AW109SP helicopters to the mining giant’s Dampier and Cape Lambert operations in WA. The AW109s will replace two Eurocopter EC145 HNZ had provided to Rio Tinto under a contract expiring this year. HNZ has provided helicopter services to

Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr will star in a new advertising push for Qantas Club airport lounges. Principally, Ms Kerr is meant to lure a younger generation of flyers away from Qantas’s more youthful rival, Virgin Australia, which has unveiled its own franchise of airport lounges after making an aggressive entrance into the corporate travel market

Alan Joyce will forgo any bonus or pay rise this year, the Qantas CEO has said days before he is expected to announce the airline’s first annual loss. Joyce will earn his base pay of $2.3 million but will give up the bonuses that last year brought his compensation to roughly $5 million. He joins

Etihad Airways will launch daily flights to Brisbane early next year as international carriers continue to tighten the screw on Qantas’s struggling overseas network. Etihad’s announcement comes just after China Southern said it would ramp up to daily Brisbane flights, part of a dramatic increase in that carrier’s Australian footprint. Etihad, which operates in an