The World of Aviation

Air New Zealand subsidiary Mount Cook Airline has been forced to cancel dozens of flights after discovering hairline cracks around the cockpit windows of an ATR turboprop. The carrier grounded all 11 of its ATR 72-500s on Sunday as it inspected the aircraft. That forced the cancellation of more than 50 flights, mostly to regional

Leaders from the regional aviation industry will converge on Canberra on Monday for what is likely to be a lively summit with government ministers. Many in regional aviation have become increasingly critical of government policies, particularly the carbon tax, which they say unfairly targets an industry that has played a key role in supporting the

The overall on-time performance of Australia’s domestic airlines dropped by 5 per cent last financial year, according to a compendium of government aviation statistics released today. About 80 per cent of domestic flights left on time during 2010-11, down from 85 per cent the previous financial year. On-time arrivals were down from 84 per cent

Virgin Australia says all conditions for its ownership restructure have been met and the plan will go ahead over the next two weeks. Announced last month, the restructure will see Virgin’s international business split off to become a separate, unlisted company owned by current shareholders. That will free Virgin’s domestic business from government regulations that

Boeing Defence Australia will establish a paint facility at RAAF Base Williamtown under a new $20 million contract to repaint the RAAF fleet. The contract covers preparing, remediating and painting the RAAF’s AP-3C Orions, C-130H Hercules’, F/A-18 classic Hornets and Hawk-127s. Boeing said it will set up a surface finishing facility at Williamtown and would

Raytheon Australia’s replacement of its Agusta A109E Power helicopters it has operated since 2007 for the Navy’s Retention and Motivation Initiative (RMI) at Nowra with three new Bell 429s was a clever bit of marketing on the company’s behalf. Not only is Raytheon offering the 429 for the ADF’s AIR 9000 Phase 7 helicopter aircraft