The World of Aviation

Perth based Skywest has announced an expansion to its codeshare agreement with Virgin Blue. The agreement will see Skywest operate Virgin Blue flight numbers between Perth and Albany, Esperance, Geraldton, Exmouth, Monkey Mia and Carnarvon to add to services it already operates to the Pilbara and Kalgoorlie.

Qantas has used its newly launched @QantasMedia Twitter account to confirm it has lost the AFL corporate travel account. “QF ends AFL partnership,” the airline Tweeted on November 18. “We have a history of supporting all Aussie sports and won’t enter into exclusive arrangements with any sporting body.” It emerged last week that Virgin Blue

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has confirmed to media the accuracy of earlier reports that as many as 40 of the 80 Trent 900 engines delivered so far on Airbus A380s are affected by the oil leak issue which led to the QF32 uncontained failure, and that they may need to be replaced. “We’ve been talking

Qantas has officially launched its ‘Next Generation Check-in’ technology and unveiled new service enhancements across its domestic business and economy class cabins. “Next Generation Check-in has now opened in Sydney and Perth and is already dramatically reducing domestic check-in times for customers, allowing them to move through the check-in area with increased speed and ease,”

Australia’s domestic airlines carried 4.69 million passengers in September, according to BITRE (the Bureau of Infrastructure & Transport Economics), an increase of 8.0 per cent compared with September 2009. September continues the recent trend of robust domestic passenger number growth, but again capacity increased faster than passenger numbers, such that industry wide load factor fell

Boeing has delivered the 900th 777, a 777-200LR handed over to Ethiopian Airlines at its Everett plant on November 17. “The 777-200LR is the only airplane that provides the range and efficiency that Ethiopian needs to service its long haul routes,” said Larry Loftis, Boeing Commercial Airplane’s vice president and general manager, 777 program. “And