The World of Aviation

The Virgin Blue group recorded a static 72.4 per cent revenue load factor for May, as a moderate increase in load factors on international services offset a fall in domestic loads. Overall, the group’s passenger numbers increased by 4.6 per cent for the month, which pushed revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) up by 18.3 per cent.

Qantas says that premium traffic is starting to return as its May operating statistics showed that the overall airline group recorded a 5.6 per cent increase in passenger numbers compared to the same time last year. Qantas’s domestic services fared well during the month, with passenger numbers up 4.7 per cent, although an 8.7 per

The German Euro Hawk development of the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk made its first flight from Palmdale, California, on June 29, flying a two hour sortie before landing at nearby Edwards AFB. The Euro Hawk is a development of the Block 20 Global Hawk, and encompasses an EADS designed signals intelligence (SIGINT) package. “Formed as

A new report from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) shows that international passenger traffic growth in April slowed compared to previous months, but remained robust. For the month, passenger traffic increased by 4.2 per cent to 2.059 million passengers, making it the first month since September 2009 to record growth under

Boeing has reportedly applied for and received a licence to export its conceptual F-15SE to South Korea. Flightglobal reports an export licence was granted earlier this year following a submission by Boeing on the aircraft’s radar cross section to the US government. A development of the F-15E, the SE features two internal weapons bays in

Airbus and Boeing have traded claims after a judging panel of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) issued its ruling that some aid given to Airbus in the development of the A380 was illegal and must end. “This is a landmark decision and sweeping legal victory over the launch aid subsidies that fuelled the rise of