The World of Aviation

Qantas has commenced heavy maintenance on its first A330 at its Brisbane facility, and welcomed in 21 new apprentices on April 9. At a ceremony attended by Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser to mark the commencement of A330 maintenance, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce reaffirmed the airline’s commitment to maintaining the majority of its maintenance onshore, as

Argentine domestic carrier Austral Líneas Aéreas has firmed up an order for 20 E-190ARs. Embraer originally announced the agreement in May 2009, and listed the order as ‘undisclosed’ until the airline fulfilled several requirements, which have since been finalised.

Boeing has announced its deliveries for the first quarter of 2010, showing that it delivered 108 commercial aircraft for the three months ending April 31. Deliveries were comprised of 86 737NGs, three 767s and 19 777s. There were no 747 deliveries over the three month period.

AirAsia X has announced that it will operate twice weekly services from Kuala Lumpur to Perth and Melbourne, while Indonesia Air Asia will up its services on the Perth-Denpasar route to three times daily. The additional AirAsia X services to Melbourne will commence from July 1, with Perth to also receive double daily services from

Queensland company Caribou Cargo plans to soon commence operations with a re-engined turbo Caribou STOL transport, pitched at customers in Australia, PNG and Asia who require loads of up to 4500kg to be carried into small or unprepared airstrips. Company principal, Paul Strike, says the aircraft has been retrofitted by US based Caribou specialist Pen

Fokker Services has developed a retrofit LED cabin lighting system for Boeing 737s, which are more reliable and require less maintenance than the existing TL system. “Fokker Services has already extensive experience with LED lighting on VIP aircraft and we can develop this modification for virtually any commercial airliner”, says Erik Goedhart, Fokker’s vice president