The World of Aviation

Virgin Blue has issued an update to its outlook for the 2009/10 financial year, showing that it is expecting to report a net profit before tax and exceptional items of between $80-$110 million, compared to its loss of $93 million last financial year. The company said that the increase in expected profit is due to

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft has announced that the fourth prototype Sukhoi SuperJet 100, MSN 95005, has made its first flight. The aircraft, which features a number of refinements and modifications to match the production standard SSJ100, was captained by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft’s test pilots Sergey Korostiev and Alexander Ivanov. During a 2 hour and 45 minute

Lufthansa Technik has announced a new three year agreement with Virgin Blue for inspection and replacement of variable stator vane bushings on the airline group’s fleet of CFM56-7B engines which power its Boeing 737NGs. The work will be carried out at its Melbourne subsidiary LTQ Engineering, which is a joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and

Boeing announced on February 2 that Ken Morton, who is currently director of communications for Australia and New Zealand, will assume responsibility for company communications across the wider Asia Pacific region from March 1. Morton will succeed Mark Hooper who will return to Seattle from Hong Kong to take up a senior role within Boeing

Hawker Pacific announced on February 4 that it has been selected by Dassault to provide support for Asian Falcon 7X customers. “Hawker Pacific’s Singapore Service Centre now carries Dassault Falcon jet accreditation to perform major inspections across multiple models and holds a strategic inventory valued at over US$1.5 million on site to support the complete

Auckland International Airport recorded an increase in both domestic and international passenger traffic during December 2009. International passenger traffic increased by 1.6 per cent, aided primarily by higher arrivals from Australia and the United States. Arrivals from Fiji and China were down significantly. Domestic passenger numbers increased by 8.8 per cent for the month, which