The World of Aviation

Virgin Blue recorded a fall in domestic passenger numbers during October, but capacity cuts saw it record a small increase in load factor. On its domestic services, passenger volumes decreased by 6.5 per cent, while available seat kilometres were down by 5.2 per cent, resulting in a marginal increase in load factor to 84.9 per

The federal government’s long awaited Aviation White Paper is due to be released on December 16, reports ABC Online. While the policy paper is not expected to see any major changes to the Green Paper released earlier this year, a key focus will be on the terms of reference for a joint federal-NSW government study

Airservices Australia has completed its 100th upgraded transmitter as part of a major project to upgrade its VHF radio communication network across Australia. The latest upgraded transmitter entered service during November at Table Mountain, Rockhampton, and is part of the $46 million VHF System Upgrade project, which is due for completion in mid 2010. The

The US DoD has approved the EA-18G Growler, or ‘Grizzly’ as it will be known colloquially in US Navy service, for full rate production following it being declared operationally effective and suitable for service entry in late July. The USN has to date taken delivery of about 15 Growlers out of an initial low rate

Malaysia Airlines’s first A380 delivery has been delayed by eight months, apparently at the request of Airbus. “We had been informed that the A380s, with the delivery date of January 2011 will commence in August 2011 instead,” Malaysia Airlines CEO and managing director Azmil Zahruddin told Flightglobal.com MAS has six A380s on order, and despite

Auckland International Airport Limited announced on November 30 that its NZ$125m bond issue closed fully subscribed. “Auckland Airport is extremely pleased with the success of this issue,” said chief financial officer Simon Robertson. “It allows us to extend our maturity profile and demonstrates again that there is strong appetite from New Zealand investors for bonds