The World of Aviation

Air New Zealand has suspended flights between Auckland and Vanuatu due to concerns over the condition of the runway at Bauerfield International Airport, while Qantas has removed its QF airline code from Air Vanuatu-operated services between Australia and Port Vila. Meanwhile, Virgin Australia continues to fly between Brisbane and Port Vila, as does the national

The DC-10 Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT) firebomber Southern Belle has relocated from New South Wales to Avalon in Victoria. The DC-10, temporarily named Southern Belle for its deployment to Australia, had been based at RAAF Base Richmond, alongside an L-100-30 Hercules Large Air Tanker, after arriving in Australia in late September. “Now the risk is decreasing

Lufthansa has taken delivery of the first customer Airbus A320neo during a low-key ceremony in Hamburg on January 20, with plans to place the aircraft into service just days later on January 24. That first revenue flight, planned for Frankfurt to Hamburg next Sunday, will also see the commercial debut of Pratt & Whitney’s PW1100G geared turbofan,

Singapore Airlines will become the first airline to operate long-haul international services from Canberra when it begins four times weekly Singapore-Canberra-Wellington services from September 20. The new ‘Capital Express’ services, which will also see the first direct flights between Canberra and Wellington, will depart Singapore on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, returning to Singapore the following

The RAAF is sending the F/A-18F Super Hornet to Exercise Red Flag for the first time, part of a deployment of 14 aircraft and 410 personnel to the US Air Force-run air combat simulation exercise. Six 1 Squadron Super Hornets, six 75 Squadron F/A-18A ‘classic’ Hornets, an E-7A Wedgetail and an AP-3C Orion have all

An Airbus A340 testbed is currently operating out of Darwin Airport in search of icing conditions in tropical thunderstorms as part of a flight test campaign to trial new technologies developed to detect icing conditions. A340-300 F-WWAI – in fact A340 MSN1, the original A340 flight test development aircraft, which first flew in October 1991 – arrived in Darwin on