The World of Aviation

Air New Zealand has opened a fifth gateway in North America with the start of flights to Houston, Texas. The airline’s inaugural service to the heart of Texas, flight NZ28, departed Auckland at 1830 local time on Tuesday and landed just over 12 and a half hours later at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport a little

Qantas expects to more than double its underlying profit before tax in the first half of 2015/16 as the airline group benefits from lower fuel prices, its cost reduction program and improved revenue. The company has forecast underlying profit before tax, the airline’s preferred measure of financial performance, to be between $875 million and $925

Cathay Pacific has given Australians a new one-stop option for trips to London with a return to Gatwick Airport from September 2016. The Hong Kong-based carrier will fly four times a week to London Gatwick with three-class Airbus A350-900s offering 38 business, 28 premium economy and 214 economy class seats. The new flight lifts Cathay’s

Air New Zealand will allow international passengers travelling from Auckland the option of checking in their own bag in what the airline describes as a world first. The self-service bag drop kiosks read biometric data stored on passports using technology similar to the SmartGate passport control gates, with a camera to verify the passenger’s identity. Once the passenger’s

A Royal Air Force Airbus A400M Atlas has made a flying visit to Australia. A400M ZM406 arrived in Cairns from Bander Seri Begawan on December 10 and then flew to Hobart via Sydney on December 12. On December 13 the A400M then departed Hobart for Darwin. The visit is believed to be the first to Australia by

ANA has used its its Star Wars-themed Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner for its inaugural flight from Tokyo/Haneda to Sydney, with flight NH879 touching down at 0932 local time Saturday morning. ANA is returning to Australia for the first time since the late 1990s, and joins Qantas on the Sydney-Haneda route, while Japan Airlines flies to Sydney from Tokyo-Narita. The Star Wars-themed