Airline Affairs

New Qantas Services

Qantas has introduced new services to Jakarta and Seoul to cope with increasing passenger demand on these two routes. The airline will now fly daily between Sydney and Jakarta and at the same time has introduced three new services between Perth and Jakarta. Growth on Indonesia-Australia routes has been substantial in recent times, the first half of 1995 showing a 39% increase in the number of passengers compared with the same period of 1994. Most of the growth comes from a big rise in the number of Indonesians travelling to Australia. An additional weekly flight between Sydney and Seoul has been introduced, adding to the three existing services. Traffic growth on the route in the first six months of 1995 was even greater than that returned by Indonesian services, a 51% increase being recorded compared with a year earlier. Official figures for the first half of 1995 show that 89,500 Koreans visited Australia during the period.

Cathay’s New Headquarters

Cathay Pacific has announced plans to move its entire Hong Kong operation to Chek Lap Kok Airport when it opens in 1998. The airline’s new headquarters will cost about $A600m to build and will comprise a 10-storey office building, a stores centre and a 20-storey staff hotel. The complex is to be built on 3.3 hectares (8 acres) of land on the southeast side of Chek Lap Kok Island, much of which was artificially created specifically for the new airport. As well as offices and training centres, the site will contain retail outlets, banking facilities, staff travel and medical services and sport and leisure facilities including squash courts and a swimming pool. The staff hotel will have 500 rooms. Cathay’s offices and other facilities are currently spread around 19 different locations in Hong Kong.

Solomons To Sydney

Solomon Airlines, the national carrier of the Solomon Islands, has introduced a twice-weekly service to Sydney. The new service is operated on behalf of Solomon Airlines by Air Nauru using a Boeing 737-400. Solomon will have access to a limited number of seats on each flight between Sydney and Honiara and return. The services operate each Tuesday and Friday. The airline is also planning to introduce direct flights between Melbourne and Honiara in the near future, also in conjunction with Air Nauru and using its aircraft.

Sorry, Wrong City!

We’ve all heard of incidents where an aircraft lands – or attempts to land – at the wrong airport in a local area (Essendon has been mistaken for Tullamarine on more than one occasion) but missing the destination airport by more than 300 kilometres is a special occurrence. It happened last September when a Northwest Airlines DC-10 with 241 passengers on board managed to land at Brussels instead of Frankfurt after a flight from Detroit. The pilots of the DC-10 realised their error only when on the approach to Brussels, but decided to carry out a landing there anyway. It seems the only people on the aircraft who were unaware of the error were the pilots. The cabin crew and passengers all knew the aircraft was in the wrong place as they’d been following its progress on the live map displays in the cabin! The pilots have been suspended from duty pending an investigation.

Farewell To Air France And Lufthansa

Lufthansa and Air France flew their last scheduled flights to Australia on October 29, writes Julian Green. The final Air France flight was drawn out by 24 hours due to a last-minute ban on refuelling and loading introduced by ground handling agents at Sydney as a result of France’s third nuclear test on the morning of the scheduled departure. Lufthansa left Sydney after 30 years of continuous operations following constant battles to overcome unprofitable services. Renate Metraux of Lufthansa’s Sydney office expressed regret at the airline leaving Australia, saying, “It is sad not to see Lufthansa in Australia any more, but we have achieved a lot in the 30 years we have been operating here, and we will maintain a meaningful presence in Australia. Lufthansa has good relationships with Qantas, Thai Airways and Ansett and we expect that business will continue to be good for Lufthansa out of Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong through these carriers out of Australia. Our partnership with United through the United States has also proved very popular”. Ms Metraux also says that it is unlikely that any other German carrier will enter the route, explaining, “LTU operates services as far as Bali, but I doubt that they, or any other German carrier, would come that extra distance to Australia knowing that we have pulled out because we were losing money. The viability of the route as far as Asia is fine”. Despite Lufthansa subsidiary Condor operating the service using 767s to reduce operating costs, continuing low yields on the route brought about the tough decision to quit. Lufthansa and Air France will maintain downsized offices in Sydney. This line-up of British Airways 747 tails includes one specially painted to commemorate the International Children’s Conference held in the UK during October. (Keith Gaskell) 14 Australian Aviation December 1995

Spray Again, Please

It looks as if one of the great traditions of international air travel may be coming to an end – the spraying of the aircraft’s interior with insecticide upon its arrival in Australia. Amusing or mystifying to most passengers (first-time Americans usually provided the best value) and annoying to some, the traditional spraying ritual by cabin staff looks set to be replaced by a new method, one of applying a surface spray to the cabin at the last stopover before flying to Australia. Tests have already been undertaken and appear to be successful. Further tests will determine if the new method becomes standard procedure.

Ba And Qantas Commence Jsa Operations

The Joint Service Agreement between British Airways and Qantas commenced operations on November 1 after eighteen months of negotiations with the Trade Practices Commission. A revised schedule for the two alliance partners will offer 35 services a week by the airlines between Australia and Europe, in which 14 services each will be operated from Australia to London, and an additional five flights a week to Frankfurt and two to Rome by Qantas. BA will feed QF’s Frankfurt hub from its European network operated by Deutsche BA. Passengers will have the option of routing via Asia, North America or even southern Africa to access London and Europe. A comprehensive range of fares and products has been released on the market, which will expand as the joint services mature. Another major boon for travellers is the streamlining of check-in facilities, allowing baggage to be checked through and boarding passes to be issued to the final destination from the point of origin. Frequent flyers will benefit greatly from the extensive network of the alliance partners, with mileage able to be ‘earned and burned’ on the carriers’ joint network. In a recent interview in London with British Airways’ Commercial Manager Asia/Pacific, Malcolm Freeman, Australian Aviation’s Julian Green heard that the two carriers will be making concerted efforts to turn around the route’s profitability. “Historically, while the Kangaroo Route has always been very popular, it has never made any money at all; in fact some of the sectors on it are run at an outright loss,” Mr Freeman said. “We realised something had to be done, and in April 1995 we produced an interim schedule. It is totally different and will rationalise the way BA used to fly all around Australia to cover every point. We were, for example, flying to Perth and then carrying passengers onwards to Auckland, which was very expensive to operate. British Airways pulled out of Auckland and entered into a codeshare arrangement with Qantas, whereby they fly from Auckland to Los Angeles (QF103) and we fly from Los Angeles through to London. This has proved to be extremely successful for both airlines and we now have increased that schedule to four a week. We could expand that further some time in the future”. “In the current schedule, we have agreed with Qantas that BA will maintain seven 747s a week going to Sydney, and of those seven, four will bleed off to Melbourne and three to Brisbane. The other seven a week we operate to Australia will go to Perth via Singapore, and will operate exclusively out of Western Australia. QF will have flights that feed up to Bangkok from WA on the 767 to connect with London-bound 747 flights from eastern Australia,” Mr Freeman said. He also indicated that W.A.’s average 25% growth in tourism will provide an increasingly important source of revenue on services between Asia and Perth. While each airline expects only single-digit growth from the route, they are keen to realise long-term expansion plans which will tap into other Asian ports. “We are looking at plans for 1996/97 when we expect more capacity will be made available. There is a raft of destinations in Asia which could support flights from London and on to a number of destinations in Australia.” Mr Freeman added, “Qantas and British Airways are quickly becoming regarded as the airline to the UK and London from Australia, and vice versa. We welcome the rise of competition on the route – it’s good fun, and I think the developments will be interesting.”

Speedwing Establishes Regional Office

Speedwing, the division of British Airways dedicated to providing specialist aviation consulting, has announced the appointment of John Roussel to head its Far East office, reports Julian Green. Based in Kuala Lumpur, the office is responsible for Speedwing’s activities east of India to the Pacific, taking in the energetic airline industry of SE Asia, where the company sees a growing market for its services. “We have a good level of existing business in the region, but we intend to take on the market more aggressively,” says John Roussel. “We want to establish a meaningful presence in the area by opening an office in the heart of the market.” As Regional Director for the Far East, Roussel will use experience gained with British Airways, Lauda Air and most recently as private aviation consultant to source new business opportunities.

No Ifs Or Butts

Malaysia Airlines has announced that from January 1 all of its international flights will be designated non-smoking, the only exception being flights to and from Japan. Malaysia’s domestic and intra-ASEAN region flights are already non-smoking. In 1992 ICAO voted that complete smoking bans be implemented on all international flights from July 1 1996.

Landing Fees Backdown

The Federal Government has postponed proposed hefty increases in airport landing charges following strong objections from the airline industry. Increases averaging 14% per annum over the next two years were due to come into effect in January 1996 but will now be implemented in July next year if the government is returned to power in the upcoming election. Despite this new date being announced, it appears work on the plans has come to a halt within the Finance and Transport Departments’ Asset Sales Task Force. The increased fees were designed to boost Federal Airports Corporation profits ahead of the airports sales programme and their postponement indicates that the aim of selling four major airports by the end of 1996 will now not be achieved. The increased fees would have added about $55m to Qantas’ operating costs each year.

In The Money

For the record, the Qantas float raised $1.45bn, about what was estimated by the Federal Government. The issue price was between $1.80 (private buyers) and $2.10 (institutions) and prices ranged between $2.03 and $2.10 in the first month after the float.

Wrong Runway

The Minister for Transport may consider parallel runways safer than cross runway operations, but the former is still far from immune when it comes to human error. This was well illustrated in October when a Qantas Boeing 737 flying into Sydney from Auckland landed on Runway 34R instead of the allocated Runway 34L. The mistake was noticed when the aircraft came within visual range of air traffic controllers, who saw the 737 was lining up for the wrong runway. As there was no other traffic to contend with and no possible conflict, the aircraft’s clearance was changed to land on 34R. There was no danger and passengers probably wouldn’t have even been aware of the incident. Although this incident resulted in no danger, landing (or attempting to land) on the wrong runway under any circumstances is a serious error, and comes in addition to at least two (that we know of) ‘loss of separations’ between aircraft operating in the opposite direction on runways 16L and 16R. In these cases, aircraft have vectored left on 16R instead of right.

Ports Improved Profits

All Nippon Airways has posted a steep increase in net increase on the previous year’s results, and has set the carrier on target for a healthy annual profit. A 26.9% increase in capacity on international services met a 28.1% increase in passenger demand, which was largely instigated by the opening of Osaka’s Kansai International Airport. 1.03 million international passengers were carried, and 17.9 million on the extensive domestic network. ANA’s healthy results can be attributed to the high value of the yen increasing the demand for air travel, though it expects competition to remain very strong in its increasingly price-sensitive market. The airline is currently expanding its international network further to include new routes from Kansai to London and to Rome, while the 777 will be introduced on the Tokyo to Osaka route on December 23. Operating revenue for the year to March 31 1996 is projected to be $US8.44 billion.

Codeshare

The International Air Services Commission has given Ansett permission to codeshare with Taiwan’s EVA Air on services between Australia and Taiwan and has also granted approval for Ansett to expand its proposed codeshare arrangements with Malaysian Airways. The IASC says the approvals will facilitate the entry of Ansett onto these routes and foster the development of the airline as a strong Australian carrier. Ansett services to Taiwan began in November with the codesharing arrangement with EVA Air starting this month, the latter covering four flights per week between Sydney and Taipei with each carrier operating two services. Codesharing services to Malaysia also began in November. Ansett’s international operations have begun to return modest profits, returning several million dollars over the past few months. Services to Hong Kong and Japan are now flown five times each week and the new services to Taipei and Kuala Lumpur are part of a gradual expansion. The airline’s third Boeing 747-300 (leased from Singapore Airlines) was delivered in November.

Passengers By City Pairs, Years Ended

All but one airline returned a profit, TWA losing $US82m after writing off nearly $US300m in restructuring charges including setting up its employee ownership scheme. Without these adjustments, TWA would have recorded an operating profit. Top earner was United with a profit of $US243m followed by American and Northwest (both $US231m), Delta ($US201m), Continental ($US111m), Southwest ($US68m), USAir ($US43m) and America West ($US22m). The airlines between them carried 220.2 million passengers during the three-month period (up 0.68%) with United and American topping the list with 49.9 and 44.7 million, respectively. Average load factors were 70.8% (up 0.2%) while passenger yields increased by 5.5% to 7.82 cents per revenue passenger kilometre (RPK). Seat costs rose only 1.5% overall, Southwest again recording the lowest figure and USAir the highest. Available capacity also rose but only marginally. Southwest reported the greatest capacity growth (11.1%) while Continental reduced its capacity by 11.3%, contributing to a healthy increase in average load factor to 70.3%. The October to December quarter will be a real test of the airlines’ attempts to cut costs and increase yields. Traditionally a low earning period, a combined $US1.1bn was lost in the last three months of 1994 with only America West, Northwest, Southwest and United returning modest profits.

Tower Getting Closer

Sydney Airport’s parallel runway may have been operating for a year but the new control tower has yet to open. The original planned opening date of March this year has been postponed several times as a result of problems with its computer software, but now it appears these have been solved and operations are close to beginning. Precommissioning testing resumed in early November for a scheduled period of five weeks, after which the tower should be just about ready to go.

Us Airlines In The Black

The financial performance turnaround by the nine major US airlines continues with the operators recording a combined net profit of $US1.056bn ($A1.4bn) in the third quarter of 1995. This follows a $US987m ($A1.3bn) profit in the second quarter.

To Cairns

Singapore Airlines has increased the number of Australian destinations it serves to seven with the recent inauguration of services to Cairns. The twice-weekly service uses an Airbus A310-300 configured with 12 first class, 34 Raffles (business) class and 143 economy class seats, a total of 189. Passenger traffic between Singapore and Cairns has more than doubled over the last five years and SIA expects its new services to further increase the growth rate.

Perth Airport Land Claim

In what appears to be a remarkably fortuitous piece of timing considering the forthcoming airports privatisation, the Native Title Tribunal has accepted aboriginal land rights claims for the area on which Perth Airport stands. The Ballaruk people have claimed the airport site, saying it was allocated to them hundreds of years ago by tribal law and was still subject to traditional use. It is claimed the area contained traditional camping and hunting grounds.

New French Airline To Australia

French operator AOM French Airlines (formerly Air Outre Mer) has begun flying services between Paris and Sydney, filling the void left by Air France’s withdrawal from the route. The twice-weekly service will fly from Paris Orly to Sydney via Colombo and then on to Noumea, from where the aircraft will operate under a wet lease arrangement with Air Caledonie who will then fly it to Tahiti to link with AOM’s Tahiti/Los Angeles/Paris service. AOM operates a fleet of DC-10s on long-haul services and MD-80s on shorter routes. It flies from Paris to the French West Indies, French Polynesia, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Nice and now Sydney.

Strong Local International Traffic Growth

The Australian international scheduled airline passenger market grew by 8.9% in 1994/95, taking the number of international passengers to and from Australia to a record 11.6 million for the year. Department of Transport figures show that in the 10 years to June 1995, Australian international traffic grew at an average annual rate of 8.8% compared with a worldwide figure of 6.2%. Auckland/Sydney remained the most heavily travelled route, accounting for 6% of the market followed by Los Angeles/Sydney (4.9%) and Singapore/Sydney (4%). Qantas’ market share dropped slightly from 40.6% in 1993-94 to 40.2% and Ansett appears in the top 10 carriers list with 2% of the market. Sydney Airport remains the most used Australian international airport with 5.6 million passengers in 1994/95 or 48.4% of the total, followed by Melbourne (1.9 million/16.7%), Brisbane (1.8 million/15.9%), Perth (1.2 million/10.0%), Cairns (641,000/5.5%) and Adelaide (213,000/1.8%). The Cairns figure is particularly interesting as it shows a decline of nearly 7% compared with 1993/94, a marked contrast to the spectacular growth it has recorded in recent years. Its Queensland rival, Brisbane, returned a growth of 14.8% and is now within 100,000 passengers of Melbourne’s figure after being some 350,000 behind two years ago. Sydney’s dominance remained by increasing both passenger numbers (by 11.6%) and market share.

Door Open To Kuwait Airways

A recent visit by a delegation of senior Kuwaiti Ministers and Kuwait Airways executives at the invitation of the Australian government has signalled the commencement of negotiations for the national carrier to commence regular services here, reports Julian Green. Led by the Minister for Commerce and Industry, HE Hilal Mushari Al-Mutaiti, the visitors met with the Department of Transport and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to bolster trade agreements between the two countries which will include an enhancement of perishable goods exports and a regular air service. Crucial to the airline’s commencement of services will be securing fifth freedom rights between Australia and its chosen Asian port. Kuwait Airways is uplifting an increasing number of tourist and business traffic from Australia via its key Asian ports of Singapore and Bangkok, but more important is the opportunity for a high level of inbound tourism from Kuwait and other Middle East ports to Australia. Australia is gaining a higher profile in the region, with considerable interest being shown in our diverse recreational opportunities. The Chairman of Kuwait Airways, Ahmed Hamad Al-Mishari, told AA that the national carrier is among a number of state-owned assets to be privatised over the next two years. Already an emerging force in the Middle East, Kuwait Airways will use the additional capital to consolidate its operations and plan a steady course of expansion. It is considering opportunities in the Far East, southern and eastern Africa and China. Kuwait Airways’ catering subsidiary KASCO is already being privatised. The airline currently operates 17 Airbus and Boeing aircraft. Meanwhile the flag carrier of the tiny Gulf state of Qatar, Qatar Airways has had its application to commence scheduled services to Australia rejected by the Department of Transport. The carrier had hoped to operate either 747 or A310 equipment on the route, and would have become the sixth Middle Eastern airline to seek scheduled services. Qatar Airways may yet seek to operate charter services in the interim, operating up to 25 a year that is allowed under current regulations. The Churchill Trust invites applications from Australians, of 18 years and over from all walks of life who wish to be considered for a Churchill Fellowship to undertake, during 1997, an overseas study project that will enhance their usefulness to the Australian community. No prescribed qualifications are required, merit being the primary test, whether based on past achievements or demonstrated ability for future achievement. Fellowships are awarded annually to those who have already established themselves in their calling. They are not awarded for the purpose of obtaining higher academic or formal qualifications. Details may be obtained by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope (12x24cms) to: The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust 218 Northbourne Avenue, Braddon, ACT 2612. Completed application forms and reports from three referees must be submitted by Thursday, 29 February, 1996.

Curtains Cause Control Chaos Shock Horror!

From AirServices Australia’s Airspace staff newsletter comes this little gem which well illustrates some of the problems of the high-tech age in which we live … and the fact that ultra-low technology can still have a major influence on things! Pilots had been reporting sporadic interference to an air traffic control frequency over Melbourne but the interference could not be heard on the ground. A NOTAM (notice to airmen) was issued asking all pilots to report where they had heard the interference and from this a rough centre of search was established. A ground party conducted a search over several days around an area of about 100sq km, eventually finding the interference in a house in Romsey, a small town outside Melbourne. The very surprised owner of the residence was cooperative and upon gaining access to his house it was discovered that his video recorder was intermittently radiating a stray signal. The fault was variable and determined by – amongst other things – the position of the curtains in the house (!) and the channel the video and TV were on. After an investigation into the video recorder, ASA’s district manager decided the simplest and cheapest solution to the problem was to buy the householder a new VCR, with the result that the interference stopped and everyone was happy. As for the old video – it was curtains for it! 20 Australian Aviation December 1995 Ansett Air Freight’s 727-200 freighter has recently returned to service after an extended overhaul and repaint in Ansett’s new colours. (Ian Green)

No Traffic?

Due to operational problems beyond our control, there is no Traffic column this issue. Traffic will return in the new year in our new January/February issue, expanded to cover this month’s missing movements.

Egyptair Commences Services To Australia

EgyptAir started its direct A340-300 services from Cairo via Singapore on November 4, establishing a new route to the Middle East and Europe. The airline hopes to take up some of the traffic left from AF and LH as well as tap into the growing tourism market which is strengthening following terrorist activity in Egypt 18 months ago. EgyptAir’s A340-300s will be the first to operate scheduled services to Sydney. Leased from Gulf Air, the A340-300s seat 277 in three classes. The airline will replace the -300s with its own longer range -200s (with 263 seats) which it recently ordered next year. Julian Green.

Aa/Qantas Expand Codeshare

American Airlines and Qantas have expanded their cooperative services arrangement to include Qantas flights between Melbourne, Auckland and Los Angeles. American will place its AA designator code on four weekly Qantas flights between the three cities, while QF codes will be placed on American flights between Los Angeles and Chicago, New York, Boston and Washington. The new Melbourne and Auckland services started on November 15, coincidentally the first anniversary of the American Airlines and Qantas trans-Pacific codeshare flights between Sydney and Los Angeles.

Airports Update

Armidale: The owner/operator of Armidale Airport, Dumaresq Shire Council, is to spend up to $2m building a new terminal adjacent to the existing facilities. The terminal will contain two restaurants (including a McDonald’s), a service station and a tourist information centre. Private sector expenditure will bring the cost of the terminal up to about $3m. The new terminal represents Stage 2 of the airport’s development. Stage 1 was upgrading its navigational aids (including the installation of Category III ILS) and Stage 3 will be extending the main runway from its present 1738m (5700ft) if demand warrants it.

Mildura: Mildura Airport will be subject to a $2.4m upgrade to be completed by next June. The upgrade will enable the airport to accommodate airliners of up to 150 seats such as the Boeing 737-400 and Airbus A320. Local authorities want to attract convention and conference business to the area.

Lizard Island: The Great Barrier Reef resort island has had a $6m refurbishment completed by owner Qantas. The upmarket Lizard Island Resort is billed by Qantas as “one of the world’s most private island resorts” and is not for the faint of wallet!

Adelaide: Air travellers landing at Adelaide will pay for the soundproofing of houses and other buildings near the airport from next year via a levy on ticket prices. Transport Minister Laurie Brereton will decide which buildings are eligible for soundproofing ahead of the opening of Adelaide’s $44m runway extension.

Sydney: The Australian Mayoral Aviation Council has warned that surplus land at Sydney and Sydney West (Badgery’s Creek) Airports will be available for “unfettered development” when the sites are sold off. There is no legislation provided for safeguards against 24-hour shopping and casinos within airport boundaries, says the council. This Peter Pan painted Japan Air System McDonnell Douglas DC-10 was an unusual visitor to Sydney in early November. (Bill Dionisiou)

Hobart: The Federal Airports Corporation (FAC) has launched a recycling programme at Hobart Airport by building a recycling centre for the collection of glass, aluminium, plastic bottles, drink cartons, cardboard, magazines and newspapers. The waste was previously disposed of in landfill garbage tips.

Riverina: Councils in the Riverina area have formed a committee in a bid to win support for an international airport in the Narrandera-Leeton region. A submission will be compiled for the Prime Ministerial task force which is examining the issues of regional development and maximising export opportunities.

Hervey Bay: Tenders have been called for redevelopment work at the north Queensland airport. Work to be performed includes upgrading taxiways, the apron, the terminal building and the car park.

La Trobe Valley: Work on public and general facilities including picnic areas, erosion control, fences, drains and the laying of concrete to improve access to hangars has been carried out by 15 unemployed youths between 15 and 20 years of age. The youngsters have been taking part in a Landcare and Environment Action Programme (LEAP) funded by the Department of Employment, Education and Training.

Coffs Harbour: Coffs Harbour City Council has allocated $200,000 to some upgrading of the airport, develop a marketing strategy and preparing a management plan to assist in developing Coffs Harbour as a major gateway in NSW.

Parafield: Some residents near Adelaide’s general aviation airport are suffering television reception problems as commercial developments on the airport increase. The latest problems have emerged since a metal frame has been erected, signals from the Elizabeth Sound transmitter bouncing off it and causing ghosting. Some people forked out $300 for a larger antenna to beat the problem.

Sydney: Councils under the flight path of Sydney’s east-west runway are considering taking legal action against its reopening, as promised by Opposition leader John Howard if the coalition is elected to government. The councils believe that an environmental impact statement would have to be prepared first anyway, effectively delaying the runway’s reopening for a considerable period. Mr Howard believes an EIS would not be necessary. Leading regional operator Hazelton Airlines has heavily criticised the closure of the east-west runway, saying it was done “for political, not safety reasons”.

Essendon: A new ‘superstore’ which will be open seven days a week is the first of $45m worth of commercial developments planned for Essendon Airport. Brands Factory Outlets’ discount retail centre will feature 40 ‘shops’. This Beech 1900D of Milne Bay Airlines came to Brisbane on a special medivac flight from Port Moresby. (Richard Hall)

Evans Head: The mayor of Richmond River Shire has indicated that the Evans Head Airport will probably be redeveloped into a housing estate within the next 20 years. The intention is not to deprive Evans Head of an airport but to relocate it somewhere else in the area. The land on which the airport currently stands has the potential to become prime real estate for developers.

Sydney: Hornsby Shire Council has joined the Coalition of Councils Against Noise and backed its membership with a $2000 donation, while Ku-ring-gai Council (covering a very much Liberal area) has stated it will support noise-affected residents however it can.

Extra Issue

We are pleased to announce that from next year there will be 11 issues of your favourite aviation magazine instead of 10. The plan is to produce a January/February edition in between the usual December and March editions. This will greatly reduce the ten-week gap that previously existed whilst enabling us to keep you more up to date with the latest news through the New Year period. The January/February issue will go on sale on January 11 with mail subscribers as usual not only saving money but also getting it a few days earlier.