Journalist of the Year 2009

Aviation Journalist of the Year

For 2009, the winner of the major award of Airservices Australia Aviation Journalist of the Year – presented to the journalist whom the judging panel considered had contributed most in his or her field in the past year, based on the overall quality of work, standard of writing and understanding of industry issues – was Australian Aviation contributor Geoffrey Thomas, who is a senior editor for US based Air Transport World, and the aviation correspondent for The West Australian.

Thomas, who has now won the award three times in its 10 year history, was awarded the Airservices Australia trophy, a $4000 cash prize, and two business class tickets to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific and onward connections on Dragonair’s Asian network.

The award was presented by Richard Dudley, general manager corporate relations Airservices Australia, and Dane Cheng, general manager South West Pacific for Cathay Pacifc.

Runner-up for the award went to a quiet achiever who consistently features in these awards as someone displaying a deep understanding of the aviation industry – Doug Nancarrow, editor of Aviation Business Asia Pacific.

The other finalists for the major award were: Tom Ballantyne, Orient Aviation; Gregor Ferguson, Australian Defence Magazine; Gerard Frawley of Australian Aviation; Denise McNabb from the Independent Business Review; and Trevor Thomas, Australian Defence Business Review.

(It is worth highlighting too that The Australian’s Steve Creedy has disqualified himself from the awards since taking on the NAPC presidency in 2006. ) Previous winners of this award are: Tom Ballantyne; Geoffrey Thomas (twice); Ben Sandilands; Steve Creedy; Scott Rochfort; Doug Nancarrow; Gerard Frawley and Denise McNabb.

Aviation News Story of the Year In good times and bad, the local aviation industry never fails to reveal a rich lode of stories. 2009 was grimmer than most for the industry but still a great feast of copy for reporters.

The 25 entries from Australia and New Zealand journalists were judged on their news-breaking capacity, overall credibility and accuracy, the importance of the issues discussed, level of understanding and writing style.

The winners of $1500and the Airbus trophy for the 2009 Aviation News Story of the Year, presented by Airbus’s Isabelle Floret, senior VP Pacific, were Ingrid Mansell, Vesna Poljak and Jemima White, who broke news of airline merger talks in The Australian Financial Review in a story ‘Revealed: Qantas, British Airways plot $8bn merger. ’ (Unfortunately none of the winners were present on the evening. ) The cash prize for runnerup of $750 went to the first journalist to recognise the seriousness of the Emirates Airline takeoff incident at Tullamarine in March.

Often controversial, and never short of an opinion, Ben Sandilands of crikey.

com. au was runner-up with his story ‘How Emirates 407 struck it lucky three times and no-one died’.

Commendations were awarded to: • Scott Rochfort of The Sydney Morning Herald for ‘Federal air travel to hit Qantas’; • Denise McNabb, The Independent Financial Review for ‘Jetstar passenger fee loophole to close’; • Geoff Easdown, Herald Sun for ‘Merger hopes fading’; and •Michael Smith, The Australian Financial Review for ‘Qantas job cuts’.

Aviation Feature of the Year

Competition for the Aviation Feature of the Year is always hard fought and the wide variety of topics proved a tough job for the judges.

The feature category drew the largest number of entries of any of the awards, 42, from both sides of the Tasman.

Presented by Wilson Nishida, director marketing, airline market, Embraer Asia Pacific,Embraer trophy for the Aviation Feature of 2009 was awarded for a comprehensive analysis of the Joyce appointment at Qantas and the airline’s evolving strategy. A number of reporters profiled Alan Joyce but the winner was Geoffrey Thomas, writing in Air Transport World for ‘Qantas ReJoyces’.

The cash prize of $750 for runner-up went to a writer who took an original – and comprehensive – approach to the global financial crisis and its impact on the aviation maintenance industry – Doug Nancarrow of Aviation Business Asia Pacific, for ‘Is the Global Financial Crisis a threat to Maintenance Repair & Overhaul standards’.

Commendations in this category were awarded to: • Matt O’Sullivan, The Sydney Morning Herald for ‘Joyce ready for great leap at Qantas’; • Denise McNabb of the Independent Financial Review for ‘Dirty tricks in domestic dogfight’; • Tom Ballantyne, in Orient Aviation, ‘Opportunity knocks’; and • Will Horton, Airliners magazine, ‘Launch of V Australia’.

Aviation Technical Story of the Year

The 26 entries in this category covered greatly divergent subjects, reflecting the leadership shown by local airlines in fuel efficiency, biofuels, introduction of new operational techniques and navigation in a new age of avionics capability. Several excellent features analysed two major Australian defence projects, but with no surprise, many leading entries focused on aviation’s efforts to lessen the impact of climate change.

The winning story involved Air New Zealand’s world-leading efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.

The story was a compelling account of the airline’s ASPIRE 1 flight to San Francisco and covered in depth many of the ATC initiatives to reduce flight times and fuel burn.

The $1500 cheque and Rolls-Royce trophy for the Aviation Technical Story of the Year 2009 went to newcomer Will Horton of Airliners magazine for ‘For Control in the Sky, it’s up to the Airlines’, presented by Andrew Dudgeon, the new chief executive officer of Rolls-Royce Australia.

The $750 cash prize for runner-up in this category went to a writer who also covered Air New Zealand’s biofuel test flight – Justin Wastnage of Asian Aviation for ‘Air New Zealand launches biofuels campaign’.

Commendations went to: • Paul Phelan of Air Traffic Technology International for ‘Future Integration’; • Nigel Pittaway, Defence Today, ‘HUGS all round’; and • Andrew McLaughlin of Australian Aviation for ‘Vigilant Air’.

Defence Feature of the Year

This award category, now in its third year, againattracted high calibre entries from the defence trade media. In a year when the government released its White Paper defence blueprint and also changed Defence ministers, there was plenty of food for thought and comment.

The author of the Defence Story of 2009 applied typically heavyweight thought to one of the major challenges facing Australian defence procurement. The winner of $1500, and the Boeing trophy, presented by Rick McCrary, VP business development Australia for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, was Gregor Ferguson of Australian Defence Magazine for his article ‘White Paper to shape Fleet Air Arm’.

The runner-up prize of $750 went to a consistently high performer for an examination of the future Air Force in ‘Balancing game’ by Gerard Frawley, managing editor of Australian Aviation.

Commendations went to: • Peter Clark of NZ Aviation News ‘RNZAF 757s back in service’; • Andrew McLaughlin, Australian Aviation, ‘JSF scrutiny increasing’; • Trevor Thomas of Australian Defence Business Review for ‘Air 7000 BAMS Deferral’ and ‘Air 7000 MMA or AP-3C extension’; and • Gregor Ferguson, Australian Defence Magazine, ‘Wedgetail comes to the crunch’.

Aviation Photograph of the Year

In its fourth year, this category attracted 22 quality entries, up on last year, but still covering all aspects of aviation, from light aircraft to airlines and defence operations.

The Aviation Photograph of the Year, presented by Doug Park, senior VP Australia & NZ Operations Hawker Pacific, again came from New Zealand, and his work is a graphic illustration of a helicopter’s fight against the power of a bushfire. Making a Kiwi hat-trick of wins in this category was Derek Flynn of the Marlborough Express, who collected $1500 cash and the Hawker Pacific trophy for his compelling photograph from the Waikawa bush fires.

(Unfortunately Derek was unable to be present. ) The runner-up was a world-renowned photographer whose imagination, enthusiasm, and eye for the unusual makes him stand out from the crowd – Sam Chui of Asian Aviation, whose composition of parked airliners told the story of the global downturn in business and won him $750.

Commendations were issued to: • Martin De Ruyter of Nelson Mail for ‘Spag break – Red Checkers’; • Peter Clark of the NZ Aviation News, ‘Qantas A380 Auckland’; • Trevor Thomas, Australian Defence Business Review, ‘The joy shows at White Paper launch’ and ‘MRTT A330 boom from rear’.

• Paul Sadler, Australian Aviation for ‘Hollywood TFO’.