Debrief

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said the “excessive” fees airlines impose when passengers cancel flights was a major cause of complaint among the travelling public and a potential breach of the nation’s consumer laws. ACCC chairman Rod Sims said the 1,400 complaints by consumers with the ACCC about airlines between the start of 2016 and December 2017 had “some very consistent themes and bugbears”, including no refund statements, excessive fees for cancelling or changing flights, and issues relating to consumer guarantees.

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Cathay Pacific says it is encouraged by the performance of its freighter service out of Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport a little over a year since it established a regular cargo link between Queensland’s Darling Downs and Hong Kong. While the initial rationale for the Wellcamp route was to enable local producers in the Darling Downs to export their goods to Asia and beyond via Cathay’s Hong Kong hub, Cathay Pacific Airways regional cargo manager for south west Pacific Nigel Chynoweth said there had also been demand for inbound freight.

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Also, Cathay Pacific general manager for South West Pacific Rakesh Raicar has described Sydney as an ideal candidate the Airbus A350-1000, as the airline plans to grow its presence in Australia with larger aircraft. While things were still in the planning stage, Raicar said Sydney might see the A350-1000, the largest variant of the A350 family, later in 2018.

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FlyPelican has added a third nonstop route out of Sydney with the start of nonstop flights to Taree which started in late January with 19-seat Jetstream 32 aircraft. FlyPelican also flies from Sydney to Mudgee and Newcastle.

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In other FlyPelican news, the airline has also launched a new three times a week Newcastle-Adelaide nonstop service would begin on March 26 2018. The route will be flown by Alliance Airlines on behalf of FlyPelican with 80-seat Fokker 70s or 100-seat Fokker 100s.

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Regional Express (Rex) is expanding its presence in Western Australia after being announced as the preferred tenderer for Perth-Canarvon- Monkey Mia services, a state government regulated air route. The route is currently operated by Skippers Aviation, with the deed of arrangement set to expire on July 1 2018. Details of flight schedules and air fares would be announced after the five-year deed of agreement has been Signed.

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Silkair became Australia’s inaugural Boeing 737 MAX operator in early January, when 737 MAX 8 9V-MBC touched down in Darwin following its four-and-a-half-hour journey from Singapore. It also started 737 MAX flights between Cairns and Singapore.

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Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plans to resume nonstop flights between Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur from June 6 2018 with four flights a week using Airbus A330- 300s after a near three-year absence on the route. The flights have been scheduled as a morning departure from MAS’s Kuala Lumpur hub and an overnight service from Brisbane. It will be the only carrier offering nonstop flights between Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur.

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Alliance Airlines is celebrating the 90th anniversary of the first trans- Pacific crossing with a special livery Fokker 100 VH-FGB and a commemorative beer from Newstead Brewing Co called Smithy’s FGB available for purchase on all its flights. Sir Charles and fellow Australian pilot Charles Ulm, as well as radio operator James Warner and navigator/engineer Harry Lyon from the United States, completed the 10-day 6,300nm Pacific crossing from Oakland in California to Brisbane on June 9 1928.

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Qantas’s new Melbourne-San Francisco flights with the Boeing 787-9 will start on September 1 and operate four days a week. The start of Melbourne- San Francisco flights has prompted a reduction of the Melbourne-Los Angeles schedule from 13 flights a week (seven with the A380 and six with the 787-9) to nine flights a week (seven with the A380 and two with the 787-9).

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In other Qantas 787 news, the airline will let the first of its 15 Boeing 787 options lapse, CEO Alan Joyce has told Reuters. The first of those 15 options was due to be exercised in February, while Joyce says Qantas would make a decision on firming up further options into firm orders in a “few more months”

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Further, Qantas’s Network Aviation subsidiary is to operate Airbus A320 narrowbodies on intra-Western Australia charter services, taking over some flying currently operated by Boeing 737-800s. The two A320s are being sourced from the Jetstar fleet and are expected to start flying with Network Aviation from April.

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Eight Qantas Airbus A380s will be repainted in the airline’s new livery by Emirates Engineering. Beginning in March 2018 the aircraft will be stripped and repainted at the Emirates Aircraft Appearance Centre in Dubai, which Emirates says is the largest aircraft painting facility in the world owned by an airline.

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Finally, Qantas will operate 10 flights a week between Brisbane and Los Angeles from September 1 as its fleet of Boeing 787-9s joins the 747-400s currently operating the route. Under the new schedule, the 787-9 will fly Brisbane-Los Angeles daily, while the 747-400 will operate three services a week. The 747-400 will then disappear from the route completely from December 1, with the 787-9 to operate on Brisbane-Los Angeles 11 times a week.

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United added a third long-haul route from Sydney in January with the start of daily nonstop flights to Houston with Boeing 787-9s. Houston is United’s largest hub and the airline’s third destination from Sydney alongside existing nonstop flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco. All flights are served with Boeing 787 equipment. The Star Alliance member’s vice president of international network Patrick Quayle said the new Houston route would offer passengers a greater choice of one-stop itineraries between the US and Sydney.

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Virgin Australia has added a new codeshare partner for two international routes after Australia’s International Air Services Commission (IASC) approved its request to have to add Virgin Atlantic’s VS airline code added to its Melbourne-Hong Kong service, as well as its nonstop flights from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney to Los Angeles.

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Singapore Airlines (SIA) regional vice president for Southwest Pacific Philip Goh says de-linking Canberra with Wellington under a revamped schedule for the two capitals would allow both cities to “chart their own growth path”. From May 1, SIA will Silkair has begun operating the 737 MAX to Australia, on its flights to Darwin and Cairns (pictured). andrew belczacki serve Canberra daily with four-class, 264-seat Boeing 777-300ERs as part of a Singapore-Sydney-Canberra- Singapore rotation and end its Canberrra-Wellington-Canberra tag flights. However, the Star Alliance member and Virgin Australia partner will maintain service to Wellington via Melbourne instead, with a four times weekly Singapore-Melbourne- Wellington rotation with 777-200s.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) will offer three nonstop flights a week between Brisbane and Manila hub from March 27 with Airbus A340-300s, increasing to four flights a week from May 1. The new service replaces the current onestop option via Darwin with Airbus A320s and 2018. Also, PAL said the A340-300 would be replaced with the A321neo later in 2018.

‘Network Aviation is to operate Airbus A320 narrowbodies on intra- WA charter services.’

Malaysia-based low-cost carrier AirAsia X has announced plans to move its flights to Melbourne from Tullamarine to Avalon Airport after signing a 10-year agreement with Avalon’s owners. No date has been publicly announced for the move to Avalon, with the airport requiring immigration and quarantine facilities to be put in place before flights can Begin.

AIRPORTS

Technology provider SITA says trials of facial recognition technology at Brisbane Airport have shown a 70 per cent reduction in processing times for boarding and checkin. SITA president for Asia Pacific Sumesh Patel said the trials, which commenced in March 2017 for checkin and boarding and were the first of its kind in Australia, would be expanded to include automated bag drop kiosks and border processing.

The NSW Government has committed $450,000 to investigate a runway extension at Lord Howe Island Airport after signing a new four-year deal with QantasLink to maintain air links to the island.

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Brisbane Airport has named Gert-Jan De Graaff, a senior executive from New York’s John F Kennedy Airport, as its new chief executive to take over from Julieanne Alroe from the end of June, the company.

DEFENCE

Lockheed Martin delivered 66 F-35 Lightning II aircraft in calendar 2017, in line with the company’s targets and an increase of 40 per cent from the prior year. Production volume was expected to reach about 160 aircraft in 2023.

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Marand has opened its Precision Engineering F-35A tail manufacturing facility at Moorabbin Airprot in Melbourne. The facility, which was partly funded through a grant from Defence’s New Air Combat Capability Industry Support Program, will support 44 new production jobs and will manufacture vertical tail for the F-35 program.

HELICOPTERS

The first group of students has commenced training on the ADF’s new training helicopter, the EC135, at the HMAS Albatross-based Joint Helicopter Aircrew Training School (JHATS). The JHATS, run by Boeing Defence Australia and its partners including Thales Australia, welcomed the first 37 trainee pilots and aircrew at 723SQN on January 17 at the Naval Air Station near Nowra in NSW. – The NSW Government officially opened the NSW Ambulance and Toll Rescue Helicopter Base at Bankstown Airport in late January. The purpose-built facility, which provides patient rescue, retrieval and treatment services, also features a full flight AW139 simulator, as well as specialist medical training rooms and helicopter simulation technology such as the Helicopter Underwater Emergency Training (HUET) theatre.

INDUSTRY

Airbus will have a new chief executive by April 2019, with current boss Tom Enders to step down by the company’s annual shareholders meeting in April 2019, saying the company needed fresh minds for the 2020s. Meanwhile, Airbus chief operating officer and Airbus Commercial Aircraft president Fabrice Bregier was due to leave by February to pursue other interests following a two-decade career in various roles at the company. Airbus Helicopters chief executive Guillaume Faury was named Bregier’s successor at Airbus Commercial Aircraft.

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In other Airbus news, the company’s first BelugaXL is on track to make its maiden flight later in mid-2018 after the first of five of the over-size transport aircraft emerging from final assembly in early January.

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Also, Airbus’s first long range A321LR narrowbody completed its maiden flight at the end of January, bringing the aircraft a step closer to perhaps being seen in Australia. The twohour- and-36-minute flight of the A321LR, MSN7877, powered by two CFM Leap-1A engines, took place from Airbus’s Hamburg facility, with the six-person flightcrew testing the aircraft’s flight controls, engines and main systems including flight envelope protections, both at high and low speed. Certification was expected in the second quarter of calendar 2018.

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Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce took over as Minister for Infrastructure and Transport in December 2018 following a cabinet reshuffle, taking over ministerial responsibility for aviation matters from Darren Chester.

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Technology provider Frequentis plans to demonstrate its digital air traffic control tower to New Zealand’s air traffic manager Airways New Zealand. The demonstration would “assess how the technology could improve visualisation during persistent weather issues, extend the hours of air services at regional locations and in turn improve the effectiveness of airport operations as well as safety”, Frequentis said in December.

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Perth-based Electro.Aero has completed the first Australian flight of a production-built electric light sport aircraft made by Slovenia-based Pipistrel. The Pipistrel Alpha Electro two-seater, which received Australian certification in late 2017, completed two circuits around Jandakot in early January. It was the first flight of a production electric aircraft in Australia, notwithstanding some experimental flights undertaken Previously.

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has resumed after the Malaysian government accepted an offer from Ocean Infinity to look for the Boeing 777-200ER on a “no cure, no fee” basis, which means the USbased company gets paid only if the aircraft is found.

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Turboprop maker ATR more than tripled the number of firm orders in calendar 2017 as it broadened its global footprint around the world. The company said it secured firm orders for 113 aircraft in the 12 months to December 31 2017, up from 36 firm orders in the prior corresponding period.

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Boeing reported a record 763 aircraft in calendar 2017, with the result within previously issued guidance of 760- 765 commercial aircraft deliveries for the year and 15 aircraft higher compared with the 748 deliveries in calendar 2016. Looking ahead to the current year, the airframer has guided The global freight and logistics company has exercised options to purchase 14 747-8Fs it held from a previous order made in 2016.

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Bombardier has received a boost with a surprise ruling in its favour from the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) in its dispute with Boeing over its C Series aircraft. The ITC ruled that Bombardier did no harm to Boeing with the sale of the C Series to Delta Air Lines. Boeing had alleged Bombardier sold the aircraft to Delta at unfairly low prices and it benefitted from illegal subsidies from the governments of Canada and the UK.

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Scientists from Boeing and Australia’s peak science research agency CSIRO will work together on space projects as part of a new partnership between the two long-time collaborators. The new initiative will feature joint research and development on space technologies with a focus on the developing needs of the Australian space market.