Traffic: Aircraft Movement From Across the Region

The entry of the Hornet into the RAAF fleet, at the time, marked one of the biggest leaps in technology RAAF had seen. The first two fighters were delivered nonstop from California to Williamtown in May 1985, after a 15-hour flight spanning over 12,000 kilometres. Each Hornet was refuelled 13 times throughout the flight by accompanying US Air Force tankers.

In the 36 years since then, the fleet has been deployed on a number of key military operations, most notably the NATO-led mission following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. Missions included the safeguarding of the US air base in Diego Garcia from which operations in Afghanistan were launched, and its deployment in Iraq, where it attacked enemy targets and provided air cover for the SAS. The multirole fighter aircraft are being replaced by a fleet of 72 Lockheed Martin-built F-35A Lightning II aircraft.

A second Loyal Wingman completed its first test flight in South Australia’s Woomera Range Complex late last year. In this latest round of test flights, the first Loyal Wingman aircraft – which performed its inaugural test flight in February 2021 – also demonstrated new additional key characteristics, including the first time its landing gear was raised and engaged. The Australian government initially ordered three of the unmanned aircraft, but has since doubled the size of its proposed fleet. 

FIFO

Cobham completed its final British Aerospace 146 flight in Western Australia, ending nearly four decades of operations in the state. The final flight, a FIFO flight for Minara Resources, touched down in Perth from Murrin Murrin at around 8:05pm on Thursday, 4 November 2021. To mark the occasion, the aircraft, VH-NJY, was welcomed in Perth with a water cannon salute.

NJY has since been deployed to South Australia, where Cobham has consolidated its BAe 146/RJ100 operations. Instead, Cobham will operate its fleet of Embraer E190 and De Havilland Q400 aircraft to service the WA FIFO and resources sector. The flight marked the end of an era, as the distinguishable four-engine jet has operated in WA since 1985, initially by both Ansett and National Jet Systems (which later became Cobham).

Since 1990, National Jet Systems and Cobham have operated a total of 33 BAe 146 aircraft in the region, with Cobham fitting several of the aircraft with a “gravel kit” to for high-capacity jet operations to more remote mine sites in WA. Using its BAe 146/RJ100 fleet, Cobham supported FIFO contracts for BHP, Rio Tinto and Anaconda, as well as commercial operations to Cocos Island and Christmas Island.

Heavy metal

Qantas announced in late 2021 it would accelerate the return of its A380s to service. The Flying Kangaroo had initially intended to keep its 12 A380s mothballed in the California desert until late 2023, but said it would accelerate their return to service to January to ease staffing pressures due to COVID-19 isolation orders.

The first to return to the country was VH-OQB, which was ferried from a maintenance facility in Dresden and landed in Sydney at 3:11pm on 9 November. It is the first time VH-OQB has seen Australian shores since it was first ferried to LAX on 26 March 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. Onboard Hudson Fysh were Captain Paul Grant, along with First Officers Barry Doe and David Thiess, and Second Officer Fiona Diamond.

OQB then returned to commercial service on 11 January, flying from Sydney to LAX. The aircraft took off at 9:44pm and touched down at LAX just under 14 hours later, at 4:39pm local time. The last time VH-OQB carried passengers was on 23 March 2020.

The second A380 to return to the country was VH-OQD, which had spent 674 days in storage at LAX. VH-OQD took off from LAX just before 9pm local time on Saturday, 8 January, taking to the skies for a total of 14 hours and 18 minutes, en route to Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport, where it landed at 6:11am on Monday, 10 January. It marks the first time that OQD has touched down on Australian soil since it performed its last passenger flight to London, and was ferried from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi for maintenance on 7 March 2020.

COVID restarts

The first Qantas commercial flight connecting Australia to India directly in nearly 10 years departed from Sydney Airport on 6 December, bound for Delhi after a short stop-over in Adelaide. The flight, QF67, departed Sydney at 6:47am, before flying just 1.5 hours to Adelaide, and landing at 7:57am local time. A planned one-hour stopover suffered a one-hour delay, with the Airbus A330-200 taking to the skies again at 9:47am local time. QF67 landed at 4:30pm local time.

Rex

Pel-Air Aviation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rex, commenced operations with NSW Air Ambulance on 1 January. 

The 10-year agreement, announced in February 2020, will see the Mascot-based airline perform fixed-wing operations on its fleet of five new aeromedical Beechcraft King Air 350s. The new deal mirrors a similar longstanding agreement the operator holds with Victoria’s state health department and marks the end of the NSW government’s 19-year partnership with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The newly acquired King Air turboprops were delivered to Pel-Air between December 2020 and June 2021, in anticipation for the beginning of the new contract on 1 January 2022. Prior to beginning operations, the fleet underwent modifications in line with NSW Air Ambulance’s specific needs, which has seen the King Air 350 fleet dubbed the “hospital in the sky” by the NSW government.

Southern Cross II

A rebuilt replica of Charles Kingsford Smith’s Southern Cross II aircraft has made its first powered taxi run at HARS Aviation Museum. The aircraft was originally created in the 1980s but suffered a broken wing in an emergency landing in SA in May 2002. Its restoration team, led by project manager Jim Thurston, hopes it will take to the air later in 2022. 

Southern Cross II is a flying close replica of the famous record-breaking Southern Cross Fokker F.VIIB-3m of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith from the 1920s and 1930s. Built in South Australia in the period 1980 to 1987, the aircraft toured Australia during the 1988 bicentenary.

The Southern Cross is a faithful replica built to modern standards using the traditional aircraft construction of steel tubing and timber with doped Irish linen for the fuselage and an all-wooden (spruce and plywood) wing. It’s thought to be the largest “exact replica” aircraft in the world and has the biggest one-piece wing ever made in Australia.