Year: 2024

Steve Roberton takes over from Warren “Macca” McDonald, who is retiring after a distinguished career. Following a transitional handover period, Roberton now reports to Ray Piselli, vice president international business at Lockheed Martin.

Speaking to Adelaide’s FiveAA radio, Transport Minister Catherine King agreed that Qantas “should do better” in the city, which currently hosts nine other international carriers, and indicated she would be willing to press the Flying Kangaroo to bring back international flights.

The maiden flight TK174 touched down at 6:18pm on Friday aboard the 777-300ER TC-LJK, having flown from Istanbul via Kuala Lumpur.

The KC-30A originally took off from RAAF Base Amberley before travelling more than 23.3 hours, with two refuelling brackets supplied from a second RAAF KC-30A, to Jerez, Spain.

VH-OGA, “Great Ocean Road”, has seen its forward and rear fuselage, wings, and tail assembled among other major airframe components at Airbus’ facility in Hamburg, Germany. It is the first of 28 firm orders for the A321XLR, which will replace Qantas’ 737-800 fleet over the next decade.

Key aircraft movements from around the region. A repaint for a Retro Roo, chaos from a Qantas engine fire, the surprise return of a QantasLink 717, and the end of Rex’s jet era.