Traffic #396 | Qantas, NASA and Skytrans

NASA Gulfstream makes waves in Brisbane and WA

Well, it’s not every day that NASA sends its metal to Australia, however, this January saw the touch-down of a NASA Gulfstream V at Brisbane Airport. The aircraft, registration N95NA, also known as NASA5, was sent Down Under to monitor the re-entry of a SpaceX rocket, due to land off the coast of WA. On its way out west, the NASA jet first touched down at Brisbane Airport on 6 January, to the delight of planespotters, and airport management.

The mission appeared crucial, as SpaceX continues to advance its reusable rocket launch technologies. NASA5 was tasked with capturing images and heat levels of the SpaceX Starship launcher capsule, amid its planned fall into the Indian Ocean. To be mission-ready, NASA was required to apply for exemptions from both the US Federal Aviation Administration and CASA to operate at night without its lights on, to avoid contamination of the data it acquires. The FAA initially granted the permissions, which CASA shortly honoured as well.

Unfortunately, it appears the journey of NASA5 was for nought in the end. SpaceX attempted its first Starship test launch for the year on 16 January, which resulted in an “anomaly” – a catastrophic failure, loss of communications, and mid-air explosion. The rocket broke up just eight minutes after take-off from the space company’s South Texas launch site, Starbase, reigning debris over the ocean near Haiti and Puerto Rico. The shrapnel caused chaos for commercial aviation, with dozens of flights throughout the area and southern Florida forced to divert, out of harm’s way, while the debris fell. Following the debacle, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to social media to note: “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”

Skytrans A319 lands Down Under

Australia is known for its lucrative regional wet-lease contract opportunities. It’s grown so in demand, that in the last edition of Australian Aviation, we found that regional wet-lease rivals Alliance Airlines and Airnorth had shared coveted Embraer E190 metal, with Alliance leasing one jet from its healthy E190 fleet to Darwin-based Airnorth. In both past and present, the two airlines have battled for lucrative wet and dry-lease agreements with both Qantas and Virgin Australia.

In this context, Avia Solutions Group – a global aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance corporation – purchased Skytrans in early 2024 with the explicit intention of growing a wet-leasing operation within Australia with a fleet of Airbus A319 jets. In December, the first A319 to bear SkyTrans livery was delivered to Brisbane. Newly registered as VH-L7A, the 22-year-old jet touched down on Monday, December 16. The plane travelled via Ras Al Khaimah, Colombo, and Denpasar, after first taking off from Avia Solutions Group’s leasing hub in Lithuania. Before CASA registration, the plane held the Lithuanian registration LY-FAB – oh how fabulous! The aircraft started its commercial life in August 2002 with Al Italia – then later with ITA Airways, before it was returned to Avia. Records suggest that the jet entered into service with Skytrans just 11 days after its initial arrival, on 27 December 2024.

Last QF Boeing 717 retires – again

In a world where retirement feels to be an unlikely fever dream for many of us, the last Qantas Boeing 717 was finally granted its rest in retirement, after an initial false-start … or has it? Last edition, we detailed that VH-YQW had been plucked out of retirement not 10 days after Qantas made a song and dance about the fleet’s eternal grounding. The un-retired plane was moved to Western Australia to take up regional mining runs amid maintenance issues on QantasLink’s Fokker fleet, and then back east to perform regular jaunts between Canberra and Melbourne. In January, the plane was ferried to Brisbane, where rumour has it, it may have been gifted to a flight training academy. Whether this is in somewhat of a training capacity (on the ground, surely), or merely a preservation of history, it is unclear. Nevertheless, we can now finally say that the Boeing 717 fleet – a workhorse of the Flying Kangaroo for over 20 years – has now ended flight operations with Qantas. Farewell!