Year: 2026

The aircraft wing flap ship-set is manufactured by Quickstep, a subsidiary company of ASDAM, a leading national manufacturer and provider of defence equipment. The C-130J aircraft is manufactured at Quickstep’s facility in Bankstown Airport and is set to be the 300th ship-set delivered to Lockheed Martin.

The ASU, which is currently butting heads with the Flying Kangaroo over job cuts at the airline’s Mascot HQ, said it is “disappointed that Qantas has announced further redundancies at the same time they are unveiling a massive $1.46 billion profit”.

The new service is set to operate four times a week from 6 May on Link’s Saab 340B aircraft, adding 14,000 seats per year. It will be the first time Link Airways flies directly out of Launceston, connecting over 90,000 people from Tasmania’s second largest city to the nation’s capital.

The airline, which launched the service in October, has said it intends to continue offering the option, with plans to grow it to select flights to and from Adelaide and Launceston. It follows an announcement last month that the trial would be extended to the end of June.

The Flying Kangaroo increased pre-tax profits by $71 million over the same time last year, with statutory profit after tax up $2 million to $925 million for the first half of the 2025–26 financial year. It comes after the airline took delivery of nine new aircraft in the half, including its first A321XLRs.

The national carrier will launch a new seasonal non-stop service between Sydney and Las Vegas in December, operating three times per week on 787-9 Dreamliners until March 2027. It will allow Vegas-bound Australians to skip layovers in cities such as Los Angeles or San Francisco.