Adam Thorn

Engineers replaced the faulty sensor earlier this week, and the aircraft, VH-OQH, was deemed safe to fly by the airline’s engineers and an Airbus representative.

Daniel Duggan, now an Australian citizen, still has multiple avenues to appeal, including to the Federal and High Courts, and had earlier signalled he would fight the decision.

Sydney Airport’s CEO, Geoff Culbert, has argued there is “a lot of work to do” to convince international airlines to rebuild their networks and then to convince tourists to return.

Stephen Byron predicted prices would come down on domestic routes and argued airlines “can’t keep charging double what they used to charge”.

The A380 it dispatched to collect travellers, VH-OQD, departed Azerbaijan at 6:27 am on Christmas Day as flight QF A1D and landed in London at 8:03 am.

Australian Aviation’s Victor Pody was at Melbourne Airport to shoot the two A321 NEOs, VH-OFP and VH-OFQ, which landed within minutes of each other.