Jake Nelson

VH-8QE has arrived in Australia and will join the FIFO carrier’s base in Perth, with an expected start to commercial operations on 29 June.

Up to six weekly flights will resume from Essendon to King Island between October 2026 and the end of April 2027, with the airline also securing an Australia Post contract to provide mail services to and from the island for the next five years.

A total of 16 of the superjumbos, including 15 from Emirates as well as VH-OQI from Qantas, have been affected by a European Union Aviation Safety Agency airworthiness directive mandating inspections of their wing spar components.

The council voted on Monday, 22 June, to write off the outstanding debt owed by both carriers, a month after the federal government announced that 34 airports owed money to Rex would receive a total of $4.8 million through the Regional and Remote Airport Support Program.

In a preliminary report, safety investigators noted that an actuator rod in VH-YQP’s landing gear had failed due to fatigue, though did not point to this failure as the definitive cause of the 29 April accident that killed a student pilot and instructor and injured nine others on the ground.

The airport is almost doubling its terminal footprint from 6,100m² to 11,750m², installing two new gates, and tripling the size of the domestic departure lounge from 1,250m² to 3,750m². The works are expected to be completed in 2027.