Jake Nelson

Representatives from Qantas Group and Virgin Australia appeared before the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee on Monday, with both airlines saying that EU and Canada-style customer compensation schemes increase airfares and do not lead to better outcomes.

The new order will bring the total AW139 fleet between LifeFlight and its joint-venture partner StarFlight to 20 by the end of 2027, which the aeromedical organisation says will enhance its capability for EMS, search and rescue, and law enforcement missions.

The agreements with labour hire firms Qantas Domestic, Maurice Alexander Management (MAM), and Altara will see their domestic cabin crews receive the same wages as directly-employed Qantas cabin crew, under the Albanese government’s Same Job, Same Pay legislation.

The retrofitted planes, featuring the airline’s new “Aria Suite” business class product, have been introduced on five selected flights per week to Australia as their second destination outside of Hong Kong, following their debut on Hong Kong-London in January.

Conducted as part of the Air Force’s first iteration of regional presence deployments for the year, 11 Squadron’s P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft worked alongside the Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Hobart in the South China Sea on maritime domain awareness operations.

The route, commencing 27 June, will operate four times per week on A321neo aircraft, adding around 100,000 seats per year and bringing AirAsia Group’s total weekly Darwin flights to seven. It comes after sister airline Indonesia AirAsia announced a non-stop Denpasar service in January.