Jake Nelson

Flight MH139 was the first Adelaide service to use Malaysia’s 297-seat A330-900s, with 9M-MNK touching down in Adelaide at 7am local time on Thursday morning. The flight was 89 per cent full according to Malaysia Airlines figures, and follows Malaysia going daily to Adelaide in February.

The fire, believed to have started due to a leak of liquid hydrocarbons and gases, hit Australia’s only onshore avgas manufacturer. Viva supplies fuel, including avgas, Jet A1 and Jet Plus, to all seven capital-city airports as well as 54 regional airports, as reported in The Australian.

Flight FJ922/923, a late-night Saturday service, will be dropped from 25 April, leaving the regular daily service in place. The carrier is also suspending its Tuesday flights from Nadi to Dallas-Fort Worth between 5 May and 16 June.

Last month saw Australia-Middle East traffic plunge 77 per cent year on year, while direct Australia–Europe traffic dropped 31 per cent as traffic was rerouted through other hubs, Airservices Australia reported in its Australian Aviation Network Overview for March.

From 18 May, the Adelaide–Mount Gambier route will be suspended indefinitely, while Qantas’ Melbourne–Coffs Harbour will be paused until 14 June and Melbourne–Hamilton Island until 28 June. Jetstar will suspend Sydney–Busselton until 18 September, and Darwin–Gold Coast until 12 October.

Australia’s second-largest airline group will cut domestic capacity by 1 per cent for the fourth quarter of this financial year. In a market update to the ASX, the carrier said it expects its fuel costs to rise by $30-40 million over previous expectations for the second half.