Jake Nelson

The new strategic alliance will see Archerfield Airport Corporation (AAC) and Wisk Aero collaborate on “a variety of projects” to boost the AAM ecosystem and operations at Archerfield, the largest corporate and general aviation airport in Queensland.

Works will begin next year on the T2 domestic terminal, which houses Virgin Australia, Jetstar, and regional airlines, and are expected to take until the end of 2026. They will include new security scanning systems, improved bag drop, and more self-service kiosks.

Speaking at the Australian Airports Association conference in Brisbane, Hrdlicka said Virgin operating its own long-haul international services would be “at least six or seven years away”, but that the wet-lease arrangement would likely see Virgin pilots and cabin crew working on Qatar flights.

The Fijian flag carrier will operate three return 737 MAX 8 services between Cairns and Nadi per week starting 10 April, marking the first non-stop service between Fiji and northern Queensland.

The “Somewhere Over the Tasman” campaign features Fisher meeting and befriending a young girl travelling solo on an Air New Zealand flight, which the airline says is designed to highlight its “famous Air New Zealand hospitality”.

Announced last year, the facility in St Peters, near Sydney Airport, houses five full-flight simulators, several fixed flight training devices (FTDs) and 10 classrooms. More equipment, including an A330 FTD and Australia’s first A350 simulator, is expected to arrive next year.