Jake Nelson

More than $1.8 billion of locally-made produce was flown internationally from Melbourne in the first three months of 2024, with 44,700 tonnes of local cargo exported, translating to 40.2 per cent of Australia’s total volume of export air freight.

In the Federal Court on Monday, Hall Chadwick argued that while around 300 employees remain in a “period of uncertainty” as they are stood down without pay and cannot claim certain benefits until the company is wound up, they and other creditors would be better off if the airline is sold.

The non-stop flights, beginning 28 November, will use China Southern’s 276-seater 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. Services will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and are expected to bring 86,000 seats and 5,000 tonnes of cargo capacity into the Perth market.

The flights, which will operate on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays starting 28 June, will be ticketed as a Rex service, making Perth–Adelaide the airline’s 12th domestic jet route. The service will commence on the same day as Rex’s new Perth–Melbourne route, which will use 737-800s.

The regular JQ471 service on Saturday, 25 May, operated by the A320-200 VH-VFQ, had several of the pilots, cabin crew and customers on board from the maiden flight on the same day in 2004, with the crew also wearing Jetstar’s new uniform designed to mark the carrier’s 20th anniversary.

The survey, which comes amid negotiations on a new enterprise agreement, saw responses from 180 of Virgin’s 1,100 pilots and claimed nearly half would be likely to quit if a proposal to cut rostered days off by six per year goes through, while 93 per cent would vote against the proposed EA.