Jake Nelson

The first flight, UA283 from LAX, touched down in Brisbane shortly after 5am on Friday on board the 787-9 Dreamliner N25982. The service will operate three times per week, bringing Brisbane’s capacity with the USA back above pre-pandemic levels.

Airservices, which decreased its prices in 2019, is looking to raise them to cover increased costs. The ATC body is planning four price increases between April 2024 and January 2026, which would between them raise the weighted average prices for these services by 19 per cent in nominal terms.

As of 2 December, turbine or piston-driven passenger planes with a maximum take-off weight of more than 5,700kg or fitted with 10 or more passenger seats, as well as cargo planes with a maximum take-off weight of more than 8,618kg, will need to be fitted with terrain awareness warning systems.

Flight AB645 left the Sunshine Coast at 7:45pm aboard VH-UJK ‘Sheila’ on Wednesday night, arriving at 11:15pm Darwin time, and returned to the Sunshine Coast as flight AB646 at 1:31am, arriving at 5:10am local time. This is the first-ever direct service between the two destinations.

Flight ZL961 was scheduled to depart Melbourne at 12pm on Tuesday, but did not take off until 8:15pm, arriving in Hobart at 9:09pm. The return flight, ZL962, also suffered an eight-hour delay, taking off at 10:12pm instead of 2:10pm for an 11:18pm landing.

The annual Routes Asia conference will be held in Perth in March 2025, and regularly attracts key decision makers from over 170 airlines and 300 airports. The three-day forum is tipped to generate over $6 million in delegate expenditure within the state.