Jake Nelson

In a significant intervention, the airline’s domestic CEO accused Sydney Airport of “demonising” its “biggest customer” as it responded to claims it’s hoarding the most lucrative take-off slots to block out smaller rivals.

Flight QG556 landed in Perth at 12:11am on Sunday, on board the Airbus A320neo aircraft PK-GTI. It took off for Jakarta at 1:44am as QG557, landing in the Indonesian capital at 5am local time.

A Nexus de Havilland Dash 8-Q400 took off shortly after 7am Friday on the multi-stop Broome–Kununurra–Darwin flight, adding to the airline’s two other routes from Geraldton–Perth and Geraldton–Karratha–Port Hedland–Broome.

VH-ZNN, named ‘Snowy River’, took off from Melbourne to London (Heathrow) via Perth at 3:33pm on Thursday. It is Qantas’s 14th 787-9, and the last of a batch of three that began arriving in May following a two-year delay.

In a quarterly earnings call, the planemaker said it is in “prep mode” to further increase 737 production to 42 per month. Though did not give a firm date, it plans to reach 50 planes per month by 2025–26. Production of 787s is also increasing to five per month later this year, and 10 by 2025–26.

The Rex Domestic Pilots’ Enterprise Agreement was supported by almost 75 per cent of the pilot body in mid-June, while the NJE Logistics Enterprise Agreement was approved by 100 per cent of affected employees.