Jake Nelson

The NZ flag carrier expects 1.1 million international and 1.6 million domestic passengers over the end-of-year peak from 1 December to 31 January, including over 500,000 to Australia’s three major east coast cities alone.

The aircraft, Australia’s largest-ever contingent to Operation Gateway, participated alongside around 90 Australian personnel operating from Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Base Butterworth to provide maritime domain awareness in the North Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

Wright, who was in August convicted on two charges – involving asking the crash pilot to falsify flight records and lying to police to obstruct the investigation – was last week handed a 10-month sentence, suspended after five months, as well as a $5,000 fine.

Flights are now operating three times per week from Melbourne on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, adding 93,000 seats per year, with the inaugural HX013 service touching down at 11:17am on Saturday aboard the A330-300 B-LHL.

The inaugural UA207 service touched down in Adelaide at around 9:30am on Saturday morning aboard the 787-9 Dreamliner N29975. Flights will operate three times per week until March, with the possibility of later expansion.

The video, shot from on board VH-DVS over Tully, Queensland, on 20 September this year, shows jumper Adrian Ferguson’s reserve parachute inadvertently deploying after it snagged the handle as he was leaving the plane, causing him to be blown backwards.