Jake Nelson

A Malaysia Airlines Airbus A330-300, 9M-MTL, passed just seven metres over the top of work vehicles at the end of Melbourne’s runway 34 on the night of 7 September 2023, followed by a Bamboo Airways 787-9, VN-A819, passing less than five metres overhead 11 days later.

Flight CX173 from Hong Kong touched down in Adelaide shortly before 10:20am on Wednesday aboard the A350-900 B-LRJ, returning as CX174 two hours later. The non-stop flights will operate three times per week until 27 March 2026.

In an industry briefing column, chief executive Pip Spence said it would be “remiss of [her] not to reiterate the need for everyone to play a role in keeping aviation safe” following events over recent months that “led to a focus on helicopters in the Northern Territory”.

The early-morning flight QF1972 to Canberra, on board wet-leased Alliance E190 VH-UZI, made a PAN call after the pilots detected smoke in the flight deck, and turned back to Adelaide. The flight, which had several Liberal politicians on board, landed safely at around 6:20am.

The second meeting of creditors on Tuesday greenlit the Deed of Company Arrangement proposed by Air T, encompassing Rex’s regional Saab 340 operations as well as a number of the group’s subsidiaries.

The airport saw 17.5 million passengers in the 2024–25 financial year, an 8.5 per cent increase from 16.1 million in 2023–24. More than half of this growth came from international passengers, with total revenue also increasing 14.4 per cent to $751.8 million.