Jake Nelson

Starting on 1 April, the airline will increase Broome flights to 17 per week due to high demand, up more than 40 per cent on existing capacity, with new services timed to enable connections from capital cities on the east coast.

The $5 million taxiway, which began construction in April, required more than 6,000 cubic metres of material to be excavated, as well as the laying of 2,200 square metres of specialist concrete. It has now opened in time for Christmas freight, with Qantas A321s already touching down.

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.