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Qantas has completed the refit of its fourth 747-400 and will introduce the aircraft on trans-Pacific routes by the end of this month. The refit program brings the 747-400 interior in line with that of Qantas’s Airbus A380s and includes redesigned seats, larger seatback inflight entertainment screens and fully-flat Skybeds in business class. The refurbished

Airbus has joined with Virgin Australia in studying the possibility of producing sustainable jet fuel out of eucalyptus trees. The consortium, which also includes the Future Farm Industries CRC, aims to have an alternative fuel pilot plant operating in Australia within the next year. The effort is focusing on a thermal conversion process known as

Queensland based Skytrans has announced plans to launch flights between Toowoomba and Sydney from July. The airline said it will initially fly six return flights per week on the new route with plans to increase to 10 flights per week within a year. Skytrans operates a fleet of Dash 8 turboprops and currently flies to

Alliance Aviation Services has announced plans to launch fly-in, fly-out services to the Argyle diamond mines in Western Australia. Under a contract with Rio Tinto Argyle Diamonds Ltd, Alliance will commence services from April 16 and will fly seven round trips per week between Perth and Argyle using Fokker 100 and Fokker 70LR aircraft. In

Melbourne Airport has released plans to begin work on its new $300 million domestic terminal in October with an aim to open the doors by July 2014. The 35,000 square metre T4 terminal, to be built to the south of the current T3, will be designed to accommodate up to 20 million passengers per year

The US Federal Aviation Administration yesterday issued Boeing with an amended type certificate for the 787-8 Dreamliner equipped with General Electric GEnx engines. Boeing completed flight testing of the combination last month. The 787 received FAA certification with Rolls-Royce engines in August 2011 and entered commercial service in October. This content is available exclusively to