The first flight, UA283 from LAX, touched down in Brisbane shortly after 5am on Friday on board the 787-9 Dreamliner N25982. The service will operate three times per week, bringing Brisbane’s capacity with the USA back above pre-pandemic levels.
Flight AB645 left the Sunshine Coast at 7:45pm aboard VH-UJK ‘Sheila’ on Wednesday night, arriving at 11:15pm Darwin time, and returned to the Sunshine Coast as flight AB646 at 1:31am, arriving at 5:10am local time. This is the first-ever direct service between the two destinations.
Flight ZL961 was scheduled to depart Melbourne at 12pm on Tuesday, but did not take off until 8:15pm, arriving in Hobart at 9:09pm. The return flight, ZL962, also suffered an eight-hour delay, taking off at 10:12pm instead of 2:10pm for an 11:18pm landing.
The China Eastern route, which will be flown on 232-seat A330 aircraft, will see 10 total flights for Chinese New Year between 1 and 18 February. It is the first Chinese airline to fly to Cairns since Hainan Airlines ended a scheduled Shenzhen service in March 2020 due to the pandemic.
NJE will operate two weekly charter flights from Perth to Kalgoorlie and Kambalda using its E190 and Dash 8-400NG aircraft for an unnamed Goldfields mining company, as well as three weekly E190 flights between Perth and Woodie Woodie for Consolidated Minerals.
The service, flown with 232-seat A330-200 aircraft, will operate three times per week between 20 January and 18 February 2024 over the Chinese New Year period. It follows a previous trial route in January 2020, which was cancelled due to the onset of COVID-19.