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VH-E2A Coral Bay, the first of eight E190-E2s for Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (VARA), operated its first commercial flight, VA9217, on Monday, taking off from Perth at 7:15am and arriving in Boolgeeda at 9:05am.
Flight NZ261 landed in Adelaide at 9:30pm on Tuesday aboard the A320neo ZK-NHB, taking off again for Christchurch shortly after 7:15am on Wednesday. Flights will operate twice weekly on Mondays and Fridays until 27 March 2026, adding around 15,000 seats on the route.
Despite its new focus on ACMI services, the airline says its regular passenger transport flights are here to stay, having recently taken over the Lord Howe Island route from QantasLink.
Scurrah, who led Australia’s second-largest airline group from 2019 until his resignation in 2020 following its COVID-19-induced collapse into voluntary administration, will take the helm at Fiji’s national carrier on 1 November as current CEO Andre Viljoen steps down.
Speaking to media after the announcement this week of the airline’s sale to US-based aviation group Air T, the transport minister said she “didn't think Rex would be flying today” had the government not stepped in to shore it up, including buying the lion’s share of its debt and guaranteeing its operations.
The low-cost carrier cancelled just 1 per cent of flights last month according to the latest BITRE data, beaten only by regional carriers Hinterland at 0.2 per cent, and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines, which cancelled no flights at all.
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