Australian Aviation

Flown by the Boeing 707 “V-jet” VH-EBL, the hop from Sydney to Christchurch on 10 April, 1965, was the first ever commercial flight across the Tasman with a jet aircraft.

In its final report into the disaster, which killed four people and injured six others when two EC130 helicopters collided mid-air on Main Beach minutes away from Surfers Paradise on 2 January 2023, the transport safety watchdog made 28 findings, including around the operator’s actions in the preceding months.

In this week’s Australian Aviation Podcast, Adam and Jake discuss a surprise move by Emirates that the airline insists is no April Fool’s joke.

Starting 25 June, the low-cost carrier will operate four flights a week to Bali using its 180-seat A320-200 aircraft, adding more than 74,000 seats per year on the route.

Tuesday saw the first aircraft to use the taxiway, Jetstar A321 VH-VWX on flight JQ514 to Sydney, greeted with a water-cannon salute. The 800-metre taxiway runs parallel to the airport’s east-west (09/27) runway, and was constructed over 11 months with 43,000m3 of concrete pavement.

Starting in June, the carrier, China’s largest and one of the country’s “Big Four”, will increase its A350-900 flights from four to seven per week between Brisbane and Guangzhou, adding 48,984 inbound seats to Queensland from China per year.