Australian Aviation

As Virgin Australia ends Qantas’ 19-month streak as the country’s most reliable airline group, Adam, Jake and Ben look at the latest on-time performance figures and examine whether the era of domestic aviation havoc is finally over.

Toowoomba City Aerodrome (TWB), which was supplanted by Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport (WTB) for regular passenger flights in 2015, is currently under financial review by Toowoomba Regional Council, which owns and operates the airport. The review is expected to wrap up by next month.

Bombardier, a Canadian company founded in 1942, employs more than 18,000 people globally and has an in-service fleet of more than 5,000 aircraft. Recognising the company’s expanding Australian footprint, the new office will be dedicated to Bombardier Defense customers.

The incident on Tuesday night saw flight SQ321 from London to Singapore, which was being operated by 9V-SWM (similar aircraft pictured), forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok with 211 passengers and 18 crew on board, including 56 Australians. Dozens of injuries and one death were reported.

Official BITRE data for April 2024 showed Virgin climbing above the Flying Kangaroo in on-time departures, on-time arrivals, and cancellations, ending a 19-month run of lagging Qantas in some or all of these measures. Virgin also matched or beat the long-term average in all three areas.

The Minister for Defence confirmed the federal government has been tracking riots in the French territory as pro-independence activists fight against more than 1,000 French police and paramilitary personnel deployed under a major security operation to the Pacific archipelago east of Australia.