Australian Aviation

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.

The airport on Monday held its quarterly aviation forum, where it met with council, tourism operators and local businesses to look at ways to bring back traffic levels from before COVID. Reduced capacity and high airfares are currently hampering travel to the city.

The dramatic storm on Friday shut down Mildura’s main runway for several hours, though repairs were performed quickly and flights resumed from mid-afternoon.

VH-FEY, piloted by Michelle Yeates, whose LinkedIn profile lists her as working for Rottnest Air Taxi, was on its way from Carnarvon to Jandakot via Geraldton when it began to lose engine power. Yeates, seeing that people were on the nearby Leighton Beach, opted to ditch in the ocean.

Waters takes over from acting CEO Kate Holsgrove, who has been in the position since the exit of Kevin Brown last December. Though he does not have an aviation background, he previously served as CEO of Synergy and Verve Energy before his role at Perth Mint.

Registered N140CG, Tanker 133 – nicknamed Froy – departed California on 24 November, touching down at Richmond, NSW, shortly before 4:30pm on Monday ready for duty with the NSW Rural Fire Service. It is one of five Hercules planes purchased from the Norwegian Air Force in 2019.