Australian Aviation

On this week’s Australian Aviation Podcast, Adam and Jake discuss the latest on Qantas’ fleet changes, including plans to replace QantasLink’s Fokker 100s with Embraer E190s, and what the A321XLR might do for the national carrier beyond Australia’s shores.

Nicknamed ‘Great Ocean Road’, VH-OGA, which touched down in Sydney at 9:45am on Wednesday, flew for more than 20 hours from the Airbus factory in Hamburg, making only a single stop en route in Bangkok.

The scheme, which has seen a total of 543,747 capped airfares since its implementation in July 2022, was earlier this year extended into June 2026. It has so far seen a commitment of more than more than $109 million in government funding.

Tony Jarvis, Field CISO and VP APJ at cyber security company Darktrace, told Australian Aviation’s sister brand Cyber Daily that the breach shows “many hallmarks of the Scattered Spider ransomware group”.

The incident on Monday resulted from a cyber criminal targeting a Qantas call centre, which gave them access to a third-party platform used for customer service. According to Qantas, the breach has been contained and there is “no impact” on the airline’s operations or safety.

Footage from the R66’s cockpit camera showed that the autopilot was engaged while the pilot was “occupied with non-flying related tasks … specifically, mobile phone use and the consumption of food and beverages”, the ATSB said.