Australian Aviation

A single operator, acting from aboard an airborne E-7A Wedgetail aircraft, was able to conduct the capability demonstration at Woomera Test Range in South Australia.

The JQ165 service, on board the A320 VH-XSJ, is the first international flight to Hamilton Airport in 13 years. It touched down shortly after 11am on Monday and will operate four times per week, adding almost 75,000 seats per year.

Starting 1 July, Jetstar will introduce extra flights connecting the Victorian and Tasmanian capitals. While full details are still to be released, the low-cost carrier said it will bring around 50,000 additional seats to the route over the following six months.

The cause of the AI171 accident, which killed 241 people on board and more than 50 on the ground when the 787-8 crashed into a residential area in Ahmedabad shortly after take-off on Thursday, remains unknown, though one of the black boxes has been recovered.

Citing official BITRE data for the month, Airservices pointed to an average of 82 per cent on-time arrivals and on-time departures in April, as well as a cancellation rate of 2 per cent, in its latest Network Overview report for May 2025.

This issue, a rare overhead photo shows two US Air Force pilots in the cockpit of an F-15E Strike Eagle and a KC- 46A Pegasus arriving in Brisbane.