VH-8VI “Lake Centenary”, which is painted red in a callback to the Virgin Blue days, operated flight VA308 from Brisbane to Melbourne on Monday morning, touching down at 9am. The aircraft arrived in Australia last week after leaving the Boeing factory in Seattle in March.

The ultra-long-range aircraft, the first of which has recently had its engines fitted while the second is on the final assembly line as of February, were slated to begin arriving from later this year but are now expected in early 2027.

Following its departure from STS Aviation Services at Birmingham Airport, the Wedgetail with the registration number “WT001” has arrived at RAF Lossiemouth.

In their respective 2025–26 yearly results released this month, Qatar Airways announced US$1.94 billion ($2.72 billion) in profit, while Emirates posted a profit of US$6.6 billion ($9.2 billion), making it still the world’s most profitable airline.