Virgin Australia has managed to beat the longest flight time set by rival Qantas in October last year. On Monday a Virgin Australia 777-300ER, registration VH-VPD, landed in Paris on a flight from Auckland, New Zealand via Hong Kong. The flight was a repatriation flight organised by the French Government. On Tuesday the 777 took…
The Queensland state government has offered Virgin Australia a conditional $200 million bailout ($127.3 million, €117.1 million £101.9 million). One of the conditions include Virgin keeping it’s headquarters in the Queensland capital of Brisbane. Other conditions include the Australian Government backing the airline, debt restructuring, shareholders and bondholders “doing their bit” and ongoing regional flights.…
Boeing will resume all Commercial Airplanes production in a phased approach at its Puget Sound-region facilities next week, after suspending operations last month in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At all of its sites, the company has taken extra precautions and instituted comprehensive procedures to keep people safe and fight the spread of COVID-19. “The…
Air New Zealand has laid off it’s entire B777 staff and some of their B787 staff. The airline plans to keep it’s entire 777 fleet grounded until at least April next year. Newshub reports that mid to long haul crew will reduce to 583, down from 1533. Inflight service managers will be cut to 70,…
The Australian government has agreed to underwrite the cost of Qantas and Virgin Australia routes between state capital cities and regional centres. It will cost the government $165 million over 8 weeks. The announcement means that Virgin Australia will be able to reinstate 200 of the 8000 staff that had been previously stood down. The…
In the coming weeks, Lufthansa will temporarily decommission the entire Airbus A340-600 fleet. Three aircraft of this type have already been flown to Teruel, in northeastern Spain. The long-haul aircraft will be parked at the airport there. Lufthansa plans to transfer the entire A340-600 fleet, equaling 17 aircraft, to Teruel where they will be decommissioned…
Pilots are prohibited within two days of flying from experimenting with two yet unproven medications to prevent coronavirus infection, the Federal Aviation Administration has determined. “Use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus infection is disqualifying while on the medication and for 48 hours after the last dose before reporting for flight or other safety…
A helicopter belonging to the Tunisian army verified compliance with the lockdown and the curfew imposed. A group of youth deiced to violate the lockdown by playing football however. The Tunisian army had a very creative way to disperse the match by using a Bell 205 helicopter for near proximity.
Boeing customers canceled a staggering number of 737 Max orders last month. Boeing on Tuesday posted 150 cancellations of its beleaguered 737 Max jets in March, the most in decades, the company said. Brazilian airline Gol canceled 34 of the narrow-body planes and leasing firm Avolon scrapped orders for 75 of them, a move it…
British Airways is retiring five Boeing 747-400s this week. G-CIVL took off this morning to Kemble for it’s very last flight after 23 years of service. London Heathrow live: cam.airlive.net/lhr
Virgin Australia has entered a trading halt for the second time in as many weeks. The Guardian Australia reports Virgin has hired insolvency experts from Deloitte to work on restructure scenarios and a debt expert from Houlihan Lokey. The airline told ABC News Australia, “Virgin Australia has requested a trading halt as it continues to…