News round up - QF, VA, TT

Australian Aviation are reporting Qantas will lease a Boeing 747-400ERF freighter to operate its RTW cargo flights, which are currently contracted out to Atlas Air.

To be branded in the distinctive new Qantas Freight livery, the 747-400ERF is expected to enter service by the end of 2013, subject to regulatory approval. It will be operated by Express Freighters Australia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qantas Freight.

I assume there will actually be a "new" freight livery not just the same livery as the Qantas freight B767-200F wears

Read more on the new QF B744ERF HERE

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The ACCC have cleared Virgin Australia to take a 60% controlling stake in rival Tiger Airways, effectively returning Australia to a state of duopoly.  There will now be two groups operating the Qantas group with Qantas & Jetstar and Virgin + Tiger.

“Essential to reaching this view was the ACCC’s assessment, made after thorough and extensive testing of the issue, that Tiger Australia would be highly unlikely to remain in the local market if the proposed acquisition didn’t proceed. Absent this conclusion the acquisition raised considerable competition concerns,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.

 Read more on the approval via Australian Aviation HERE

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Virgin Australia who had previously only offered free meals and drinks on their transcontinental flights and some of their 'capital connection' flights are now offering free meals and drinks to all economy passengers on flights over 2hrs 45mins in duration.

Virgin Australia's flights to Denpasar and Phuket are the first routes on the ‘free food’ schedule, with the airline planning to “progressively roll out the service on all flights over 2h 45m by the second half of this year”, a Virgin Australia spokeswoman confirmed to Australian Business Traveller.

Of course this probably wont apply to SYD-BNE flights that are delayed by air traffic control measures and often turn a seemingly simple 1 hour flight into something closer to 3 or 4.

Read all about the new offerings HERE