Air India steal Australasian 787 crown

Air India has won the Australasian crown for the first commercial B787-8 flight with B787-8 VT-ANK touching down in Sydney this morning as ACI312 direct from Delhi.

The 787-8 departed Delhi 10 minutes late at 15:40 IST yesterday and landed in Sydney at 08:13 AEST almost 30 mins behind schedule.

It departed SYD as ACI311 at 10:35 AEST almost an hour behind schedule for MEL where it landed at 11:59 AEST over an hour behind schedule.

The new services mark the return of Air India to the Australian market after a sustained period of absence with the flight operating a daily service, DEL-SYD-MEL-DEL 4x weekly and DEL-MEL-SYD-DEL on the other 3 days.

Read more about the Air India service from ausbt.com.au HERE or view the flight at flight aware HERE

Air India B787-8 via Australian Business Traveller

Rex profits drops sharply on back of Carbon Tax

In a week of ups and downs for Australasian airlines, Regional Express Holdings have announced a profit slump of 45% with a before tax profit of $19.2m (AUD)

An outspoken critic of government policy, executive chairman Lim Kim Hai said: “This would ordinarily be grounds for much jubilation but instead we at Rex are all too painfully aware that this pole position is an aberration arising from one of the most toxic environments ever to face aviation in Australia.”
Rex ended the year with profits down 45 per cent and passenger numbers down 6.8 per cent.

Rex have fairly and squarely set the loss at the feet of the government's controversial carbon tax, and blasted the government for its implementation, despite the fact Rex recorded a profit more than twice as large as the Qantas group.

Read more on the Rex profit and Chairman Lim Kim Hai's attack on the government at Australian Aviation HERE

Mixed profit/earning news for QF & JQ

Qantas has returned from their record loss last year to eek out a $6m (AUD) net profit this year.

Despite tough competition on international and domestic routes, and high fuel prices, Qantas more than doubled its underlying earnings to $192 million....
Revenue inched up 1.1 per cent to $15.9 billion. The airline again said it would not pay an interim dividend, continuing a policy in place since 2009.....
The domestic premium operations, Jetstar and the frequent flyer division all made a profit, while the international operations halved its underlying losses to $246 million.

Qantas have also flagged more asset sales, namely their Richmond based Defense Division which will be sold to Northrop Grumman for $80m

Read more on the Qantas result at brisbanetimes.com.au HERE

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Jetstar have reported a 32% fall in underlying profit thanks mostly to the launch of offshoots Jetstar Japan and Jetstar Hong Kong, the latter of which is still yet to get off the ground.

The result for Jetstar included a $29 million hit from the federal carbon tax and $50 million in start-up losses in Japan and Hong Kong. The start-up losses rose by $31 million from a year earlier.

It is believed Jetstar's domestic profitability has halved in the last financial year but the international and Jetstar Asia arms have turned a profit.  Jetstar are also looking towards increased competition from Tigerair Australia with the Airline set to double in size by 2018 now that Virgin Australia owns the controlling stake.

Read more on Jetstar's fortunes also at BT HERE 

QF fleet changes

Qantas have announced some changes in the layouts on their A330 fleet as well as the new B717s.

All 30 of Qantas’ A330s will be upgraded with Business Suites in a 1-2-1 layout with fully flat beds and direct aisle access from every seat. Ten A330-300s for Qantas International will feature new Economy seats and 20 A330-200s for Qantas Domestic will see their Economy seats refurbished.

The 5 "new" Boeing 717s being delivered to Qantas will operate as a dedicated sub-fleet on the Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane-Canberra routes and will feature a business class cabin and iPad entertainment in every seat.

“These dedicated B717 aircraft will offer excellent levels of comfort, entertainment, food and wine, delivering on our commitment to continually improve our service,” said Mr Joyce.
The five new QantasLink B717s, announced in January this year, will be introduced to the domestic fleet during FY14.  Qantas Domestic’s 13 other B717s are also being upgraded with new interiors in an all-economy configuration.

Other fleet announcements include the major announcement that as the Jetstar A330s return to Qantas Domestic coupled with further Boeing 737-800s the entire Qantas Boeing 767 fleet will be retired by mid 2015.

• Bombardier Q400 - 3 more to arrive in 1st half of FY14
• Boeing 717 - sub-fleet to be delivered during FY14 with business class
• Boeing 737-400 - all to be retired in FY14
• Boeing 737-800 - four to be delivered in FY14, 5 to be delivered in FY15
• Boeing 767-300 - all to be retired by mid 2015
• Boeing 787-8 - 1st to be delivered in Sept & in service in Nov, 2 further to be delivered by December
• Boeing 747-400 - 2 to be retired in FY14 as underperforming Frankfurt route is cut
• Airbus A330 - all will be upgraded with new seats, JQ's A330s will transfer to QF domestic as 787-8s arrive

Read more on the fleet changes at the Qantas News Room HERE

- Download the Qantas B717 pdf fact sheet HERE

- Download the Qantas A330 pdf fact sheet HERE

NZ Profit Jumps

Air New Zealand have announced a full year net profit of $182m (NZD) for the year ended June 30 2013.  This represents a jump of 156% on the previous year with a record operating cashflow of $750m (NZD)

The airline is paying a final dividend of 5 cents a share, taking its total dividend for the year to 8 cents a share - a 45 per cent jump from last year's shareholder payout. The profit lift was largely anticipated by analysts.
Chairman John Palmer said this morning's result placed Air New Zealand amongst the best performing airlines globally.
"We are focused on further improving on this result in the 2014 financial year. Based on the airline's forecast of market demand and fuel prices at current levels, early results and forward bookings are encouraging." he said.

The airline has also announced they will spend $1.8b on new aircraft over the next 3 years, made up of 9 additional Airbus A320 aircraft for their Domestic fleet renewal, 2 additional Boeing 777-319ERs and 9 new Boeing 787-9s for their international fleet.

Read more about the Air New Zealand profit from stuff.co.nz HERE or the New Zealand Herald HERE or check out the full Air New Zealand results presentation pdf HERE

History Vault: Cook Strait conquered

History Vault

93 years ago yesterday (25th August 1920) the first aircraft to cross Cook Strait (the body of water diving New Zealand's North and South Islands) landed at Trentham racecourse in Wellington.

When Wellingtonians looked up and saw a biplane performing aerobatics above the city 93 years ago, little did they realise that aviation history had been made. Captain Euan Dickson, a decorated World War I pilot, had just completed the first air crossing of Cook Strait. Matt Stewart reports.
The first plane to cross Cook Strait arrived in Wellington unannounced, but that lack of fanfare didn't stop spectators marvelling at the aerobatics of its pilot.
Decorated World War I aviator Captain Euan Dickson piloted his Avro 504k biplane into a "number of falling leaf and stalling turns", according to The Evening Post's account of what at the time was known as "stunting".   

The flight is immortalised with a monument and plaque at the site of its Blenheim landing point a small field off Dillons Point Road to the north east of the town.

      The Evening Post recounted Captain Dickson's "curt phraseology" in describing the nearly five-hour trip with a staccato, radio-friendly patter: "Left Christchurch in adverse conditions. Very strong northeaster. Made bad time to Kaikoura, when petrol was running short, so thought it advisable to land, although within two or three miles of arranged landing-ground.
"Landed on a rather rough paddock, and managed to get some motor spirit from Mr Bullen, The Elms: cup of tea, too . . ."
After more "motor spirit" stops and helpings of lunch, tea and cakes, the crew, which included Canterbury Aviation Co deputy chairman C H Hewlett and mechanic J E Moore, touched down at Trentham.
When asked what the most striking feature of the journey had been, Captain Dickson replied: "I should think it was seeing Wellington from Kaikoura so distinctly."   

Read more from the Dominion Post about this historic flight HERE

QF trans-tasman changes

As part of their alliance with Emirates, Qantas have announced changes to their trans-tasman services opening up the international network to New Zealand travellers.

All changes will come into effect from 27-October-2013

The biggest announcement is the introduction of twice weekly Perth-Auckland flights for the December - January  period.

The new Auckland-Perth service will operate during the holiday season with a twice-weekly A330 service from early December this year through to 1 February 2014.

As stated these flights will operate with an international configured Airbus A330 which gives Business travelers the option of lie flat seats which will be useful on the overnight PER-AKL leg.
This service will operate as QF111 PER-AKL 20:30-07:50* and QF112 AKL-PER 11:40-14:05

The announcement will also see a lot of the existing QF4* codes replaces by new QF13*/14*/15* codes.

Christchurch currently sees QF45/46 operare SYD-CHC-SYD during the day, this will be changed to operate as QF139 SYD-CHC in the evening with a 23:55 arrival and the return will now operate as QF138 CHC-SYD with an 07:30 departure, opening up connecting international flights out of SYD.

The only QF service not to see a timetable change is QF38 MEL-WLG which will become QF172 all other services see a timetable change of around 30 minutes

A full list of the flight number changes is

Read more from the official Qantas Press Release HERE and the NZ Heralds article on the new Perth service HERE

JQs 1st 787

Jetstar's first Boeing 787-8 VH-VKA rolled out of the Boeing paint shop late last week and they posted pics of it to their flickr account

Our first Boeing 787 in its Jetstar livery by Jetstar Airways, on Flickr

Our first Boeing 787 in its Jetstar livery by Jetstar Airways, on Flickr

Our first Boeing 787 in its Jetstar livery by Jetstar Airways, on Flickr

Our first Boeing 787 in its Jetstar livery by Jetstar Airways, on Flickr

See more pics on the Jetstar Flickr page