Brindabella in Receivership

As has already been widely reported around the blogosphere Brindabella Airlines have been placed into receivership with Korda-Mentha being appointed as managers.

This comes on the back of the recent grounding of the fleet by CASA as I recently reported HERE

Read more at Australian Aviation HERE

Airline shares the Christmas Spirit

I am breaking my own unwritten rule and sharing a video with you from WestJet in Canada (not an Australasian airline I know) but this is a pretty awesome effort and something I wish airlines in this part of the world would do occasionally

NZ set to record profit increase of up to 20%

While Qantas has warned of a severe loss, Air New Zealand are forecasting a full year earnings boost of up to 20%.

The New Zealand National carrier has notified the New Zealand stock exchange that they look likely to record a profit of over $307M NZD in the 2014 full financial year.

Short Haul passenger numbers were up 1.6% on the same period last year. Demand
(RPKs) increased in the Domestic market by 2.4%, while capacity increased 3.7%.
Domestic load factor was down 1.0 percentage point to 80.2%.

Tasman/Pacific demand (RPKs) increased 1.2%, with capacity (ASKs) increasing 0.4%.
Load factor for Tasman/Pacific was up 0.7 of a percentage point to 85.1%.  

Air New Zealand have flagged they expect their Before Tax earnings for the 6 months to December 31st to be up 20%, compared to Qantas who expect to loose up to $300M AUD

Read more fro the nzherald.co.nz HERE or read the full Air New Zealand release to the NZX, including full RPK, ASK & LF data and upcoming changes to the Airpoints program HERE

QF warns of losses and job cuts

Qantas group CEO Alan Joyce has announced Qantas is facing a loss of up to $300M AUD in the 6 months from July to December this year.  As a result the group will cut at least 1000 positions in the next 12 months while all executives will have their salaries frozen at current levels and will not receive bonuses in this financial year.

It has also signaled that it will consider selling parts of its business. It has not named potential units which could be sold but there has been speculation that it could consider a part sale of its frequent flyer business.

As expected Mr Joyce has laid blame fairly and squarely on the "unprecedented distortion of the Australian domestic market" ramping up his recent attacks on Virgin Australia being allowed to undertake their equity raising including foreign ownership.  However like many others around the internet I believe Qantas are a victim of their own pigheadedness by trying to retain their 65% line in the sand, by increasing their own capacity on routes to maintain their 65% domestic market share.

Read more on the upcoming Qanta losses and cuts via
Brisbane Times (Fairfax) Business Day HERE or
Australian Business Traveller HERE

Brindabella Airlines

Australian Regional operator Brindabella Airlines has suspended its Sydney-Orange service to restore "schedule integrity".  This comes on the back of the recent grounding of the Jetstream 4100 fleet.

“Brindabella Airlines has been working hard during the past fortnight to restore integrity to its scheduled regular passenger transport services,” the airline said in a statement on its website on Wednesday.

Brindabella will present a revised service schedule to councils today which will bring about immediate schedule integrity.

There is plenty of scuttlebutt around the web that Brindabella who merged with Aeropelican earlier this year are struggling, but I for one hope they aren't and wish them well for the future, as it is great to see the Jetstream's still flying the skies, and makes a nice change here in Brisbane from the monotony of the Dash-8 fleets.

Read more about Brindabella from Australian Aviation HERE

A Brindebella J41 at BNE (commons.wikimedia.org)

Tigerair ups BNE

Tigerair have announced they will open a new base at Brisbane Airport as well as introducing flight from Brisbane to Adelaide, Cairns and Darwin.

The new Adelaide service will launch in March while the Cairns and Darwin services are scheduled to commence in April.

All three flights currently look like a single daily services 
BNE-ADL TT313 15:50-19:10           ADL-BNE TT318 20:30-22:20
BNE-CNS TT486 12:25-14:45           CNS-BNE TT491 15:15-17:20
BNE-DRW TT652 20:45-00:25*         DRW-BNE TT655 01:00-05:10

Sounds Air confirm WAG

Sounds Air have confirmed they will enter the Wellington-Wanganui route as previously hinted (See this post from November)

NEW Wellington to Wanganui service has been added today - New flights start on the 21st January 2014 - Available to book online now - Remember at Sounds Air the price we advertise is the price you pay. No credit card fees, no bag fees, no travel insurance fees, no "I feel I am getting ripped off" fees. What we say is what you pay.

Fares are set at $125 (internet only) one way with the flight operating WAG-WLG SA14 in the morning (06:45-07:25) and WEL-WAG SA73 in the evening (18:00-18:40) Sun-Fri (No Sat flight)

Read more at the Sounds Air website or the Wanganui Chronicle HERE - article written by friend of this blog Zac Yates

NZ new Hobbit livery UPDATED

Air New Zealand this morning rolled out Boeing 777-319ER ZK-OKO in the second of the Hobbit liveries, this time featuring dragon Smaug to promote the release of the second Hobbit movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, they also released a timelapse on youtube of the decal being applied




And here is a pic of OKO outside basking in the Auckland sunshine thanks to Colin Hunter

© Colin Hunter 2013