DPS looms large in Tigers eyes

As mentioned last year Tigerair will take over the MEL/ADL/PER - DPS services currently operated by parent Virgin Australia from next month.

Tiger recently held a media event to discuss the flights and show off the first of their Boeing 737-8FE's which they will borrow from VA for use on the route.

Boeing 737-8FE VH-VUB in Tigerair livery at YMML - photo via australianaviation.com.au ©

The first Boeing 737-8FE in service will be VH-VUB ex ZK-PBJ which was painted into Tigerair livery last year and has sat in MEL since awaiting Tigerair service.

The second Boeing in Tigerair livery will be VH-VOR ex ZK-PBF which completed its last VA revenue service yesterday Sunday 31-January-2016 when it arrived into Brisbane as VA1496 from Hamilton Island, it then positioned to Townsville as VA9901 where it entered the Flying Colours hangar for the repaint.

The third and final Boeing to enter Tigerair service is expected to be VH-VOO ex ZK-PBA (an aircraft I experienced twice in the last week)

For more details on the new service and to see photos of the new Tigerair can refit read the Australian Aviation article HERE

Pacific disruptions due to TC Pam

TC Pam seen covering New Caledonia and Vanuatu

There are disruptions to flights across the South Pacific today with tropical cyclone Pam effecting flights into New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

Air New Zealand has postponed flight NZ782 AKL-NOU for over 32hrs, the flight was scheduled to depart Auckland this morning Saturday 14-March-2015 at 10.05NZDT but will now depart tomorrow Sunday 15-March-2015 at 18:15NZDT.
It is not yet know if flight NZ788 AKL-VLI scheduled for 09:40NZDT tomorrow will be delayed or cancelled as the cyclone tracks south.

Virgin Australia have postponed flight VA171 BNE-VLI from 10:30AEST today to 10:40AEST tomorrow.

Qantas have postponed flight QF87 BNE-NOU from 10:00AEST today until 09:30AEST tomorrow, meanwhile QF91 SYD-NOU has been cancelled.

Air Vanuatu have cancelled both their flights today NF50/51 VLI-AKL-VLI and NF10/11 VLI-SYD-VLI

Meanwhile Aircalin have launched both their flights today with A320 F-OJSB departing NOU for MEL as SB110 and A330 F-OHSD departing NOU for NRT as SB800, it appears that both return flights will operate delayed.  SB111 MEL-NOU delayed from 14:20AEDT to 08:00AEDT while SB801 NRT-NOU will delay from 12:15JST to 19:15JST

Then There Were two

Thursday 05-March-2015 saw Virgin Samoa branded Boeing 737-8FE ZK-PBF operate her final flight on the New Zealand register flying VA161 AKL-BNE.  Upon completion she was towed across the airport and entered the Virgin Australia hanger for business class upgrade and entry to the Australian register.  She will take up VH-VOR.

Meanwhile VH-VUH ex ZK-PBI re-entered Virgin Australia service on Tuesday 3-March-2015 as VA773 Brisbane to Cairns

VH-VUD ex ZK-PBG re-entered Virgin Australia service today Friday 06-March-2015 as VA304 Brisbane to Melbourne

Into The Final Countdown

VA(NZ) has entered the final countdown with just 3 frames remaining on the New Zealand register.

ZK-PBG operated its final service as VA161 AKL-BNE Sunday 01-March-2015 before entering the Brisbane hanger for her business class upgrade and entry to the Australian register as VH-VUD. She was struck from the New Zealand register today Monday 02-March-2015.

ZK-PBG arriving into a stormy AKL in 2007 ©nzompilot

At time of writing VH-VUH ex ZK-PBI had not yet re-entered Virgin Australia service.

Meanwhile despite having flown Business Class equipped aircraft on various Tasman routes for most of the past month, Virgin Australia officially launched Business Class across the Tasman with VA144 SYD-AKL on Saturday 28-February-2015.  From this date all SYD-AKL flights will offer business class.  The 3 remaining ZK registered aircraft will continue to operate but will not operate on SYD-AKL.  Currently PBL is operating out of BNE, PBF on AKL-MEL and AKL-PI services and PBK is on SYD-NAN and SYD-CHC routes.

Read more about the Business Class offering on Tasman services via
austbt.com.au HERE
Australian Aviation HERE

JQ launch new routes

The good folks at JQ have kicked off the holiday season by gifting the traveling public 3 new routes.

JQ will launch CNS-DPS and MEL-WLG and reinstate OOL-PER.

The CNS-DPS service will launch on 31-March-2015 as JQ90 departing CNS at 22:50 with an 01:30 arrival into DPS, the return JQ91 is set to depart DPS at 02:20 with an 08:30 arrival into CNS.  The flight will operate 3x weekly with A320 aircraft.

OOL-PER a returning service is set down as evening departures out of OOL and a BOC (Back of Clock or Red-eye) return flight.  This flight will commence on 29-March-2015 and depending on which source you read will operate 4-6x weekly also utilising the A320.

The MEL-WLG service which will launch on 30-March-2015 will begin with a BOC flight from MEL at 00:45 with an 06:05 arrival into WLG the return service will join the standard am bank of Australia bound flights out of WLG at 06:45.  This flight too will be 4x weekly with an A320.

(In case you were wondering its too damn hot in BNE tonight to record this as a video post!)

"First" Flights On Recently Changed Routes

As reported earlier on this blog and elsewhere there have been some changes to international schedules into and out of Australasia, and these schedules have now begun.

Virgin Australia ended its MEL-LAX flights on Sunday and up gauged its BNE-LAX services to daily.  
While the new service began on Sunday the first of the additional arrivals occurred this morning when Boeing 777-3ZGER VH-VPD arrived into Brisbane as VOZ8

With the new codesharing agreement between Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand taking effect on the Singapore - Auckland route, today saw the first Airbus A380 flight on the SQ285/286 service, operated by A380-841 9V-SKB.  

Singapore will continue to operate its Boeing 777-200s on SQ282/281 evening service until January when this is replaced by an Air New Zealand Boeing 777-219 service, under the code NZ281/282.  

The A380 service will operate over the southern summer, and is expected to return to a Boeing 777-300 service at the end of March 2015.

Today also saw Untied's first International Boeing 787-9 route with the direct LAX-MEL UA98 route touching down on Australian soil.  Boeing 787-9 N38950 inaugurated the now direct service and is set to return direct to LAX as UA99 at time of writing.  This route previously operated with a Boeing 777-200 and a stop in SYD.

QF 'give up' share on tasman with route cuts

In another sign that QF is struggling, the airline has announced they will cut up to 15 Trans-Tasman flights to Auckland per week.

From October 26th Qantas will cut their MEL-AKL and SYD-AKL services by one flight a day while cutting BNE-AKL to just 5 flights per week down from double daily.

In July 2013 Qantas pledged to maintain "existing capacity on trans-Tasman routes that both Qantas and Emirates fly" as a condition of approval for its partnership with Emirates, and the airline says it will continue to comply with that requirement.

Most if not all of these flights are operated by Jetconnect the New Zealand based subsidiary airline that has a lower cost base than Qantas itself.

Jetstar will step in adding a new 6x weekly MEL-AKL and weekly SYD-AKL services but will drop their 3x weekly ADL-AKL service.

Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand are expected to benefit as their alliance picks up any additional passengers and or flights required on these routes, as VA earlier this year reported that Trans-Tasman was in good shape.

Read more about Qantas' cuts from Australian Business Traveller editor David Flynn HERE

QF upgrade QF7/8 and axe BNE

In what can not be described as any unexpected move Qantas today have announced that they are replacing their daily SYD-DFW-BNE-SYD Boeing 747 flight with a 6 weekly SYD-DFW-SYD A380 flight, with no service on Tuesdays.

The new QF7/8 will take flight from Monday 29-September-2014

To facilitate this the mix of A380s and B747s on the SYD-HKG services will change.

Qantas have also retimed their QF9/10 MEL-DXB-LHR-DXB-MEL flights from Sunday 20-July-2014 with QF9 now departing MEL at 2255 and QF10 returning to MEL at 2055+2

Qantas are spruiking the fact the retimed arrival into LHR will now offer passengers onwards connections to 17 european destinations in under 4 hours transit time, compared to the previous 4.

Its another sad day for spotters in Brisbane who from September will be down to the daily B744 flight to Los Angeles as the only scheduled B747 flight into the airport.  With Qantas replacing the B747 on it SIN route with an A333.  However we should still see the odd freight charter, and possibly a last Air New Zealand B744 on a NZ135/136 if they need to up-guage capacity, but this is unlikely with their retirement so close.

Below is a video released by Qantas to promote the new A380 service to Dallas, it is presented by Qantas head of International engineering Alan Milne

You can read the full Qantas media release HERE

Qantas have also released a fact sheet about the QF7/8 changes HERE

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

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