Virgin Australia resumes long-haul international flying from Melbourne with its daily service to Doha on Monday, 1 December 2025. Tickets are now on sale. The flights will be conducted on wet-leased Qatar Airways Boeing 777 aircraft. That means although listed as a Virgin Australia flight, you will be travelling on...

Speculation is swirling around Virgin Australia’s CEO Jayne Hrdlicka following signs that she may be rethinking her decision to leave the airline despite her February 2024 announcement of stepping down. Recent developments, including strategic successes and personal investments, suggest her departure might not be set in stone after all. A...

Vietnam Airlines (VN), based in Hanoi, is considering an ambitious network expansion. The Vietnamese flag carrier has its sights set on new international destinations across Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America. Growing global footprint Vietnam Airlines will soon fly to six European cities: London (LHR), Paris (CDG), Frankfurt (FRA), Munich...

If I had a dollar for every time someone posted on social media Qantas forums ‘When is the next Qantas double status credits promotion?‘, I would be a very rich man. Almost no one predicted the last promotion in October 2024. You will see below the history of the Double...

This is becoming a bit of a saga, with Australians and citizens of the USA and Canada again needing a visa to enter Brazil. The current implementation date is 10 April 2025. If you already have a valid physical visa, you are OK. If you don’t, you need to apply...

There are currently nine Chinese airlines that service destinations in Australia. That’s more airlines flying into Australia than from any other part of the world—more than Europe and North America. However, Chinese airlines don’t have a good reputation, and with many having ‘China’ in their name, it’s hard to distinguish...

In August 2024, USA and Australian immigration bodies announced that Australia would soon be able to participate in the United States Global Entry program in 2025. This program streamlines entry into the USA through pre-approval. It has now been confirmed according to ET, that a trial of the program will...

With an estimated million-plus Australians heading to the UK this year, don’t pack your Samsonite without knowing about a new ETA travel hoop to jump through. I have written before about the introduction of the ETA for the United Kingdom, but here is a reminder. A £10 UK welcome fee!...

Currently in administration, Regional Express (REX) is also being sued by ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission) for behaviour that breached directors’ duties. We now know some more details through court document filings. ASIC’s accusation of deceitful conduct Executive chairman Lim Kim Hai is accused of drafting a misleading statement...

Cirium is an aviation data provider that has just released a report about airline and airportse including on-time performance. This data is more interesting than the data released by the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) because it has international scope, allowing comparisons between Australian airlines and the best worldwide...

Cast your mind back to news reports of a flight turnback of a Malaysian Airlines A330 on the afternoon of 14, 2023. Flight MH122 was one-and-a-half hours into its flight to Pakistan via Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Muscat in Oman. The aircraft was carrying 199 passengers, with a passenger...

International travel activity at airports is an often forgotten indicator of the health or otherwise of the airline industry. With most of Australia’s major capital city airports in private hands, we have to rely on their peak bodies’ observations rather than what they tell the Australian Stock Exchange. Simon Weserway,...

On Sunday 5 January 2025, Etihad Airways flight EY461 was taking off from Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport. It was heading for Abu Dhabi as its destination when the takeoff was aborted. The incident occurred at around 7 p.m. Pilots slammed on the brakes of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner late in the...