The Australia Desk

Yet another wet & windy afternoon so it’s perfect weather to put Rob’s bribe together so he’ll let us on the Airplane Geeks podcast. Meanwhile, we have news to report: Singapore Airlines adding more A380 capacity on the Kangaroo Route . British Airways are cutting their capacity on flights to Australia by 5% . Tiger Airways in Singapore objects to V Australia’s alignment with Delta Airlines wh...

This week’s stories include: The captain of the Emirates A340 that had a tail strike relates his story and yes, fatigue was a factor. The first of the RAAF’s F/A-18F Super Hornets has rolled off the assembly line. Tiger Airways planning to expand their Australian fleet by adding a seventh A320 to its Melbourne base. We also launch the Plane Crazy Down Under aviation show .

The boys have swapped opening roles for this one with Steve doing the dateline and Grant doing the introductions. Fortunately they get into the news pretty quickly. Air New Zealand are no longer going to use Qantas' maintenance services after a series of strikes by Qantas maintenance staff. Tiger Airways are expanding to cover daily flights between Melbourne & Sydney. Air New Zealand have set...

Grant’s sound quality is finally improving so we can get stuck right into the news: Qantas cancels 15 787-8 orders and delays others to save money . Australian & International Pilots Association is upset that Qantas is retiring its own 767s, forcing their pilots to take leave, while wet leasing a 767 Freighter with crew . The Emirates A340-500 that had a tail strike at Melbourne has flown back...

Grant continues to have sound issues and the weather is crappy but the boys keep it together long enough to get some stories out: ATSB determines that a dodgy circuit was responsible for an inflight shut down of a Jetstar A330 . Emirates pilots complain to the ATSB that the airline is pushing the limit on flight hours and that this contributed to the recent A340-500 tail strike at Melbourne. Disag...

Despite some crappy sound quality on Grant’s end, the boys get some content out for you. Jetstar A330-200 from Japan to the Gold Coast has a cockpit window catch fire. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce confirms the merger with British Airways is off the table. Helicopter crash lands in the Dream World car park. Tiger Airlines starts taking complaints seriously after being voted the worst Australian airline. T...

As Courtney prepared to leave the Airplane Geeks, he noted that Australia holds the lead for providing non-USA news segments for the Airplane Geeks. Go us! :) Steve sends in his recording opening with the news that Qantas is feeling the pinch during what it hails as the biggest down turn in travel in the jet age. As such, it’s expected to report an annual profit of only $85 million, saved mostly b...

Steve presents the AusDesk with a report in the Sydney Morning Herald that Alan Joyce (CEO of Qantas) says airports are not doing their part to help reduce costs & facilitate air travel in light of impacts from the global economic crisis. Despite having recently negotiated reduced rates at Sydney Airport for Qantas & Jetstar flights, Joyce was quoted as saying: If airports could charge for...

Steve presents two stories this week: Australian born flight attendant jailed for 18 months for leaving a bomb hoax on an Emirates aircraft that he was working on. A man has flown a remote control aircraft with a video camera on it dangerously close to a Virgin Blue 737 aircraft as it approached Perth airport for landing.

Steve & Grant were sending in their news via emails for Courtney & Max to read on the show. In this episode, Steve’s emailed a link to an article about a guy in the USA who landed his 4-seat plane on a golf course so his son wouldn’t be late for his tennis lesson. What could possibly go wrong? Meanwhile, Grant emails in about another Ryan Air “publicity stunt pretending to be a press relea...