The Australia Desk

It’s Edition 200 of the Australia Desk! First  Boeing 787 in Jetstar livery  rolls out of the Everett paint shop. Worldwide Saber Reservation System crash  takes Virgin Australia down with it. A  Virgin B737 collides  with a Jetstar A320 during  pushback at Melbourne Airport  – up to $2million damage. The New Zealand Government has issued a  travel warning &...

Grant can't make it this week but we're able to put on an Australia Desk thanks to Bas Scheffers who's been representing the PCDU team at Oshkosh. Sure, we're not jealous at all... really... Bas caught up with Ryan Cambell , the 19 year old from Australia who's flying solo around the world in a Cirrus SR22.

A research project at Melbourne’s Swinburne University into human performance factors is looking at ways to  track pilots eyes  while at work in the cockpit, as a method of assessing potential information overload situations. TigerAir launching Multi-Crew Pilot Licence  (MPL) training programme in conjunction with CAE Oxford in Melbourne and Singapore. Fiji Airways announces an&nbsp...

Steve is feeling a tad below par this week after coming off eight years of night shift into early morning starts, and editing of this week’s segment was interrupted when his son, Chris, ended up in the local hospital after a basketball training accident. Despite all this fun, we managed to get a few stories out. Plans for a new large scale private airport in southern Queensland begin to take shape...

Several times each year, in cities all around the country, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) conducts open briefings for pilots and other interested parties which cover all the latest updates on rule changes, legislative changes, policies and so on. On the night of recording, Grant had just returned from one such briefing and brings us a report on what was covered. Of particular interest...

It's chilly & frosty down in Melbourne but that's good for Grant as balloons fly extra well in the cold. But, enough of the weather, lets talk about the news: Tiger Airways re-brands as Tigerair as they continue their integration with Virgin Australia. The first Royal Australian Navy MH-60R “Romeo” takes to the skies in Connecticut. Virgin Australia to introduce frequent flyer points for pets...

After an “interesting” week in Australian federal politics, Minister for Transport & Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese, is now also the Deputy Prime Minister, leaving Steve & Grant to ponder whether this will be good for aviation or not. In more positive aviation news, 19 year old Ryan Campbell has set out on his attempt to become the youngest person to fly solo around the world; a record w...

Winter weather has been causing trouble in for flights Australia’s south east this week, especially with fog causing many diversions. Mid week, two B737s, one Qantas & one Virgin Australia, diverted to the rural city of Mildura in Victoria; an airport normally accustomed to regional turboprop aircraft, and one that lacks an ILS. As the fog began to envelop Mildura as well, the Virgin 737, afte...

The boys have managed to align their clocks with the Geeks and for this episode, they're appearing live to provide an in-person OzDesk. Of course, the news is almost all Qantas... 250th Boeing airframe for Qantas but it's actually the 251st. 1st 787 for Jetstar under construction and it's got 9 abreast seating. With the inclusion of this new 787, it's the first time that one of each Boeing seven-s...

We’ve often talked about the high cost of using airports in Australia, particularly the major hubs, and it seems the high cost of operating out of Melbourne’s Essendon Airport have forced a major user, business jet operator MyJet, to look for better options. Their solution comes in the form of relocating, thanks in part to some financial support from the Victorian government, to the regional city...

A Federal Government Senate committee has handed down a verdict into the handling of an ATSB/CASA investigation into the 2009 ditching near Norfolk Island of a PelAir Westwind jet, which ran out of fuel on a medical transport flight – a report which is extremely critical of the way the investigation was handled. A team from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) have been short listed...

We have spoken highly in recent years of Australian manufacturer GippsAero and their successes in creating aircraft that have sold all around the world. So it is with some concern this week that we report on the announcement of a corporate restructuring by parent company, Mahindra Aerospace, which although confusingly worded, indicated the loss of 40 jobs at the plant in Morwell, Victoria. There i...

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce finds his way back into the news the week indicating that the airline’s profits are nowhere near the levels his team had predicted earlier in the financial year, and major creditor Deutscher Bank took notice also slashed its forecast back to just over $80 million. Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson has been in Australia this week, talking up the newly branded Virgin Australia Reg...

The Australian Government released its latest Defense White Paper this week, outlining updates on planned future equipment acquisitions for the Army, Navy and Air Force. On the aviation side of things, the purchase of 12 EA-18G “Growler” aircraft was announced, and Grant ponders whether this might mean the existing 12 “pre-wired” F18F+ Super Hornets already in the fleet will still be converted – a...

United 747 collides with aerobridge at Melbourne Airport. Virgin Australia finally gets approval to buy 60% of Tiger Airways, while Singapore Airlines buys a chunk of Virgin Australia from Richard Branson. Links : Plane sustains substantial damage in accident Virgin’s pounce on Tiger approved by ACCC ACCC clears Virgin’s Tiger takeover

Grant is back on deck this week as we discuss the release of the new Qantas uniforms, revealed this week to much fanfare. Eight former Royal Australian Navy Kaman SH-2G Super Sea Sprite helicopters, which never saw service after the programme was scrapped two years ago, have been purchased by the New Zealand Government for their Navy at a cost of $A200 million ($NZ244 million – $US210 million). An...

With Grant off this week due to illness, PCDU team member Ben Jones steps in to help bring us this report. In the news, Virgin Australia issues a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange announcing it’s acquisition of Skywest is complete and right on cue, the first Skywest Fokker 100 in Virgin colours makes it debut in Perth. The last RAAF F-111C to fly, A8-109, is transported by road from Queen...

Recorded on the banks of the Yarra River in Melbourne near Princess Bridge (sheltering from the rain). We speak to Doug Worrall, an airline pilot and iPad/Android app developer, about his new game,  LEO – Low Earth Orbit , available in iTunes and Google Play. Doug explains his motivation to create a challenging game that makes the user think and consider the laws of physics. The impetus for t...

The ACCC finally grant approval for the Qantas & Emrates tie-up, and not a moment too soon as a celebratory flyover of Sydney by two A380s – one from each carrier – in formation was operated four days later to mark the commencement. In other news, its smiles all round at Virgin Australia as their pilot unions signed off on a new enterprise agreement which will see increased job security and pa...

The Regional Aviation Association of Australia calls for more assistance from Canberra for the increasingly struggling regional sector…but receives a less than favourable response from Canberra Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific) launches the first of three new A330s, which will replace its ageing fleet of B747-400s Grant speculates about the LionAir’s possible plans to enter the Australian market...

It's St Patrick's Day so the boys are doing Ireland a favour by not discussing Alan Joyce. Instead, they talk about the Wagner family who are building a 747 capable airport at Wellcamp near Toowoomba to help support fly-in / fly-out operations and freight transport in the area. This will be interesting given the proximity of the Army air base at Oakey, Brisbane far to the East and Toowoomba just n...

The boys are back in the studio after being on-site at the Avalon airshow so it's time to run through some recent news items. Former Qantas and Australian Airlines Chief Executive, James Strong, dies at age 68 The Tiger Airways/Virgin Australia deal is further stalled by the ACCC CASA considering changes to the Civil Aviation Regulations to facilitate UAV operations, and it's based on weight Qanta...

The boys have spent the week at Avalon 2013 and are recording this OzDesk segment at the end of Day 6, the last day of the show. They're rather exhausted, somewhat deaf and a bit sunburnt so it must have been an awesome airshow indeed. They're joined by Eamon Hamilton from the Public Affairs team in the RAAF's Air Lift Group. Eamon's the one who helped get Steve his KC-30A and C-130H media flights...

The boys are busy getting ready for the Avalon International Airshow 2013 so they quickly skim through some news items before it's time to talk about the hot new ATM topic: Qantas tells the ACCC what to do with their concerns on the proposed alliance with Emirates. The RAAF's BAe Hawks return to the air. Finnair has decided to fly to Australia again. Garuda Indonesia introduces flights between Jak...

Grant's back from Malaysia but has been wiped out but some lurgi that he picked up during his travels. Despite this, the boys managed to discuss a lot of news items: The ACCC is concerned with Tiger Airways being purchased by Virgin Australia, leading to a duopoly with Qantas & Jetstar. Steve & Grant want to set up their own airline, but maybe they should just back Thromby Air. Qantas are...