The Australia Desk

Grant was invited to attend the Malaysian Airlines oneworld joining ceremony & celebrations held in Kuala Lumpur. The event included presentations from Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, aka AJ, the CEO of Malaysian Airlines, Alan Joyce from Qantas and Bruce Ashby, CEO of oneworld plus a formal dinner after the tarmac formalities. Grant's recorded lots of great content that should appear in future episodes...

Steve's amazed that it's been 200 episodes since he first discovered the Airplane Geeks show back when they'd just released episode 33. Meanwhile, Grant's been up in Sydney flying a hot air balloon out of Paramatta park as part of the Australia Day balloon fiesta event, which was his first flight with Nykolai on board. Then the next day, they drove back from Sydney to Melbourne as one of the compa...

Grant's sorry he was late last week and is making up for it by bringing Steve his coffee, warmed over an exploding lithium-ion battery. That's enough for Steve to let him into the studio, so they're able to review the latest news this week: Qantas have delayed one of their 787-8 orders, not due to the development problems Boeing are sorting out, but rather because it pushes the spend to the other...

Steve thought he could move this week's OzDesk recording to Monday but whoops, Grant's working and isn't available. Despite that, Steve manages to cover a few news items, including: A China Southern student pilot operating a solo flight with Moorabbin Aviation Services (aka Australian National Airline College) at Mangalore Airport had to make an emergency landing after a main wheel fell off the Pi...

It's Summer Down Under and it's been rather hot indeed, so there's not been too much to talk about. Despite this and the melting temperatures, the boys manage to find a handful of stories to discuss. The ACCC has approved the Qantas and Emirates alliance for the next five years, so QFEK it's Emiroo time! Meanwhile, the ACCC may not allow the Virgin Australia and Tiger Airways merger to go ahead du...

Steve's dragged Grant out of his coffin to record an OzDesk on New Years Day and he's less than enthused about it. Fortunately, it's a Bits n Pieces episode on the Geeks, so the boys play an excerpt of a discussion with Serge, a former RAAF F-18 pilot. During this excerpt, we hear Serge's views on: The benefit of the RAAF sending exchange pilots to fly with the USAF. His concerns regarding the F-3...

The Australian Government is enquiring with the US Government about the potential cost of purchasing additional F-18F Super Hornets for the RAAF – up to 24 more aircraft. Given the current government's Defence minister is big on cutting costs and reducing the Defence budget, where will the money come from for these aircraft? Next up, Christopher Luxton, the new Air New Zealand boss, is talking of...

Qantas dominated the aviation news in Australia this week as a so called “rebel group” of investors headed by former CEO Geoff Dixon and advertising guru John Singleton were said to be plotting to make a takeover bid for the board, removing Allan Joyce. They are apparently uphappy with the current direction of the board, particularly with regard to the recent tie up with Emirates. Dixon currently...

Steve's on a high and it's not because of the Virgin Australia AGM, no, Steve's still bragging about his flight on a RAAF C-130H over Sydney during the week. Steve talks about the experience and presents an interview with the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Tony Charles. Grant also got amongst the action at RAAF Base Richmond getting a tour of the control tower and a great view of the C-130H fleet practi...

The Geeks are doing a special "Bits & Pieces" episode which is being called "Wings & Thighs" due to Thanksgiving so the boys are going to sneak in a half hour long episode! The topic of a second airliner airport for Sydney is a bit of a hot potato in politics at the moment and Ross Greenwood, the presenter of the "Money News" on radio 2GB in Sydney, interviewed Max Moore-Wilton, chairman o...

There is a disturbance in the Force as the Qantas pilots union actually agrees with management on refusing to pay the operators of Brisbane International Airport up front for the construction of a new runway. We're still stunned about the union agreeing with Alan Joyce. Who knew it was ever possible? In other news, Qantas announces further maintenance job cuts as first reported back in Episode 199...

It's hard to believe it's that time of year once again & we're about to run the same ol' report (& gags) for the 4th time in a row! Yes, that's right, it's the Qantas AGM where: Shareholders are unhappy Profits are down Domestic doing well Market share is falling Everyone loves Jetstar No dividend for shareholders & no bonus for Alan Joyce So, moving on to other news, it's all about Vi...

It's been a slow news week but Steve wakes Grant to talk about the only two stories that could be found at the bottom of the barrel: Tooradin airport (YTDN) down near Steve is once again being put forward as a potential domestic airport for Melbourne's East, despite being in a swamp beside the bay. Logistics and trucking magnante Lindsay Fox says we don't need another airport, but then he already...

Steve's seen some strange things at railway stations, but what was that hot air balloon doing in front of the Maryborough station out in rural Victoria? Yup, it was Grant... He's back now so it's time to get stuck into some news: A kangaroo wound up in the Melbourne airport car park and getting rather panicked when it couldn't pay the parking fee... Qantas have invested $30m in their Brisbane main...

An RAAF Air Traffic Controller is stood down pending an investigation after a “Loss of separation assurance” incident near Darwin, Fiji Airways reveals new A330 livery, Avalon Airport in Victoria given approval to become Melbourne’s second international airport, the Federal Government grants formal approval for the Qantas/Emirates deal, RAAF AP-3C Orions from 10SQN returning to Australia after 10...

The boys are feeling a bit lost & misplaced this week & Steve even feels a bit inhibited. Not surprising given the big news item this week: AirServices Australia manage to 'misplace' a Virgin Australia 737 for over 1/2 hour as it flew between Sydney & Brisbane, all thanks to a controller accidentally 'inhibiting' its entry in the system, thus making it appear as "someone else's problem...

The AFL Grand final is over & despite Steve's blissful dreaming, his mighty Hawthorn Hawks have been beaten by the Sydney Swans. Despite his immense sadness, the boys decide to continue with the news: As Air New Zealand starts buying back 3% of its listed shares, a number of key executives are resigning as Rob Fyfe prepares to hand over the reins to a new CEO Airbus announce that repairing the...

The boys are back from the inaugural AusFly event & discuss what they were up to so far away from home. After that, it's into the news, including: Virgin Australia pilots reject their initial contract offer according to the Virgin Pilots Association (aka VIPA) Virgin Australia raises issues with the ACCC about Qantas getting into bed with Emirates Qantas are closing their first class lounge in...

With new names like QFEK or EmiRoo, the Qantas & Emirates alliance has been announced with much fanfare and we spend some time discussing what it could mean. Meanwhile, Tiger Airways are returning to Adelaide which is a good thing for keeping the airfares down while New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is sending their user fees through the roof . Sounds like a fantastic way to destroy...

It's a big news week with the Australia Desk covering a number of stories: Qantas is big in the news with: Qantas reports a $244m loss (their first since becoming a public company) Alan Joyce will not be getting his $2.7m bonus & will have to get by on just his $2.3m salary Joyce says he expects Qantas will retain its 65% share of the domestic market Qantas cancels their 35 firm 787-9 orders b...

The boys are ready to do their longest ever AusDesk segment with stacks of great news stories but Pieter Johnson throws down a challenge to see who can do the shortest segment. With that, Steve trims the story list and we're left with: GippsAero sign deal with Soloy Aviation to assemble the GA8 Airvan in the USA 8 of the ex-RNZAF A4K Skyhawks are being sold to Draken International for use in aggre...

We've got some good news on the maintenance & engineering front so we figured it was too important to leave to later: TAE (a wholly owned subsidiary of Air New Zealand ) are opening new workshops in Brisbane & Adelaide to work on turbine engines & APUs Alan Joyce has confirmed that, despite making a small underlying profit, the Qantas group will make a statutory loss when they make the...

Steve's turned off the lights in honour of exercise Pitch Black 12 currently under way in the Northern Territory. Suffice to say, Grant's taken a rather dim view of this darkness thing, especially after stumbling over gear in the studio... Exercise Pitch Black 12 is underway with aircraft from the RAAF, Indonesia (the Flankers! :), the USA, New Zealand & many more staging out of the RAAF bases...

While Steve & Grant are often accused of making statistics up on the spot (like 28.2% of all statistics), this week it appears that Dan Webb is not the only one who can crunch the numbers! Both Qantas & Virgin are both claiming to be the best 'on-time airline' using the same set of BITRE statistics (although neither of them make much of the statistics showing Tiger were the best of all for...

Just for a change, Steve's out on the remote link because he's run off to work to escape more PCDU editing. Of course, this means Grant's left in the studio to run the recording and *GASP* edit the show! Qantas dumping the Blackberry for the iPhone (and even Android, much to Grant's delight) Emirates are now the third largest airline employing Australians (approaching 5,000 Aussies in Dubai and Au...