The Australia Desk

Strewth, it's the first Australia Desk of 2012 and the boys are off the beach, back in the office and bringing you more aviation news from Down Under. Qantas receives their 12th A380 and it's been named Phyllis Arnott in honour of the first lady to get a commercial pilots' license. Like the rest of Qantas' A380s, it's going to be on the Hong Kong route through to London. Meanwhile, the boys are go...

The boys have weaseled their way into a Geeks recording session and managed to join the discussion for a while. It's not a typical Australia Desk (it wasn't a typical Geeks episode either!) but they do talk about the Australian view on some aviation topics. It was lots of fun and made for a great start to the year :) It starts with Grant sneaking onto the show first, in time to give his views on w...

Snow at Christmas?? Surely not! It's Christmas Down Under so that means we’re having a beach BBQ for this report! Air New Zealand’s financial losses as the downturn in the global economy hits their earnings. All this is signalling bad news for staff numbers and routes to Europe but hopefully they can navigate the storms ahead. Air Pacific (the Flying Fruit Tingle) are doing better financially than...

The weather isn't great with a cold & wet start to Summer but hey, there's still some great aviation news to report on. Virgin Australia's re-branding has completed with all their various groups now operating under the one corporate banner while Polynesian Blue has been re-branded as Virgin Samoa and are, apparently, running the most profitable 737 on the planet. Virgin Australia has carried m...

In this week’s Australia Desk report: Steve gets his instructor rating…for trains, doubts raised over new Qantas Asian airline, PCDU code share activated!….David gets serious with the light saber, RAAF KC-30A aerial refuelling trials begin, a little air to air refuelling history lesson, Army MRH90 helicopter contract comes under scrutiny. 

In this episode, Steve likes the current exchange rates, RAAF C-17 acquisition programme progresses, 4 ex-RAAF C-130H aircraft gifted to Indonesia, 23 ex RAAF F-111 airframes dumped in landfill in Queensland, Qantas CEO death threats investigation dropped by New South Wales police, Qantas social media blunder, Tiger Airways has best on time performance for 2011, Virgin Australia announces $68M los...

This week, Air Australia targets low price and international, Tiger posts a loss (but is being allowed to expand a bit), Qantas and the unions still drags on, AirForce1, the 787 and some more Grill the Geeks cylonics.

This episode, Grant assumes high office, Virgin Australia introduces business class, Qantas announces A380s on the Sydney – Hong Kong route, Strategic Airlines re-brands as Air Australia, 3rd KC-30A tanker enters RAAF service, an then the boys hijack Grill The Geeks!

This week, Qantas wins return to work order, Qantas A380 makes precautionary landing in Abu Dhabi, Virgin Australia boss John Borghetti offers his thoughts on the opportunities the Qantas grounding created them, Grant talks about his L39 ride.

This week we look at the intentional grounding of all Qantas flights around the world as Alan Joyce and the Board of Directors attempt to break up the unions. Recorded before the Government tribunal terminated the protected industrial action by the unions, the boys are joined by Ben Sandilands of the Plane Talking blog ( @planetalking on Twitter ) who has an extensive background in transport journ...

This week it's all Qantas politics going on and on and on….. RAAF takes delivery of their last four F-18F Super Hornets, Omega Tanker takes three ex RAAF 707 tankers, Department of Defence looks seriously at the C-27J Spartan to replace their long retired Caribous, RAAF also looks at a disposal date for C-130H.

Grant's getting ready for a CASA audit at the balloon company he works for and recently became a Supervisor for the company's Drug & Alcohol Management Program (DAMP). Fortunately he's able to join Steve for another Australia Desk: The Qantas dispute worsens with five airplanes grounded supposedly due to industrial action and even the government is starting to talk about stepping in. Steve is...

Steve has to convince Grant to stop talking about hot air balloons after last week's Grill the Geeks question. It takes a bit but he finally gets the message and the boys get on with the latest aviation news from Down Under. The Qantas vs unions issues are getting nastier with some senior management being threatened, a car window being broken and reports of Alan Joyce, the CEO, even getting a deat...

The boys spend some time trying to find a big, new aviation story to talk about this week. After skipping through lots of the usual stuff, they settle on a couple of interesting items: A Cheetah S-200 RA-Aus registered aircraft (referred to as a Light Sport Aircraft in the USA) has collided with a ferris wheel at a fair being held near a small airfield. Three former RAAF 707 tankers have been purc...

Steve's looking for Grant who's out searching for his credibility and trying to recover from the hassling he got from the Geeks last week. You make two little mistakes... As the RAAF received their 5th C-17, they've turned around and ordered a 6th one. Woo hoo, that could even increase the odds that the boys might even get a media flight :) Tiger Airways are increasing their flights on existing ro...

Steve offers Grant the choice of Tiger Airways news or Virgin Australia news, so we're surprised he didn't choose the Qantas news... The former COO of Virgin Blue is now going to be the CEO of Tiger Airways. Grant's conspiracy theory about Singapore Airlines being involved in both Tiger & Virgin Australia leading to Tiger becoming to Virgin as Jetstar is to Qantas. Virgin Australia has done we...

The boys are out at Coldstream airport for the Mission Aviation Discovery Day recording live with Anthony "The View from the Lounge" Simmons and ATC Ben. Steve's working on his diet and, despite his growling stomach, the team discuss the great news that Korda Mentha, Ansett's receivers, have finally managed to get 97% of funds owed to employees paid out some 10 years after the airline collapsed. I...

It may be winter cold down here in Australia but nothing like the severe weather the USA is experiencing. Perhaps a way to warm up is to run through some news? The government will be conducting a fighter capability gap assessment of the F-35... next year. The RAAF's AP-3C fleet have clocked up 20,000 hours while in the Middle East. Regional Express (REX) has reported a slight loss in their end of...

The boys are joined by Will Horton from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation to discuss Qantas' restructuring plans including Jetstar Asia, networks with other airlines, the proposed premium A320 based airline in Asia and changing some of their international routes. We also compare Qantas' changes with the changes being made in Virgin Australia by their new CEO, John Borghetti.

Grant's out busy working with the hot air balloons so Steve's flying solo. He covers the following aviation stories: Tiger Airways is back in the air but with a few conditions from CASA. John McCormick at CASA has listed the issues they encountered when investigating Tiger Airways, with many of the them stemming from the airline's poor documentation and recording. Strategic Airlines have been talk...

Steve's still in the USA and dialled in to the Geeks recording session to say Hi. Meanwhile, Grant's sent in a couple of quick headlines from Down Under, noting that Tiger Airways continues to be grounded and more Super Hornets have arrived. Max notes that this is officially the shortest Australia Desk ever! Steve gives his views on the Tiger Airways grounding and draws comparisons with the failed...

Grant's sitting with Rob in his studio and chatting with the Geeks when Steve dials in via speaker phone to help discuss the aviation news from Down Under. CASA has issued a list of items that Tiger Airways must address before they can allowed to carry passengers again. CASA has also launched a review of GA regulations but the boys are dubious that it will lead to any tangible improvements. GippsA...

The boys have asked Anthony "The Infrequent Flyer" Simmons to fill in for them with an Australia Desk while they're at Oshkosh 2011. Despite having to first clean out the studio, he throws out all the instructions and presents his View from the Australia Desk, covering the following aviation news items from Down Under: Tiger Airways have been issued a Show Cause notice from CASA which is likely to...

The boys are packing for Oshkosh and Steve's trying to figure how to get the mega-sized jar of Vegemite through bio-inspection on arrival in Los Angeles. They do have a quick skim through the latest aviation news items from Down Under, including: USA has cleared AirNZ over any involvement in the cargo freight cartel price fixing. Jetstar is considering the Airbus A320 NEO. The RAAF are taking a fe...

The boys couldn't synchonise their schedules, so they've recorded their own separate parts that Steve's managed to merge into a single desk episode. Grant talks about Tiger Airways continuing to be grounded and unlikely to be flying again before August 1st as scapegoats are sought within the company and the ACCC is upset with them selling tickets when the grounding hasn't officially been lifted. A...