Sunday Afternoon at the Airport

Since my family and I were out on the north side of Brisbane visiting family members today, we thought we would call into the airport on our way home. We were there for about an hour and just about to leave to come home when I heard on the scanner "Bravo 5273 descend to 5,000 and contact approach on 125.6"  I looked on the radar and found a Boeing 737 BBJ heading our way, couldn't believe my luck. So we unpacked the camera and waited for the arrival.

Below are a few images I took today.

 

QANTAS A330-200 VH-EBO (CN 1169)



NAURU AIRLINES B737-3U3 VH-ONU (CN 28732)



ALLIANCE AIRLINES FOKKER 100 VH-FWI (CN 11318)



ALLIANCE AIRLINES FOKKER 100 VH-XWS (CN 11314)



CAPITAL FINANCE CESSNA CITATION 650

VH-SSZ (CN 650-0158)

OUR AIRLINE (AIR NAURU) B737-330 VH-NLK (CN 23635)

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VFX (CN 5871)

QANTAS ''RETRO ROO''  B737-838 VH-XZP (CN44577)

AIR NIUGINI B767-383 P2-PXW (CN 25365)

DEER JET AIRLINES B737-700 BBJ B-5273 (CN 38633)

DEER JET IS A SUBSIDIARY OF HAINAN AIRLINES AND
WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1995

TOLL FREIGHT B737-476SF (CN 24442)

TOLL FREIGHT 737'S WITH  A MINERALOGY MD 80

TOLL FREIGHT B737-300SF ZK-TLD (CN 23706)

 

Strategicly Australian

Going through my photos this morning I came across these images from the past and I thought I would share them with you. Unfortunately this is another failed airline in Australia.

Founded in 1991 as an air freight broker and trading as Air Charter Logistics, Strategic Aviation Pty Ltd was established. In 2002, Michael James joined the company as an Executive Director and equal shareholder. With a background at Ansett and air charter, James assisted the company to successfully bid for the Australian Defence Force Troop Lift Contract. With this diversification, the trading name was dropped and the company rebranded as "Strategic".
This contract was initially serviced with a leased Airbus A330 from Portuguese Airline HiFly utilising Australian crews. Former OzJet operations director David Blake was appointed CEO in 2008 to assist with the expansion of the airline side of the business.
The first Australian registered aircraft, A330-200 VH-SSA was delivered in July 2009, and the Australian Air Operators Certificate was awarded soon after in September. This was complemented by the third A320 in December 2009.

STRATEGIC A330-232  VH-SSA (CN 324)

STRATEGIC A320-212 VH-YQA (CN 190)

STRATEGIC A320-211 VH-YQB (279)

STRATEGIC A320-212 VH-YQC (395)

                                                                                                                                                             
In June 2009 Strategic purchased the troubled airline OzJet along with its staff, its Air Operators Certificate and the Perth-Derby RPT route.

OZJET B737-229 VH-OBN (CN 21137)

OZJET B737-229 VH OZU (CN 21176)

                                                                                                                                                                  

In February 2011 Executive Director, Shaun Aisen severed his ties with the company leaving Michael James the sole owner. Six months following Mr Aisen's leave from the company six other members of staff left the company as well, namely the chief executive, the chief operating officer and the commercial manager. 2 April 2011, it was first claimed that the airline would change its name by the end of the year, in order to create a brand more identifiable with its Australian roots.

The name change was confirmed in August 2011, with the airline also planning on becoming a low-cost carrier and announcing service from Brisbane and Melbourne to Honolulu to begin in December 2011.

Air Australia officially launched on November 3rd 2011. With its first flight on November 5th 2011.

AIR AUSTRALIA A320-211 VH-YQB (CN 279)

AIR AUSTRALIA A320-211 VH-YQC (CN 395)

 

On 17 February 2012 at 1:30am the Strategic Group's directors decided that the Strategic group of companies including Air Australia, Strategic Engineering Australia, and Strategic Aviation, would be placed into voluntary administration. This was brought about because the fuel supplier refused to refuel an aircraft in Phuket, Thailand on 16 February 2012 due to mounting outstanding payments.

Air Australia suspended all flights leaving approximately 4,000 passengers stranded in Denpasar (Indonesia), Phuket (Thailand) and Hawaii (USA), as well as domestically in Australia. These passengers were advised that they would have to make their own travel arrangements.

The airline owed creditors up to $90 million but had only $1 million in assets as much of its equipment was leased. Administrator Mark Korda said the airline is "not saleable" and is likely to go into liquidation.

The collapse put 300 employees out of work and on 24 March 2012, the creditors voted to place Air Australia into liquidation.

 

50 years travelling across the ditch.

QANTAS Airways yesterday celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first jet service between New Zealand and Australia. On April 10, 1965, a 104 seat QANTAS Boeing 707 (V-jet) aircraft departed Sydney for Christchurch, where it was welcomed by a 10,000 strong crowd. The new Boeing 707s offered a comfortable 20-seat First cabin and 84 seats in Economy.
Previously the Tasman route was serviced by a propeller-driven Lockheed Electra aircraft, and prior to that, Shorts Empire Flying Boats which seated a maximum of 15 passengers and took around nine hours to travel from Auckland to Sydney. The journey now takes around 3 hours.
QANTAS  now operates more than 200 flights per week between New Zealand and Australia, including services between Auckland and Sydney, Melbourne ,Brisbane and Perth; Wellington and Melbourne; and Christchurch and Sydney. Year-round weekly services between Queenstown and Sydney commenced in October 2005 and now operate three times per week, increasing to daily from Sydney and twice a week from Brisbane during the ski season. Jetstar; a low cost carrier owned by Qantas, operates across the Tasman, and within New Zealand between Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Queenstown and Dunedin.

Qantas to do maintenance in Canberra

Qantas Link has announced that it will create a Boeing 717 maintenance base in Canberra, generating up to 40 highly skilled engineering roles in the nation’s capital.
Qantas Link Chief Executive Officer John Gissing was joined by the ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr to make the announcement at Qantas Link’s Boeing 717 engineering facility.
“From October, Canberra will be at the heart of our Boeing 717 engineering operations, which will complement our increased flying out of Canberra with this aircraft type and allow us to better utilise our existing assets at Canberra Airport,” Mr Gissing said.
“This is an investment in new jobs and technical capabilities at Canberra Airport and builds on our strong commitment of over 260 Qantas Group employees in the ACT.”
QantasLink conducts maintenance on its Q400, Q300 and Q200 at its heavy maintenance facility in Tamworth. 

Helicopter Growth Rate slows to almost Zero

Growth in the Australian helicopter industry has slowed to almost zero according to the Australian Helicopter Industry Association (AHIA).
In their quarterly report for January-March 2015, AHIA noted that after 20 years of 7-8% per year growth, there has been very little expansion in the industry since June 2014. In fact, only 10 new rotary-wing aircraft were added to the register since then, a growth of a mere 0.62%.
AHIA Public Officer and Company Secretary Rob Rich blamed several factors for the sudden halt in growth.
"There are many factors causing this setback," he said in the report. "Some are:

• The Federal government’s financial problems following the ongoing budget crisis; where the attempt to the cut spending patterns of the last government are striking fierce resistance.
• The collapse of the Australian dollar has made acquisition of aviation assets more expensive to buy and operate.
• The Deputy Prime Minister (our defacto Aviation Minister) has been unsuccessful in avoiding the paralysis of the CASA Board and senior management due to key people leaving at end of their contract, after the last election.
• The end of the mineral export boom, lower oil prices, long running droughts in northern Australia and general global financial difficulties have added to the latent problems effecting our industry

Australia currently has a fleet of 2,114 helicopters, made up of 1,304 single-engine pistons, 563 single-engine turbines and 247 multi-engine aircraft.

Yard with a view

You've heard the saying "A room with a view" well this is a yard with a view, a view of aircraft that is. Whether they are over flying Brisbane traveling to or from New Zealand or coming into Brisbane to land; when runway 01 is in use aircraft fly directly over our house or very close to it. Today I took a few photos of aircraft overflying us at high altitude and some aircraft coming into Brisbane. All these images were taken from my back yard.
Almost on a daily bases we get an Air New Zealand 777-200, a Malaysia 777-200, a Thai 777-200, a Singapore 777-300 and a Cathay A340 over fly us on their way to Auckland, then from around 1pm onwards we could get the same aircraft flying back over us on their way home.

THAI AIRWAYS 491 HS-TJR BOEING 777-200 (CN 34586)

 

THAI FROM BANGKOK - AUCKLAND

SINGAPORE 285 9V-SWR BOEING 777-300 (CN 34583)

 

MALAYSIA 131 BOEING 777-200 9M-MRQ (CN 28422)

MALAYSIA 131 KUALA LUMPUR TO AUCKLAND

QANTAS 524 VH-VXK BOEING 737-800 (CN 33481)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA 327 VH-VUD BOEING737-800 (CN 34015)

QANTAS 616  VH-VYI BOEING 737-800 (CN 34181)

SCOOT 3A 9V-OJB BOEING 787-900 (CN 37113)
DEPARTED GOLD COAST FOR SINGAPORE

 

 

Virgin Australia adds Scotland and Spain

As promised earlier this year, Virgin Australia keeps adding new international codeshares with Etihad that can compete with the Qantas-Emirates partnership.
The latest are the codeshares over Etihad’s rapidly growing Abu Dhabi hub to Edinburgh and Madrid which also begin today.
Each of these routes will be flown by two class Etihad A332s.
Madrid is the third largest metropolis in greater Europe after London and Paris.
Lifting the performance of Virgin Australia’s international services, including its partner airline codeshares, was declared a high priority when it gave its first half financial year to the end of December briefing late in February