Sunday Funday at Southbank

The morning started out with a lazy breakfast at our local café with long time friends we haven't seen for a while. After that we headed into a place near the city called Southbank Parklands for a swim. South Bank Parklands, a place established on the former site of World Expo 88, is one of Brisbane's most popular tourist attractions.The parklands are home to many famous restaurants and cafés that cater for all tastes, as well as landmarks such as the Queensland Conservatorium, the Wheel of Brisbane, Streets Beach, (a large man-made swimming area), a Boat pool and of course the very popular markets. Streets Beach is Australia’s only inner-city man-made beach and it boasts a sparkling lagoon surrounded by white, sandy beaches and sub-tropical plants. Streets Beach (from Streets Ice Cream) is free to use and is patrolled by qualified lifeguards all year round.  Another popular swimming area is the Boat pool, and similar to Streets Beach, the Boat Pool is free to use and is patrolled by qualified lifeguards all year round.
Another good thing about Southbank is when they are using runway 19 for departures at the airport, departing aircraft heading to New Zealand, USA, Canada or any of the Asian countries all bank over  Southbank before setting course for their destination, making a good day in the park a great day.
Below are some photos that were taken by either myself, my daughter or my wife.

SOUTHBANK POOL

BRISBANE CITY

BRISBANE EYE

SOUTHBANK MARKETS

CHINA SOUTHERN B787-8 B-2737 (CN 34930)

GUANGZHOU - CHRISTCHURCH 

AIR NEW ZEALAND B777-319 ZK-OKR (CN 44546)

QANTAS B747-438 VH-OJS (CN 25564)

QANTAS A330-202 VH-EBS (CN 1258)

AIR CANADA B787-8 C-GHPU (CN 35259)

VIRGIN B737-81D VH-YFE (CN 39414)

ALLIANCE FOKKER F28 MK 100 VH-FKJ (CN 11372)

ALLIANCE FOKKER F28 MK 70 VH-QQV (CN 11565)

AIR CHINA A330-302 B-18356 (CN 1272)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA EMBRAER 190 VH-ZPH (CN 19000199)

THAI B787-8 HS-TQB (CN 35316)

BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL CITY CATS

KOOKABURRA QUEEN PADDLE STEAMER

Malaysia Airlines returns to Brisbane

FRONT: MASKARGO A330-223F 9M-MUA (CN 1136)       File Photo

REAR: MALAYSIA A330-323 9M-MTC (CN 1229)                        

Back on the 25th June 2015 I wrote a story about Malaysia Airlines pulling out of Brisbane (again) and on the 8th August that year the last flight arrived. Below is a small part of that story 
Tonight is the last flight for Malaysia Airlines flight MH 135 / MH 134 into Brisbane and 9M-MTI did the honours.
With Malaysia Airlines cancelling its daily services this means there will no longer be direct flights between Kuala Lumpur and Brisbane.
Malaysia Airlines, reeling from the disappearance of MH 370 and the shooting down of MH 17, is "technically bankrupt" and is in the midst of a massive operational upheaval.

TOASTING THE LAST ARRIVAL OF MALAYSIA AIRLINES

Well I have some good news for us aerosexual cloud bunnies and some bad news.
The good news is from the 6th June 2018 Malaysia Airlines will commence flights to Brisbane again. The four times weekly service will be provided using their A330-300 aircraft with up to 290 seats. The airline will be operating every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
The bad news is the aircraft will arrive in darkness meaning no daylight shots.
The flight schedule will be this;
MH135 will depart Kuala Lumpur at 9.50am KL time and will arrive in Brisbane at 7.55pm.
The returning flight, MH134 will depart Brisbane at 11.20pm and arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 5.50am the next morning.

MALAYSIA B777-2H6 9M-MRE (CN 28412)               File Photo

Other cities Malaysia Airlines’ operate between are Sydney (twice daily), Melbourne (twice daily), Perth (once daily) and Adelaide (4 times a week).

Brisbane to lose the daily A380

EMIRATES A390-861 A6-EDA (CN 011)          File Photo

Having a love for aviation (well an obsession actually) and the A380 being my favourite aircraft, it was disappointing to hear the daily EK 434, which comes into Brisbane direct from Dubai every morning and continues on to Auckland, was dropping the Auckland sector in March this year. (I did a story on the on the 14th October 2017)  This means the daily 8.25am departure of the biggest passenger aircraft in the word, and of course the 7pm arrival back from Auckland as EK435 was going to cease, and the aircraft would sit on the ground all day like it does in Sydney and Melbourne.

WELL, if that wasn't bad enough Emirates have confirmed Brisbane will be losing the A380 altogether for 3 months from early June to late August. The 489 seat A380 will be replaced by the smaller 354 seat B777. 
From the 25th March 2018, Emirates will also stop flying from Melbourne to Auckland. Emirates will retain its existing daily A380 flight from Dubai to Christchurch via Sydney, and the airline is also evaluating potential new direct services between New Zealand and Dubai.

Qantas will be filling the gap that Emirates will leave behind and will increase the frequency of its services between the two countries, adding seven new return flights per week between Melbourne and Auckland and an extra two return services per week between Brisbane and Auckland. Some of these services will be upgraded from a 737 to a A330.

The changes also enable Emirates to reschedule its Australia flights to create a better spread of departure times throughout the day the airline said, offering customers more choice when connecting and arriving in to the 38 European and 28 Middle East and North African destinations served by the airline’s popular A380 and 777 aircraft.


I am booked on the last Emirates flight from Auckland to Brisbane, going over on the 24th to do some plane spotting in Auckland for two days and returning on the last flight on the 25th March.

Two 737's collide in Toronto - Canada

WESTJET B737-7CT (CN 32758)                  File Photo

Two Boeing 737-800 aircraft were involved in a collision on the ground at Toronto-Pearson International Airport, (YYZ/CYYZ) Canada on Friday evening (Canada time).
WestJet flight WS2425, a Boeing 737-800 registered C-FDMB, landed on runway 24R at 17:39 hours local time following a flight from Cancún, (CUN/MMUN) Mexico.
Preliminary reports suggest the Westjet aircraft was stationary on the taxiway near the gate when another Boeing 737-800 was being pushed back from gate A14. This aircraft operated by Sunwing Airlines C-FPRP had arrived from Cancún Airport as flight WG272 earlier and had parked at gate A14 at 16:38 hours.
During pushback the APU of the Sunwing impacted the wing tip of the WestJet aircraft. A fire broke out in the APU and the wingtip of WS2425 became engulfed in flames. The WestJet aircraft was evacuated on the taxiway.

The WestJet aircraft with 168 passengers and 6 crew aboard was in the queue for the gate when the Sunwing plane, carrying no passengers, backed into it.

“Out of nowhere there was an audible crunch and the plane rocked slightly,” said a shaken passenger.

“We looked out the window and saw that the plane had backed up into us. Everyone was a little shocked and kind of chuckling at the situation.”

Due to the position of the aircraft on the taxiway, WestJet passengers required evacuation via emergency slide. Emergency crews were on hand and responded immediately,” Westjet said in a statement.

There were no injuries to any passenger and the fire was quickly contained.

Aircraft Information
Aircraft: Boeing 737-8FH
Operator: Sunwing 
Registration: C-FPRP
Serial Number: 39959
First Flew: 14/05/2015
Age: 2 Years 6 Months

Aircraft Information
Aircraft: Boeing 737-8CT
Operator: Westjet
Registration: C-FDMB
Serial Number: 60127
First Flew: 20/11/2014
Age:  3 Years  1 Month

Top 20 Safest Airlines For 2018

AirlineRatings.com, the world’s only safety and product rating website, has announced its Top 20 safest airlines for 2018 from the 409 it monitors.

THE TOP 20 SAFEST AIRLINES FOR 2018 ARE

(in alphabetical order) 

Air New Zealand,

Alaska Airlines,

All Nippon Airways,

British Airways,

Cathay Pacific Airways,

Emirates,

Etihad Airways,

EVA Air,

Finnair,

Hawaiian Airlines,

Japan Airlines,

KLM,

Lufthansa,

Qantas,

Royal Jordanian Airlines, 

Scandinavian Airline System,

Singapore Airlines,

Swiss,

Virgin Atlantic

and  Virgin Australia.

According to AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas, these airlines are standouts in the industry and are at the forefront of safety, innovation, and launching of new aircraft.

“For instance, Australia’s Qantas has been recognized by the British Advertising Standards Association in a test case as the world’s most experienced airline.” Qantas has been the lead airline in virtually every major operational safety advancement over the past 60 years and has not had a fatality in the jet era,” said Mr. Thomas. “But Qantas is not alone. Long established airlines such as Hawaiian and Finnair have perfect records in the jet era.”

TOP 10 SAFEST LOW COST AIRLINES

Responding to the public interest, the AirlineRatings.com editors also identified their Top 10 safest low-cost airlines. These are in alphabetical order:

Aer Lingus,

Flybe,

Frontier,

HK Express,

Jetblue,

Jetstar Australia,

Thomas Cook,

Virgin America,

Vueling,

and Westjet.

Unlike a number of low-cost carriers, these airlines have all passed the stringent International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and have excellent safety records.  To arrive at its Top 20 AirlineRatings.com takes into account the most important factors for safety that include; audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations; government audits; airline’s crash and serious incident record and the fleet age.

AirlineRatings.com also announced its lowest ranked (one star) airlines which are;

Air Koryo,

Bluewing Airlines,

Buddha Air,

Nepal Airlines,

Tara Air,

Trigana Air Service

and Yeti Airlines.

It is good to see Australia's biggest three made it on the good list

Information sourced from here                                                                       https://www.airlineratings.com/news/top-20-safest-airlines-2018/