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16 September, 2024

The rise of the aerosexual – and a few other important aviation stories

By Grant Jones

It has been a big week for Aussie aviation with talk of ‘aerosexuals’ at the CAPA Summit, Virgin’s refit its MAX-10 to MAX-8 (not Dash 8, but more on that later), the $5billion Brisbane Airport terminal refurb, a third Melbourne runway and Turkish Airlines landing in Sydney – and that was just Thursday and Friday!

We also attended a cocktail party, and grand ballroom dinner and two days of conferencing over that period at the annual CAPA Airline Leader Summit Australia Pacific at the new $3.6b The Star at Queens Wharf, Brisbane.

Talking of aerosexuals, the summit opened with a local indigenous song woman, dressed in a magnificent painted kangaroo cloak, regaling us of her career start in travel, before she found her calling in Indigenous song. When she mentioned the obsessive aerosexuals when she was in travel, a ripple ran through the Grand Ballroom of The Star, then a great deal of laughter. Apparently, it’s a thing (see below).

Keyboard warrior’s mad Dash

Just when we thought we were done for the week a keyboard warrior, hiding behind a pseudonym, started sending abusive emails on Saturday, accusing us of being duplicitous when our transcription tool had Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlcka talking of the refit of the “max dash 10” and “max dash eight”. Your new editor, no “aerosexual”, left it as said.

“You will instead rely on clickbait headlines, this is irresponsible and lacks journalistic integrity,” said our new friend ‘Quito’ from his basement room filled with paper planes featuring rough images of number and letters on the wings – we jest.

We should have, in fact, changed it to MAX-8 and MAX-10 using a “-” instead of “dash”, to distinguish the Boeing jet aircraft from the twin-engine turboprop de Havilland Dash 8. Two other suggestions we received were a lot nicer and we fixed the error.

Third runway for Melbourne Airport

Earlier, Melbourne Airport received a long-awaited approval to build a third runway on Friday, with the Federal Government setting out conditions to minimise the noise from aircraft on surrounding communities.

Federal Transport Minister Catherine King said the new runway would allow the airport to cash in on rising demand in the city, boosting the State economy by $6 billion a year, plus providing better access to passengers, of course.

The airport will also be required to include a provision for a legally enforceable commitment to restore the length of the existing east-west runway in a bid to increase opportunities for noise sharing.

Western Sydney International cultural coup

Both Philippine Airlines and VietJet will explore services from Western Sydney Airport with the airport’s proximity to the Filipino and Vietnamese diaspora in Sydney potentially beneficial to both carriers.

Philippine Airlines VP revenue management and commercial planning Alex Featherstone, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Australia Pacific, said the carrier would “explore” the potential of launching services to Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport as it “gets closer to operation”.

SA’s revived China link

After Saturday’s chat with Quito, then came Sunday, when the South Australian Government announced that China Southern Airlines, one of that nation’s three largest, would be reviving its Adelaide to Guangzhou link from December 12.

The Boeing Dreamliner 787-8s will offer three flights a week – on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays – providing an extra 798 seats each week. The SA Government estimates the flights will generate more than $69 million annually in state economic activity and create more than 255 tourism-related jobs.

Air India shrugs off Govt legacy

In a wide-ranging interview at CAPA, Air India boss Campbell Wilson said the airline is on a steady rebuild and will target the growing diaspora of Indian-Australians as part of its rebuild. That rebuild will, of course, be thanks to Air India’s record-breaking order for 470 aircraft, with one new aircraft now coming into service every six days! That puts Virgin Australia’s refit in the shade.

Owned by the Indian Government for 70 years, the airline is now part of the TATA group, which originally started the airline almost a century ago. What’s old is new again.

Not just another week in aviation – the aerosexuals will be excited.

Feature image: www.img2go.com

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