After almost 50 years in Air Force service, “aircraft 582” was retired during a ceremony at Offutt AFB, Nebraska on 13 November 2020. “Eventually all good things come to an end,” said Col. John Litecky, 55th Operations Group commander. “All in all, tail 582 has flown over 29,689 hours, which includes 72,251 landings for our…
Malta-based ACMI operator Hi Fly announced today that their sole operating Airbus A380, 9H-MIP (c/n 006 built 2006) is to be retired by the end of December 2020. In a press release the airline stated the decision to retire the aircraft came as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and a reduced demand for large…
In an effort to reduce the amount of flight hours on their E-6B Mercury aircraft the US Navy’s E-6B Programme Office (PMA-271) has issued a contract to procure a former UK Royal Air Force E-3D Sentry. The Sentry will be used by the US Navy as an in-flight training aircraft, although the contract doesn’t specify…
Qantas is working with the Australian Federal Government to repatriate up to 1315 Australians currently stuck overseas. The national carrier will operate eight return services: four from New Delhi, three from London and one from Johannesburg. London and New Delhi flights will operate direct to Darwin. The arrival port for the Johannesburg flight is currently…
Another week, another update from Asobo Studios on the development of Microsoft’s latest additional to the Flight Simulator franchise. With an update on the long-awaited Virtual Reality functionality, the blog contains some great information on the future of the game (sorry, simulator). It starts, however, with an thank you to the key partners involved in…
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific has announced the closure of its subsidiary Cathay Dragon, formerly Dragonair, and is cutting 8,500 jobs. Cathay Dragon was a full service regional carrier flying mainly to mainland China and other Asian destinations. Cathay Pacific and its budget regional carrier Hong Kong Express the majority of the routes previously served by…
NHIndustries have today delivered the first NH90 to the Spanish Air Force, the first of twelve aircraft for search-and-rescue (SAR) and combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) missions. Spain has ordered 45 NH90s broken down in to Ground SPain Army (GSPA) and Maritime SPain TTH (MSPT) aircraft variants. The aircraft is locally named the HT-29 Caimán and operated…
Work to resurface the runways at RAF Lossiemouth has reached a major milestone with the return of aircraft to the Moray station. Having started back in May 2020, VolkerFitzpatrick have worked to resurface both runways and rebuild the northern taxiway structure to support based P-8 Poseidon MRA1 operations from the station, as well as allowing…
Czech airline Smartwings and the Budapest-located Aeropark Repülőmúzeum are joining together for a European first – a flight from Budapest to Budapest at low altitudes, to allow passengers to view the Hungary’s scenery; including the Danube Bed, Balaton and the City of Budapest itself. In addition to the pleasure flight, the experience package includes free…
Frankly we’ve lost track of how many times Alitalia has been bought, sold, nationalised, privatised, renamed and renamed again however we’re at that stage where the airline we all know as Alitalia has again got a new name. Since January 2015 Alitalia has legally been called Alitalia – Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A, following a large…