RFDS -Royal Flying Doctor Service

Photo (Lloyd) VH-FDB

The RFDS operate 57 aircraft Australia wide and 17 in Queensland.Of that up to 8 aircraft are BNE based FDA,FDB,FDI,FDO,FDR,FDT,FDW,FDZ.There are several other bases in QLD.

This airline carries sick and emergency patients from towns to cities and even operate out of small country airfields .They are a true Australian ICON.On most days at BNE airport they operate around 7 or 8 departures and similar number of arrivals from their GA apron terminal to towns around Queensland.Their BNE base has hangar space for 3 or 4 aircraft and the medivac facility is located on the GA apron.

Brisbane also recives the occasional PC12 which are based at Charleville and Mt Isa in outback Queensland.The Cessna 208's are based at Cairns

Our Aircraft-Queensland Section

The RFDS (Queensland Section) has a fleet of 17 aircraft including 12 Beechcraft Super King Air B200s, three Pilatus PC-12s and two Cessna Grand Caravan C208's.

The Beechcraft, which is mainly used for emergency retrieval work is capable of speeds of up to 500 kilometres per hour and a range of 1500 km, with a pilot, medical team and two patients on board.

In 2002, three Pilatus PC-12’s were introduced into the Service. The Pilatus is of a similar size to the Beechcraft, is capable of nearly 500km/hr, has a range comparable to the Beechcraft and is significantly cheaper to operate.

These aircraft are pressurised, enabling patients to be flown in at the equivalent of sea level - an essential requirement in the treatment of many serious injuries. A neonatal unit can also be carried for emergency care of babies.

In 2010, two Cessna Grand Caravan C208's were introduced to the RFDS Cairns Base for transporting our Primary Health Care staff to rural and remote communities of the Cape York region, allowing us to deliver a greater diversity of Primary Health Care services to these communities.
GOOD ON YA RFDS.

Source RFDS web site.

Welcome "Lady Blue - tiful"

(Photo by Michael Dawson)

Today also saw the delivery of another new aircraft to Virgin Blue.  VH-VUU Boeing 737-8FE c/n:36609 l/n: 3232 is seen here on approach to Brisbane after routing BFI-LIH-NAN-BNE.

Discover A Whole New World With Virgin Blue.

(Photo by Michael Dawson)

Today saw the offical launch of Avatar on DVD in Australia,  Virgin Blue in conjunction with Fox celebrated this by applying decals as seen above to one of Virgin Blue's B737-800's.

BITRE report on growth at BNE for next 20 years

This Transport Government Bureau updates every few years the expected growth of the Capital city airports for the next 20 years.Brisbane is expected to be the fastest of all in both pax and aircraft movements.BNE airport will definitely need the parallel runway to meet these figures.

PAX GROWTH will go from 18.76 million in 2008-2009 to 51.2 million in 2029-2030 at 4% growth.Of that 4% growth it is made up of 6% international,4.8% inter capital and 4% regional but no growth on the unscheduled charter pax movements.This is the highest growth rate of all airports anticipated.

In regards to Aircraft movements BNE again leads at 3.1% planned growth.In 2008-2009 BNE had 183,700 movements and in 2029-2030 it expects to handle 346,100,or 948 movements a day on average which means peak days will be over 1,000. As part of this International arrivals should be as high as 94 a day compared to about 38 a day last year.

Based on all the above stats BNE is expected to reach 600 movements a day in 2014-2015 and 700 in 2017-2018.
PAX figures are expected to reach 20 million in 2010-2011 and 30 million in 2016-2017 and pass Sydney's current pax figures in the year 2018-2019

Cheers Lloyd

US C208 and Rutan Defiant at OOL 27APRIL

Photos above(Terry Magee)

Virginian Rutan Defiant N57KS arrived at OOL yesterday from CNS.It is planned to join a Australian Defiant at Wedderburn south of Sydney.This aircraft is a rare midwing aircraft.Thank you Terry for sharing.
Also Cessna Caravan N208CCvisited Seair at OOL before proceeding to Bankstown(Sydney)

Chinese Biz at BNE today

B-3906 a Hawker 4000(HA4T) arrived at BNE today from Queenstown NZ .The aircraft callsign DER 657 arrived just after noon. cn RC-55

Photo(Lloyd)

Logo aircraft at BNE today

Wunala Dreaming 744(TOP) VH-OEJ made a rare visit to BNE today on QF 16 LAX-BNE.This aircraft then repositioned empty to Sydney as seen by this photo it was already quite high as it passed the viewing area on a 01 departure.

Skytrans Dash 8-100 VH-QQF with Taipans logo, was parked on the GA apron ready for a flight later on.The Taipans are the Cairns based basketball team and of course Skytrans have their main base in Cairns.

A few Biz at YBBN today

N30XC a CL300 at BNE GA apron today.
VH-LMP (Middle)BAE 125-1000B a Adelaide based aircraft.
VH-PSU Citation 560 QLD GOVT.
Photos (Lloyd)

VH-WPH PC12 at BNE and Air Pacific DQ-FJG

Above photo taken earlier this week of PC-12/47 SN 764 of Argyle charter of Archerfield airport Brisbane.This photo was taken at YBBN .
Air Pacific 73H on takeoff from 01 earlier this month

PHOTOS(Lloyd)

VH-XCU Citation 560 at Gold Coast today

Photo Terry Magee

This Citation 560 operated OOL-HTI(Hamilton Island)-OOL-ESS(Essendon) today.sn 560-5673

Thanks Terry for showing this Biz.

ATC BNE frequencies

Airways clearance delivery is 118.6
Brisbane ground is 121.7
Brisbane tower is 120.5
Brisbane approach and departures north is 128.3 and 124.7.
Brisbane departures south and east is 125.6 .
Centre is 130.4 and 129.2 south and 123.0 and 129.0 north and 134.3 east and west.
Local vhf traffic uses 125.7

Cheers Lloyd

Special happenings today 21 april 2010

On a wet and cool day today there have been a few noteworthy movements.Beech 300 VH-EWQ sn FL-122 made a rare visit today from it's Toowoomba base.
VH-VHD A319 SN 1999 made a extremely rare trip to BNE from MEL.It is owned by Skytraders and operates winter flights to Antarctica for research and the passengers are usually scientists.I CAN ASSURE you all it does not snow in Brisbane.

Bizjets today were citation 650 VH-DHN,Lear 60 VH-THG(BNE based),VH-KXL cit525 and US registered N30XC a Challenger 300 for a first visit here.

Diversion today was QF108 VH-OEB 747-400 LAX-SYD diverted to BNE due to holding in Sydney.

Happenings today at Brisbane Airport

Today we had Atlas Air 744F N409MC operate AKL-BNE bringing in the V8 super cars from Auckland .This aircraft then departed to Bangkok.Unfortunately no photos as too wet this afternoon.
Local biz were in today VH-JMK Cit 550 based at ROK(Rockhampton),VH-KTG arrived from overseas it is a Global 5000 BNE based,Local BAE125 VH-TNX also departed and arrived from NTL.VH-MSH a Beech 200 of NSW Air Ambulance also arrived and departed this morning.
Strategic Airlines A330-200 VH-SSA arrived from Brunei in the early hours and their A320 VH-YQA operated the BNE-HIR flight in lieu of F-GSTR.
Regards Lloyd.

Pacific Flier now has titles

CS-TEI now has full titles added .
Photo(Lloyd)

P2-ANW in today

First visit of this beaut Falcon 900 to Brisbane this afternoon.The aircraft was delivered to PNG Government in November 2009.Sure does look splendid.

Photo(Lloyd)

Brisbane airport 2009 stats

Brisbane airport handled just over 19.1 million pax last calendar year a very small 0.4 % growth rate and aircraft movements declined from 183,500 in 2008 to 180,197 in 2009.These figures taken on a world scale considering the GFC in 2009 are quite good.

In 2008 Brisbane was ranked 69th busiest airport(pax) in the world and i would believe 2009 will show little change.So far this year Jan pax figures were down 5% but February was up about 4.4% over the corresponding months of 2009.With additional Airlines having started in March 2010 so far Pacific Flier,Phillipines and Tiger with more to come and a improving economy mayby the magic 20 million pax may be reached this year ?? but more likely it will be 2011.This will then propel Brisbane into the larger airports of the world. The common user terminal at the domestic will get a extra 2 bays this year and a larger terminal area upstairs for passengers.More car parks are being built at the domestic terminal area as well.

Sources www.bne.com.au and air services australia stats.

Interesting movements at BNE today

3 movements of mention today.Firstly Challenger N360PL arrived this am and parked at hawkers and departed this evening to Sydney.

Skytrans Cessna 404 titan VH-SKJ operated down from Townsville this am and returned a hour later back to that city.

USN C130T tail no 164996 departed for Pago Pago this morning.

Regards Lloyd

Both photos taken by (Terry Magee) at Gold Coast airport(OOL) yesterday and the day before.
ER-MHZ MIL 8 arrived from NZ via NLK(Norfolk Island) and LDH(Lord Howe Island)
The Blackhawk helicopter A25-204 was on approach to runway 14 at OOL.Thanks Terry for sharing these photos.

GOLD COAST yesterday

Royal Brunei getting 772 ER's

Apparently it is a goer with at least 3 required to operate the Daily BWN-DXB-LHR flight and yes the 6 times a week BWN-BNE flight.Our first flight is 26june arrival at 0550 and out just after noon the same day.It will be nice to see a new aircraft type for BI as the 767's have operated for quite awhile now to Brisbane.I can remember the 757-200 which innaugarated the flight to Brisbane at the start.
Regards Lloyd

NEW AIRLINES for BNE later this year.??

Latest news stories report China Southern are coming back after 12 years in the wilderness.Newspaper articles in China suggest a daily 777 CAN-BNE-AKL rotation but that may be far too much for so early .
Garuda are also rumoured to be planning a comeback with up to 5 737-800 flights a week from 27october although nothing definite has been posted.
Vincent Aviation of NZ are planning a east coast base with SF 340 and BNE is a distinct possibility.
Cebu Pacific have filed for 2 flights a week MNL-DRW(tech stop)-BNE and are awaiting approvals to operate this service.

Other airlines rumoured to be looking at the possibility of flying here include Zest,Vietnam,Hong Kong Airlines,Air China and Shanghai Airlines.

Looks like a spray paint shop at Qantas hangar 1

The BAC website under developments and building approvals shows that a spray shop has been approved for this in QF hangar 1, which has the the A330 MRTT in it currently.Looks like they plan to paint them here now.However what interests me more is whether this facility will remain after the tankers have all been done.It would be great to have such a facility in Brisbane for painting aircraft when the need arises.I believe some spraying is done in the Alliance hangar still ???.

BNE new deliveries expected soon

We can expect 3 new airliner deliveries later this month and next month to BNE.

Strategic A320 VH-YQC due at end of month.
Virgin Blue 737-800 VH-VUU also end of month
Alliance F100 most likely coming from Germania mayby in Air Berlin colors due in May.

Lloyd

Specials and extra flights this winter.

Firstly Air Pacific(FJ) will operate the 737-700 thru BNE in daylight hours on Mondays and Saturdays from 19 apr till 29 may.Times are 1030-1130 and a great opportunity for photos.
China Airlines are operating a extra flight Sunday 11july 0845-1010 so we will have 2 of their 333's on the deck that day at the one time.
Pacific Blue start a seasonal BNE-QTN(Queenstown) flights on Friday and Sundays 25june to 10september,DJ 113 arrives at 1745 from Queenstown.Air New Zealand who have operated seasonal Queenstown flights on previous years will increase from 3 a week to 4 from 24june to early October.NZ 233 will operate Mon,wed,Thurs,Sun during that period.And of course Qantas will recommence their Saturday seasonal flight to Queenstown from 26june to 18september.
Air New Zealand have a special charter AKL-BNE-LAS operating 16july outbound departing BNE at 1300 hrs and back 20july at 1030am.Aircraft is a 744.
Air Pacific will add a Saturday night flight making 8 a week to Fiji for the period 26june to 10 july.
Pacific Flier will add BNE-GUM(Guam) from early May twice a week to give us 3 flights a week to Micronesia.I will add to this as i know more details of extra flights over the winter.
Regards Lloyd

Happenings today at Brisbane

Today there were 2 interesting movements .Challenger N604KJ arrived from Majuro this afternoon.This aircraft has been here a few times before.USAF C130 no other details sorry however callsign was CNV 3564 landed around 5pm today from Apia.
Also today Pacific Flier A310 CS-TEI had titles put on the fuselage(no photos will try next week)

Cheers Lloyd

Other interesting movements the past days

Also on Sunday was Air Tractor VH-FFB which arrived from Ballarat at the end of the fire fighting season.It was heading home to Canada.I believe it also has a joint Canadian reg as well.The aircraft departed BNE at 0600 hrs the next day for Fiji.
Yesterday we had a cirrus delivery thru here .N629B SR22 arrived from Noumea Magenta airport yesterday afternoon.
On saturday we had AMSA Dornier 328 VH-PPV arrive and depart to Rockhampton.No photos sorry of those 3 movements .Anyway that is all folks.Cheers Lloyd

Sunday, a day of rest with weather at it's best.

9M-MRO

(Photo by Michael Dawson)

Sunday  11 April 2010 at Brisbane couldn't have been a better day weather wise with the sun shining and a nice breeze blowing.  We were treated to a spectacular overfly by Malaysian Airlines 9M-MRO operating MH 130 AKL - KUL.  As seen above the contrail was spectacular.  We also treated to second good movement for the day as Singapore Cargo SQ 7291 also arrived from Auckland on it's way to Singapore in what can only be described as brilliant afternoon light.  Also below are the other movements captured for the day.

9V-SFK

(Photo by Michael Dawson)

9V-STJ

(Photo by Michael Dawson)

B-18311

(Photo by Michael Dawson)

BNE Maintenance news

Qantas Commences A330 Maintenance at Brisbane

Source: Qantas

09/04/2010

Qantas today formally welcomed the commencement of A330 heavy maintenance at its Brisbane operation and introduced 21 new apprentice engineers who will join the 450-strong engineering workforce in Brisbane.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer, Mr Alan Joyce, said today’s announcement delivered upon a commitment made by the airline last year to establish an A330 heavy maintenance base in Brisbane. “Premier Bligh and I stood here last year to announce that we were bringing A330 maintenance back to Australia, and had chosen Brisbane as the location. Today, I am very proud to stand here again with Treasurer Andrew Fraser to showcase our ongoing investment in Australian engineering,” he said. “We also have 21 new apprentice engineers joining Qantas in Brisbane today. These young men and women are part of the 100 apprentices we employ, on average, each year at Qantas, and also part of our 5,500 Australian-based engineering workforce. “We are committed to continuing our investment in the future engineers of Australia. We operate the largest civil aviation apprentice program in Australia where our apprentices learn alongside our senior engineers to maintain our aircraft to the highest safety standards.” Mr Fraser said both the Queensland Government and Qantas had a long history of investing in Queensland jobs. “I’m really pleased to be here today to see this commitment to have an A330 heavy maintenance base located in Brisbane become a reality,” he said. “Today’s announcement proves Queensland is the best place to do business and that we have what it takes to beat tough inter-state competition and secure jobs for Queenslanders.” Mr Joyce said the Brisbane heavy maintenance facility was established in 2005 at a cost of $85 million and was the airline’s third heavy maintenance facility in Australia alongside Tullamarine and Avalon in Victoria. Qantas Engineering received more than 700 applications for the 2010 apprentice intake. Qantas undertakes around 90 per cent of aircraft heavy maintenance in Australia. Any work that is carried out offshore is overflow work or work undertaken in major operational hubs due to regulatory requirements that aircraft undergo specific certifications before operating a long haul service. Any overseas maintenance work is overseen by Qantas Engineers and certified to Civil Aviation Safety Authority standards.

Pacific and New Zealand carriers out of BNE

As shown with previous 2 photos of Toll and Solomons which fly to Pacific islands out of BNE.
Carriers are Jetstar,Jetconnect(Qantas),Air New Zealand,Pacific Blue,DHL(freight) to NZ.
Pacific Blue,Polynesian Blue,Air Calin,Solomons,Air Pacific,Air Vanuatu,Air Niugini,Pacific Air Express(Freight),Heavylift(Freight),Pacific Flier,Norfolk Air,Our Airline,Toll(Freight),Alliance(Charter).
The Pacific islands and NZ are very important to Brisbane and rely on Tourism as well as freight.Most flights leave BNE in the am and return in the late afternoon or evening except For New Zealand flights which can be multi daily.

Photos and info (Lloyd)

TOLL freight 733F

More Pacific carriers that service BNE

Solomons A320 F-GSTR at BNE

Gold Coast (OOL) Bizjets today

VH-LEP sn 9346 BD-700-IA11 of Linfox sighted at OOL today along with N232CL Falcon 900 of Werner Enterprises sn 009.
Gold Coast airport is located approx 85km S-SE of Brisbane Airport.They handle approx 5.5 million pax a year and the airport is the arrival point for the number one tourist destination in Australia.

Gold Coast biz JETS today

VA today BNE-HKT

Brisbane airport NEWS today

Today we had a few military movements buzz the airport with 2 new super hornets doing a missed approach on runway 19 .Gosh they are loud.NH90 helicopter movements were also evident.The airport again had runway changes with 19/14 in the morning and 01/14 in the afternoon.I noticed today that Tiger airways only appear to use bay 26 at the common user terminal as the 2nd aircraft had to await the first Tiger aircraft to move from that gate which took about 10 minutes.
The common user terminal which is the terminal Jetstar,Tiger,Skytrans,Alliance and Rex use will soon be expanded with a further 2 gates and a completion of the terminal to a complete circle.This will allow more cafes,more space for check in etc.Work should start soon and be completed by years end .
Today there was a missed approach with a Virgin Blue 737-700 unable to takeoff in time and this resulted in a Qantas 767-300 doing a published missed approach on 19.Bizjets seen today are VP-CKD G4 first visit
N146EX Falcon 900EX
N3050 G5
N232CL Falcon 900
VH-SSZ Citation
VH-THG Lear 60
VH-CRW Falcon 2000


Photo(Lloyd) QF 15 BNE-LAX today off of 01

Acacia Street

I will post a google earth map location map to show how spotters and enthusiats can find this location.(Lloyd)

Acacia Street Viewing Area

Good photo today showing how close the aircraft come when on taxyway Bravo which leads to the holding point for 19

Acacia St continued

Acacia Street loop road area

Acacia Street photos

View of runway 19 hold from Acacia Street

Brisbane Airport Acacia Street viewing area

Just wish to introduce people to our airport main viewing area which is best for runway 19 landings and takeoffs,runway 14 landings and runway 32 takeoffs and runway 01 takeoffs.Unfortunately runway 01 arrivals will turn off earlier than this position.The viewing area is best in the afternoon when the sun is behind us.Acacia Street has parking for approx 20-25 vehicles however if you are walking it is about a 20-25 minute walk from the Qantas end of the domestic terminal.

Hours of operation are 6am-6 pm daily.A small step ladder would be required for photography.The area has a few large trees for shade in the hot summer months.The airport is quite busy with the peak days of Thursday-Friday around the high 500 movements a day are recorded.Saturday is the quietest day with around 430 movements.I will post a few photos taken today of this area which was quite busy with spotters and enthusiasts.

Air Vanuatu YJ-AV1 at YBBN

Air Vanuatu operate to Brisbane and Sydney only in Australia.This aircraft in it's splendid colors is seen operating one of the 3 weekly flights to this beautiful South Sea island paradise out of BNE
Photo (Lloyd)

Our Airline 733 VH-INU on short finals 01

VH-INU operates a Nauru to Brisbane flight a week increasing to 2 a week at peak times.Brisbane is it's only international port in Australia .This airline is another Pacific carrier out of BNE.This photo was taken in Jan 2010.

Pionair Cargo Convair 580F at YBBN

VH-PDX only occasionally operates thru BNE these days.It's sister ship PDW operate in Southern Australia.Their base is Bankstown NSW.This aircraft photo was taken on the GA freight apron before the aircraft headed to Cairns earlier this year.
Photo(Lloyd)

Norfolk Air 733 at BNE

VH-NLK is ready for takeoff to Norfolk Island .This airline operates out of Norfolk to BNE,SYD,MEL,NTL.Flights out of BNE operate 3 times a week to the island.Norfolk Air is a part of Our Airline the Nauru carrier.
Photo(Lloyd)

Alliance Airlines Fokker 100 at BNE (VH-FKG)

Alliance Airways main base is Brisbane with other bases at Perth,Adelaide,Townsville and soon Cairns.Alliance have a fleet of 11 F100'S and 5 F50'S.They operate purely mining and ad hoc charters throughout the country.This aircraft is seen crossing the main runway at Brisbane from their hangars.

Air New Zealand 777-200 ZK-OKH at BNE

ZK-OKH taxying for runway 19 in the early afternoon sun.Air New Zealand operate around 5-6 flights a day out of BNE but in the winter months up to 8 or 9 arrivals is common on some days as the kiwis travel to sub tropical Brisbane and the Queenslanders travel to NZ for the snow.
Photo(Lloyd)

Etihad 332 landing 19 at YBBN

A6-EYI A330-200 cn 730 operates 3 times a week AUH-SIN-BNE .Next year they plan to operate daily and use A340 aircraft and delink SIN.Photo taken last year at BNE
Photo (Lloyd Fox)

Heavylift Cargo Airlines at BNE

RP-C8017 727-100F based at BNE operates 2-3 times a week to PNG-Solomons.This photo was taken a few months ago taxying for 19 at YBBN.

QLD GOVT B1900 VH-PSK at BNE

The Queensland Government have several aircraft in their fleet including 2 biz jets and this B1900 and some smaller Beech 350 and C208.VH-PSK based at Townsville (TSV) operated for the Queensland Police and operates 3 times a week to Brisbane.Photo taken recently after landing Runway 14.

BNE Freighters TOLL PRIORITY ATR42F

Toll Priority operate 3 733F and 2 ATR42F and Toll Express operate numerous Metroliners carrying freight across Australia.Toll Priority is a BNE based carrier and this ATR-42(300) F cn 024 operates BNE-SYD-ADL weeknights .

Freighters at BNE-AAE

Australia Air Express BAE 146-300F VH-NJF parked on the freight apron today 2 april 2010.This machine operated BNE-SYD flights Mon-Thurs back Tues-fridays.The 146 is based here at YBBN.

Brindabella Metro at BNE today 2 april

VH-TAO Brindabella airlines (Canberra based) Metroliner being towed after a flight from Tamworth(TMW) to the GA apron to park till it's next flight.This airline operates J41 and Metros to Brisbane.

AIR NIUGINI 757-200 today

Ready for takeoff on runway 19 PX004 P2-ANB today 2 april 2010.Air Niugini operate 3 types thru here F100,757,767-300 with a total of 9 flights a week to PNG.

B-KGP G550 at BNE today 2 april

Arriving from HKG this morning this aircraft is seen taxying towards the GA terminal after landing on runway 19.

Pacific Flier starts into Brisbane

(Photo by Dave Clements)

Brisbane received it's 3rd new airline in a matter of weeks last night when PFL 302 arrived from Palau(Koror) last night.The A310 CS-TEI is wet leased from HI-FLY.Initially one service a week increasing to 3 a week when Guam -Brisbane is added in MAY.This is Brisbane's 43rd airline including all pax-freight carriers with a further group of smaller GA carriers also operating thru the airport.Unfortunately no photos as yet of Pacific Flier.