News briefs from September 2026
SEPTEMBER 29, 2026: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has dropped an investigation into an August 2026 turbulence event involving a Jetstar A321-200NX descending to land in Sydney. The agency has determined that the aircraft’s flight envelope protection systems worked as designed, and the flight crew responded appropriately to the situation.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2026: Runway work at Takaroa Airport (IATA: TKX), located on Takaroa Atoll in French Polynesia’s Tuamotu Archipelago, is underway. The project will see the 1,050-metre runway lengthened by 228 metres and widened by seven metres, making it capable of handling Air Tahiti and Air Moana’s ATRs. The work will also see new light beacons installed and a more modern and secure airport terminal constructed.
Read the news report here.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2026: Malaysia Airlines is mulling expanding its network to include Christchurch (CHC) and Wellington (WLG) after it builds its Auckland flights to double-daily services, according to Bryan Foong, CEO of Malaysia Aviation Group, the controlling entity behind Malaysia Airlines. Foong told a New Zealand newspaper that any such expansion would also depend on aircraft availability.
Read the news report here.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2026: Cherrie Air Pty Ltd, the Australian entity spearheading VietJet Air’s anticipated push into the Australian domestic aviation market, has registered the trademark Cherrie Air with IP Australia.
See the filing here.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2026: VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Company, trading as VietJet Air, has added a B737-8 to the Australian aircraft register. The brand-new jet is registered as VH-T8A (msn 63879). The operator is yet to obtain an Australia air operator’s certificate.
Read the filing here.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2026: Guam politicians have held talks with senior officials from China Airlines. The talks canvassed the possibility of the carrier resuming Taipei (TPE) – Guam (GUM flights over the 2027 Northern Summer season. The first flights would be charter flights. If they proved successful, the airline was open to resuming scheduled flights to Guam, pending aircraft availability.
Read the news report here.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2026: Queensland Airports Limited has completed runway maintenance works at Longreach Airport (LRE). The work included applying a protective seal and polymer modified bitumen treatment across the runway, taxiways and aircraft parking areas to extend pavement life, along with fresh line marking.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2026: Runway upgrade work at Mount Hagen Airport (HGU) have resulted in a further shortening of the available runway length until October 5. Consequently, until then, Air Niugini says it can only operate DHC-8-Q200 aircraft into the airport and those aircraft are limited to 18 passengers. When the upgrade work is complete, the airport will be capable of handling B737 and A220 aircraft.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2026: Lismore City Council says the final stage of restoration work at Lismore Airport (LSY) should be completed by the end of November. The work, which follows extensive flood damage in 2022, will improve safety and day-to-day operations across the airport’s general aviation hangar precinct through upgraded aircraft parking areas, improved access routes and dedicated tie-down infrastructure.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2026: Air New Zealand will offer 28% more seats on their seasonal Auckland (AKL) – Hobart (HBA) round-trips compared to the 2025/26 season. The A320-200N and A321 200NX operated flights will run between October 25, 2026, and the end of April 2027, offering ober 33,000 seats, up 7,268 seats on the previous summer.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2026: Starlux Airlines has appointed CVFR Travel Group’s Airline Rep Services as its New Zealand General Sales Agent ahead of it launching flights to Australia and New Zealand in 2027.
Read the news report here.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2026: The Australian Government has updated its 15-year-old air services agreement with Indonesia. Among other changes, an extra 5,000 seats per week will be allocated to carriers from both countries and additional destinations in Indonesia and Australia (including Western Sydney Airport) will be included in the list of airports each country’s airlines can fly to and from.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2026: Heli Tours Fiji, also known as Fly Fiji, has acquired a twin-engine AS350 helicopter. The aircraft, DQ-NOA, will be used to support Fiji's growing high-end tourism market.
Read the news report here.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2026: Virgin Australia says it will operate an average of 420 daily flights, nearly 50 more than the regular daily average, between mid-September and mid-October, a period that includes several major sporting events and school holidays in many states. More than 500 daily flights are scheduled on the busiest days around the AFL Grand Final weekend between September 24 – 27.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2026: Alliance Aviation Services Limited, trading as Alliance Airlines, has successfully completed its retail and institutional capital raising. Yesterday, the company announced the completion of the retail entitlement component of the capital raising, which raised around AUD7 million. This follows the completion of the institutional component, which raised approximately AUD33 million.
Read the stock exchange filing here.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2026: The Australian Government’s Pacific Partnerships for Aviation (P4A) program has donated three Ground Power Units (GPUs) and one Air Starter Unit (ASU) to Vanuatu. They will assist Vanuatu Terminal Services, reduce flight delays, improve aircraft turnaround and servicing capacity, and lower fuel consumption.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2026: Brisbane Airport (BNE) is opening a new 12-lane departures passport control area on level 4 of the international terminal on September 19. For the first time, check in, security screening and passport control will all be located on a single level.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 17, 2026: Qantas has asked Australia’s International Air Services Commission to allocate it an additional 168 seats per week in each direction for five years on the Australia – Palau country pair. The allocation will underpin Qantas’s recently announced second weekly round-trip between Brisbane (BNE) and Koror (ROR).
Read the application letter here.
SEPTEMBER 17, 2026: A total of 793,756 people (excluding transits) passed Adelaide Airport in July 2026, a 3% increase on the previous year. When including the 12,730 passengers transiting through the airport while travelling between Auckland and Doha, there were 806,486 passengers in July, a 4.7% increase on the previous year.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 15, 2026: An Aircalin A330-900 that unexpectedly diverted to Kolkata (CCU) on September 13 is expected to return to Nouméa (NOU) via Bangkok (BKK) today. Following refuelling at the airport, several operational, technical and regulatory issues arose, including the lack of an A330-qualified maintenance engineer at the airport to undertake the required regulatory technical maintenance and release the aircraft.
Read the news release here
SEPTEMBER 14, 2026: The Australian Government has re-appointed of Julie Bullas as a commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) for another three years.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2026: An Air Niugini B737-300ER registered as P2-PXV (msn 30341) struck a bat while landing at Port Moresby (POM) early on September 7. The bat collided with the aircraft’s fibreglass nose, destroying the radar contained within it. Boeing is shipping out a replacement radar and Air Niugini expects to have the aircraft back in the air by this weekend.
See the news report here.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2026: Sydney Airport has confirmed that Egyptair plans to start A350-900 operated Cairo (CAI) – Singapore (SIN) – Sydney (SYD) flights sometime in 2027 although there are no details regarding a hard start date or frequencies.
Read the news story here..
SEPTEMBER 8, 2026: The New Zealand Government says it has made “strong progress” on the Aviation Action Plan, with 15 of the 25 priorities achieved in the first year of implementation. The government says substantial progress has been made on the 10 remaining actions which, among other outcomes, will address and modernise flaws in the country’s civil aviation rules.
Read the news release here
SEPTEMBER 7, 2026: The Solomon Islands Ministry of Communication and Aviation says its is progressing the procurement process for the Suavanao Airport (VAO) upgrading works in Isabel Province. The tender has closed and a technical evaluation is now underway, to be followed by a financial evaluation per World Bank procurement procedures. Following that, the successful contractor will be identified.
Read the news report here.
SEPTEMBER 7, 2026: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB has released an interim report into the engine failure and rejected take-off of a Regional Express (REX) operated Saab 340 at Adelaide on October 8, 2025, revealing that the aircraft’s left engine failed during the take off roll.
Read the interim report here.
SEPTEMBER 4, 2026: Airports Vanuatu Limited has appointed Shalendra Maharaj as the new Chief Executive Officer for a five-year term. Maharaj, who is currently Aviation Services Manager at Newman, Marble Bar and Nullagine Airports in Australia, formally takes up the role on October 1, replacing Jason Rakau, who had held the position since 2016.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 4, 2026: Outgoing Airport Development Group CEO Tony Edmondstone will take on the CEO’s role at Maroochydore/Sunshine Coast Airport (MCY) in early 2027, replacing Chris Mills, who has previously announced that he will step down later this year.
Read the news report here.
SEPTEMBER 3, 2026: The Queensland Fire Department (QFD) will have access to 14 contracted aircraft and more than 200 additional aircraft, which are available through call-when-needed arrangement, over the upcoming 2026/27 bushfire season. During the 2025/26 bushfire period, QFD’s contracted aircraft completed 860 fire-related dispatches and accrued over 3,000 flying hours.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 2, 2026: Jetstar operated a trial A320-200N flight to Western Sydney Airport (WSI) yesterday, September 1, ahead of it beginning scheduled passenger flights on October 25. The aircraft, VH-ASC (msn 12374), which flew in from Melbourne (MEL) as JQ7990, tested the crew’s ability to navigate around the taxiways and the infrastructure as well as load and unload passengers in the terminal.
Read the news release here.
SEPTEMBER 1, 2026: The Australian Government has appointed David Fredericks as Deputy Chair of the Airservices Australia board for five years and re-appointed Nicolle Connelly as board member for four years.
Read the news release here.
