The Australian Government is enquiring with the US Government about the potential cost of purchasing additional F-18F Super Hornets for the RAAF – up to 24 more aircraft. Given the current government's Defence minister is big on cutting costs and reducing the Defence budget, where will the money come from for these aircraft?

Next up, Christopher Luxton, the new Air New Zealand boss, is talking of further strengthening ties with Virgin Australia. At the same time, Virgin Australia is increasing funding to Tourism Australia and hints at a possible relocation of Virgin's corporate HQ from Brisbane to Sydney. The Queensland government are certainly looking at what they can do to keep Virgin's HQ in their state.

Finally, Qantas begins retiring its Rolls Royce powered B767s as VH-ZXB, formerly British Airways G-BNWF (cn 24338) is placed into storage in the USA.