It’s the Queens Birthday long weekend here in Australia and while the boys didn’t get any recognition from Her Majesty, some of their friends & guests of Plane Crazy Down Under did as Chris Sperou & Dave Jacka both get Order of Australia Medals and Dick Smith gets upgraded to Companion of the Order of Australia. Yay! :)

Meanwhile, Qantas is saying it can make the investments required to return its investment grade credit rating while also being able to convert its 787-9 options into firm orders. Meanwhile, others question whether this will be possible.

To rub salt into Qantas’ wounds, Etihad have started flying their 787-9s into Brisbane and have upgraded their Sydney flights to A380s.

Out in the regions, CASA has proposed allowing non-Air Traffic Controllers to operate Unicom services after having to back down from their previous statements that Unicoms in the USA do not provide traffic information services. Civil Air (the union for Air Traffic Controllers) is objecting to this as they believe Unicom services can only be provided by people who’ve held an ATC certificate within the previous 10 years.