We briefly touch on a few items:

• Boeing lifts forecasts for aircraft useage in Oceania
• Victoria will not get a DC10 water bomber next season but will instead get 2 Convair 580s & another Erickson skycrane
• British Airways may still want to merge with Qantas but Qantas says "No thanks"
• John Borghetti's going to fight the US DoT & ACCC decisions and they're asking for 3 weeks extension to respond - meanwhile Qantas objects to the Etihad alliance

But all of this is small stuff compared to the 'big' news:

Qantas are going to fly Oprah and an A380 full of her fans to Australia!

We discuss John Travolta's involvement and a local comedian's idea for a "real" welcome to Melbourne.

Meanwhile, in other big news, Richard Branson was in Australia for Virgin Blue's 10th birthday and had the following to say:

• He's upset about the US DoT & ACCC decisions
• That Virgin Blue may pull out of the trans-tasman market entirely
• The name Virgin will remain in the brand
• They'll continue to undercut Qantas

NOTE: Yes, we stuffed up - we kept referring to Etihad instead of Emirates when talking about airlines flying over the Tasman. DOH! Sorry :(