News and Events

The Experience Makers: Queenstown

A tour with Australian Air Safaris is a chance to experience the people, places and customs of our nation’s most extraordinary destinations. Anywhere you land, you’ll be greeted by a local with extensive knowledge and access. It’s these relationships we have which truly elevate your trip, taking you from ordinary visitor to special guest. From…

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The Experience Makers: King Island

In our forty plus years of flying to Australia’s most extraordinary places, we’ve befriended a wonderful assortment of hoteliers, restauranteurs, tour guides and other local characters in communities across the nation. We’d like to introduce you to some of the people, such as King Island’s Ian Johnson and Lucinda Dengerink, who make our tours so…

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Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre Water Level: Current Status

Water levels in Kati Thanda / Lake Eyre have decreased in the last month but theres a brilliant white cover to be seen over the exposed dry areas of the lake. There’s still a chance of more rain…

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The Joy of Air Touring

If you’ve wondered what air touring is, who is going or where you can go, this is for you. We dive into some of our favourite things about Air Touring and what makes Australian Air Safaris so special.

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Kirkhope Aviation’s air touring division expands nationally, becomes Australian Air Safaris

Kirkhope Aviation, which has been operating small group air tours by private aircraft throughout Australia for 49 years, is expanding and rebranding. From today, the air touring division of the company will be known as Australian Air Safaris.

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Top five locations for a scenic flight in the Australian Outback

We’ve seen so much of Outback Australia, so here are our five top destinations to take a scenic flight over. How many have you checked off your list?

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Dining with Skippy: serving up local fauna at the Prairie Hotel

There’s one particular story I really get a kick out of telling particularly international guests. It’s about the Prairie Hotel. The reaction from foreigners is almost unilaterally one of shock, followed by mild outrage that eventually morphs into intrigue. The Prairie is a pub in South Australia that’s infamous for serving up native Australian wildlife, and making…

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Fine Food Flights

Kirkhope Aviation in conjunction with the Restaurant & Caterers Association is delighted to be offering our first Fine Food Flight to King Island, featuring King Island Dairy and Wild Harvest Restaurant. This 2 day tour, designed for hospitality professionals, offers an insight into some of the best produce and cuisine on offer in Tasmania. Departing…

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6 Things To Do When You Visit Birdsville, Queensland

Birdsville, Queensland, is a long way from anywwhere. Situated in the far south-western corner of the state on the border of the Simpson Desert, even Mt Isa is a 12 hour drive away, and Brisbane a whopping 25 hours on the road. Despite it’s remote location, it attracts tens of thousands of visitors annual. Here…

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Accessible outback travel by air

Has Accessibility always been a problem when you think about travelling to the Australian Outback? Australia is a HUGE country. It can be difficult to get around, and it’s not the most accessible place. We’ve got more than 34,000km of coastline. To drive from one side to the other (Perth to Brisbane) takes more than 45…

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Why the Piper Chieftain is our choice of aircraft for Outback Air Touring

Published: Often I’ve had questions from guests before a tour about the aircraft they’ll be spending time in while Outback Air Touring. They tend to fall into two categories, either they’re worried about travelling on an aircraft smaller than an airliner or they want to know a bit more about how comfortable the aircraft is…

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Top 40 Places to Visit in the Australian Outback

You’ve finally found it. Your Number 1 Resource to Travelling the Australian Outback We’ve hand picked 40 of the most iconic and unforgettable experiences inside the Australian Outback. This is our personal bucketlist of what we think resembles our Australian backyard. Explore the magnificent locations and characters in the Australian Outback   1. Birdsville Hotel One…

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