I have not done one of these posts in quite some time, and I mean to be honest, there hasn’t really been a reason as there hasn’t been much travel. But 2024 had me return to a lot of Avgeek fun so here it is.

So there is the map for all of the travels, I wish it was more exciting, but to be honest, it is way better than the last few years.

So some stats:

Total Miles: 29457
Total Flights: 14
New Airlines: Turkish (TK), Regional Express (ZL) Mainline, Westjet (WS)
New Aircraft: Airbus A220-300 (BCS3), Boeing 737-Max8
New Airport: Istanbul (IST), Abu Dhabi (AUH), Doha Hamad International (DOH)*, Adelaide (ADL)
Longest Flight: Brisbane to San Francisco – 7063 Miles (only 30 miles longer than Doha to Adelaide)
Shortest Flight: Abu Dhabi to Doha – 200 Miles
Most Common Aircraft – Boeing 737-800 – 5 Flights (All Domestic Australia!)
Most Common Airline – Qantas – 3 Flights (All Domestic Australia)
Most Common Airport – Brisbane
New Countries – United Arab Emirates

So let’s just talk about that one asterix above. It is the New Airport claim for Doha. So I visited Doha back in 2012 on my trip with Qatar for their first 787 delivery. At the time I got to visit the new Hamad International as it was under construction. It was a whole new airport with new runways, new terminals even a new code (although they did what Istanbul did and swap the code over). So yes, it is a new airport. At least that was the consensus around the time.

Sadly as well my first flights on Regional Express Mainline will be my only ones as the mainline portion has now shut down and they have returned to Regional flights only. O well!

I have to admit there was a lot of fun moments in 2025 with getting to experience Q suites and flying Turkish Airlines through Istanbul Airport. Getting to explore Abu Dhabi and Dubai and experience the brand new Abu Dhabi terminal which opened mere months prior. 2024 was a blast, and sadly 2025 will not have much travel. With a new child and life being very up in the air for a little bit. Who knows. Our next big trip to Australia isn’t going to happen until 2026 and the earning of points is underway now ready for that big trip, which will be a whole new challenge on its own!