Traffic

Air Nauru have sold their Boeing 727-77C VH-TBS to Sherrard Aviation. VH-TBS which operated on long-term lease to Australian Cargo had all its Australian Cargo titling removed at Melbourne during February. In late March it commenced operations with Sherrard Aviation and once again on lease to Australian Cargo.

Ansett are presently advertising quite a number of their fleet for sale overseas. Among the aircraft involved are their five Fokker F28-1 000s VH-FKA, VH-FKC, VH-FKD, VH-FKE and VH-FKF. Presently in service with Ansett NSW, Ansett NT and Ansett WA they would be replaced by the F28-3000/4000s of East-West Airlines, which in turn are being replaced by the BAe 146-300s on order. Ansett are also offering for sale three Fokker F50s and seven F27s.

Air Niugini have terminated the lease on the TEA (UK) Boeing 737-2M8 G-BTEB. The Boeing departed Port Moresby on March 5th on its return ferry to the UK. Air New Zealand have leased a Boeing 737-200 from Britannia Airways for six months to cover planned maintenance on their own Boeing 737 fleet. Arriving in Christchurch on April 7th was Boeing 737-204 G-BADP. Air New Zealand will withdraw leased Boeing 767-205ER ZK-NBD from service in late May. The aircraft will then be prepared for entry into service with Air Pacific in early July. Air New Zealand will lease a Boeing 767-200 from Britannia Airways to cover the loss of ZK-NBD from their fleet. Another leased Boeing 737-200 to enter our region shortly will be operated by the Honiara-based Solomon Airlines. This ILFC aircraft, which will be maintained by Air New Zealand, is planned to enter service on June 1st.

Qantas took delivery of their sixth Boeing 747-438 at Sydney on April 8th. VH-OJF ‘City of Perth’ flew in direct from Seattle as QF531. Qantas have also terminated the lease on Boeing 747-123 VH-EEI. Flown throughout in Air Pacific colours, VH-EEI was reregistered El-CAI in late 1989, however on disposal by Qantas it once again reverted to VH-EEI. The Boeing was flown from Sydney to Auckland on March 23rd as QF5010. There it was hangared with Air New Zealand for painting and delivery to Virgin Atlantic Airlines as G-VMIA.

IPEC Aviation Argosy 200 VH-IPB has been leased to Safair for three months. The Argosy was planned to depart Essendon for Blenheim in late April.

Regional Airline News

This is a very active area at present as Regional operators continue to build up their fleets.

Eastern Australia Airlines took delivery of their third DHC-8-100 VH-TQQ msn 204 at Tamworth on April 12th. Their fourth DHC-8-100 VH-TQR msn 208 will be delivered in May. The entry into service of these aircraft will allow Eastern to further expand their network. Jetstream 32 VH-TQM entered service with Eastern on March 13th, while leased Jetstream 31 VH-LJR continues in operation to cover maintenance requirements on the remainder of the Jetstream fleet. Bandeirante VH-WDF re-entered service on March 23rd after being painted in Australian colours.

Hazelton Airlines took delivery of their first Saab 340A at Cudal on April 14th. Arriving on ferry from the US, it was not the aircraft we initially expected but ex Air Midwest N343AM msn 019. On entry into service with Hazelton this aircraft will be registered VH-OLG. The second Saab 340A for Hazelton is N69LP msn 069 and it was delivered in late April. This ex L APA Argentine aircraft will be registered VH-OLH. It is planned that these two Saab 340As will be leased until delivery of two Saab 340Bs in August and October respectively. Kendell Airlines took delivery of their fifth Saab 340A VH-EKT msn 085 at Wagga on March 15th.

Australian Regional Airlines DHC-6-300 VH-TGC returned to service on March 7th after completing its lease to Port Vila based Vanair. Other Twin Otter news concerns Whitaker Air Charter’s VH-TZL which was noted for sale in Ian Baillie’s yard at Moorabbin during March. Dick Smith has sold Twin Otter VHSHW overseas and it arrived in Mahe on February 10th as S7- AAT for Air Seychelles.

In New Zealand, Air Nelson continue to expand their Metroliner fleet. Arriving at their Nelson base on April 1st, after completing its trans-Tasman crossing was Metro 111 EI-BWV msn AC-711. Previously leased by Pocono Airlines in the US the Metro will enter service with Air Nelson as ZK-NSY. Two other Metro 111s are due for delivery to Air Nelson, these being EI-BWU msn AC-705 which will become ZK-NSU and EI-BWZ msn AC-712 to ZK-NSZ.

Air North Douglas DC-3 VH-MMA was rolled out at Darwin in a new scheme on February 23rd. On the 26th it was test flown, but on March 3rd during gale force winds it jumped its chocks and ran into a visiting RAAF Douglas C-47. VH-MMA was badly damaged around the fin, but as we know it is hard to keep a DC-3 down and on April 12th VH-MMA once again took to the air. Shortstop Jet Charter took delivery of former RAAF Douglas C-47 A65-98 late last year. Initially registered VH-JDX the Douglas is presently being overhauled by Schutt Aircraft at Moorabbin. Shortstop have reserved registration VH-OVM for this DC-3.

Bizjet News

There is very little to report in this section, though one positive was the long awaited arrival in early April of Cessna 500 Eagle N947CC msn 0123, whichhas been imported by Aeromil. Meanwhile, BAG 111 N109TH has been noted at Brisbane and is believed to be operating with Helijet.

The rest of the news concerns aircraft presently being advertised for sale. North Broken Hill have on offer Cessna 501 VH-BNK, which they recently replaced with Cessna 560 N26643 (VH-NTH). Other Citations for sale are VH-NEW of the Melbourne Jet Centre and VH-LJK of Lloyd Aviation. Hawker Pacific are advertising Moana Airlines’ Falcon 100 ZK-MAZ while also on the market are several Learjets – VH-OVS of Shortstop Jet Charter, VH-BSJ of Australasian Jet and Norfolk Airlines’ Learjet 35A freighters VH-WFE and VH-WFJ. A well publicised sale is that of BAe 125-800B VH-SGY. A change of Government in Queensland has resulted in VH-SGY being placed on the market, however certain stipulations attached to the sale are going to make the aircraft difficult to move. Another BAe 125-8008 on the market is Elders IXL VH-IXL. This aircraft has recently been made redundant by the delivery of Boeing 737-33A N731XL.

Ferry Flights

Noted at Bankstown on March 15th was BN2N21 Islander 9M-ARQ msn 632, which has since been registered to a local owner as VH-JUU. Monarch Aviation, who are local agents for the Islander, are expecting delivery of BN2B/21 G-BRPA msn C-2221 in late June. This aircraft is on order for Sunbird Airlines, Cairns as VH-INO. Air Moorea based in French Polynesia have recently ordered three BN2B/26s msn C-2219, 2220 and 2224. By the time this is read these aircraft should have transitted our region on delivery.

Air Tahiti ATR42 F-ODUE was noted at Cairns on March 14th en route to Darwin and Toulouse. This ties in with ATR42 F-GEGD msn 004 which flew from Townsville to Noumea on March 10th and has evidently been leased to Air Tahiti to cover maintenance requirements on F-ODUE. Air Caledonie have ordered two Do228-200s for delivery in June and they will replace the Twin Otters presently in service. At Essendon the two ex NSCA Do228-200s VH-NSH and VH-NSZ had become N2255E and N2255Y by April 21st. Do228-200 G-OALF of Regionair; which has been engaged in aerial survey work in Australia for several months, has evidently completed its contract. It was noted in the Pacific Aviation hangar at Essendon in April before later heading north to complete a new contract in China.

PA31-350 N228DM msn 7952146 arrived in Sydney on February 8th on completion of its transpacific ferry. Two other recent deliveries were PA31 N9099Y msn 136 and Commander 500S N500BA msn 3120 which flew into Cairns from Honiara on March 15th.

Of Doves and Mallards

Interesting news on two aircraft types bearing names of the feathered species.

Ted Rudge presently has two DH104 Doves VH-DHD and VH-JGZ based at Essendon Airport. In late April they are to be joined by a third which is presently being shipped to Australia. This is former Royal Navy Sea Devon C20 XJ324 msn 04410 which was purchased at auction in the UK. This will then give Essendon an activepopulation of 5 of these popular feederliners as also based there are the two Riley Doves of Penguin Express, VH-ABM and VH-NBM.

Other Dove news concerns the long time Jandakot resident VH-MGT. This aircraft has also been purchased by Ted Rudge and was recently moved by road across the Nullabor to Greenock in South Australia. Former N TMS Dove VH-DHE which has been static at Berwick for a number of years is presently being dismantled and moved to a new ‘. A. irliners’ museum at Cran borne. At Kyneton, north of Melbourne, we had hoped that Dove VH-DHA would be back in the air by now, however it presently sits in the open with apparently little work being done on it.

Another rather unique type in Australia is the Grumman Mallard. There are presently three in the country and two of these have recently found a new owner. VH-L AW and VH-OAW were operated by the Shute Harbour based commuter/charter com­ -pany Seair. These aircraft have gone to the Paspaley Pearling Company of Broome, Western Australia. With Paspaley they will be used to fly pearl lugger crews between Broome and Darwin. VH-OAW was delivered to Darwin on March 11th with VH-L AW following on April 6th. Seair have also sold two of their floatplane Beavers, VH-HAQ to a Canadian operator and VH-IDN to Aquatic Airways as VH-AQU. This leaves Seair with only three floatplane Beavers in service VH-HOE, VH-JDX and VH-SSG. Noted at Bankstown in early April were floatplane Beavers N77WK and VH-IMR while another of the same type RP-C738 awaits its Australian certification at Archerfield.

Overseas Charter Fleet Update

With Australia’s domestic airline scene slowly returning to some normality both Ansett and Australian have terminated the leases they had on several foreign aircraft.

Ansett operated their last flight with a leased aircraft on March 31st, when Boeing 757-33A G-OOOI operated AN245 from Perth to Sydney. The following morning G-OOOI flew out of Sydney bound for Luton via Singapore and Sharjah. Call sign used for the ferry was Ansett 456P. Boeing 757-23A G-OOOJ finished flying with Ansett in early March, however it then entered the hangar in Melbourne for painting in Air 2000 colours. On March 28th G-OOOJ departed Melbourne for Luton via Sydney, Singapore and Sharjah using call sign Ansett 123P. On March 31st Boeing 737-33A G-PATE finished flying with Ansett Airlines, however the following day it commenced operations with EastWest Airlines (refer p6 May 90 A A). This Ansett Worldwide aircraft was operating on lease to Paramount in the UK before being brought to Australia last November by the Queensland Government. In the interim Paramount have ceased flying due to financial problems so it will be interesting to see what happens to G-PATE once it finishes flying with East-West.

Australian have also terminated the lease on a number of their charter aircraft and by late April all foreign aircraft had returned overseas. Trans European Boeing 737-3M8 00-LTA departed Sydney on March 16th bound for Brussels via Pago Pago, Honolulu, Portland and Frobisher Bay. The second Trans European aircraft Boeing 737-3M8 HB-IIA departed Sydney on March 29th for Zurich. Both Inter European aircraft have returned to Cardiff with Boeing 737-33A G-MONP flying out of Adelaide on March 28th and Boeing 737-3YO G-BNGL out of Melbourne on April 17th. Lauda Air Boeing 737-329OE-ILG departed Melbourne for Darwin and en route to Vienna on March 28th. Monarch Airlines Boeing 757-2T7 G-MOND operated its last flight for Australian on March 29th. On April 1st it departed Melbourne bound for Singapore, Bahrain and Luton. Monarch’s second Boeing 757-2T7 G-DRJC operated its last flight for Australian Airlines on April 21st.