Traffic

Meanwhile, Eastwest’s BAe 146-300 VH-EWJ was rolled out at Brisbane in late 02/92 carrying additional titling on its fuselage. The aircraft carries the words ‘Hamilton Islands’ on the forward fuselage, at the rear is painted ‘Reef Adventure’.

Delivery of F27-500s from Air New Zealand to Merpati Nusantara Airlines continued in this period. PK-MFI ‘Manganau’ of Merpati, which was previously ZK-NFD with Air New Zealand, departed Christchurch on 21/03 on ferry to Auckland, Norfolk Island and Brisbane. Later in the month PK-MFL ‘Tagu Landang’ ex ZK-NFH was noted transiting Brisbane while en route from Christchurch to Jakarta. The remaining F27-500 aircraft will be delivered in April and May with the Merpati/Air New Zealand tie up being as follows – PK-MFJ ‘Adonara’ ex ZK-NFE, PK-MFK ‘Wangi Wangi’ ex ZK-NFF, PK-MFM ‘Obi’ ex ZK-NFIand PK-MFN ‘Batanta’ ex ZK-NFJ. The departure of these aircraft will then leave Air New Zealand with five F27-100s ZK-BXE, -BXF, -BXG, -BXH and -BXI for sale. Air New Zealand has dry leased Boeing 747-219B ZK-NZX to Malaysia Airlines until late 1993. The Boeing was painted in Malaysia colours and registered 9M-MHG before it departed Auckland for Kuala Lumpur as MH5406 on 18/03. This is the second Air New Zealand Boeing 747-219B to operate with Malaysia Airlines as on 0l/03/91 9M-MHH ex ZK-NZZ departed Auckland to commence a two year dry lease. Air New Zealand is also to lease one of its Boeing 767-204ERs to the Polish airline LOT. It is planned that ZK-NBJ will be delivered in 05/92 and will remain in service with LOT until 10/92.

Bandeirantes for Iran

Aeromil has delivered the first two of four Bandeirantes to IPTAS – the Iranian Postal & Telecommunications Aviation Services. The four aircraft concerned were imported by Aeromil late in 1991 from the United States and Japan and have since been with Eastern Australia Airlines maintenance at Tamworth.

On 05/03 VH-LVH and VH-LVI departed Tamworth for Darwin and onward ferry to Tehran. The two other aircraft in the contract VH-LVJ and VH-LVK are expected to depart Tamworth by mid April. All four Bandeirantes have been named after towns in Iran which they will serve while in operation with IPTAS. VH-LVH ‘Esfahan’, VH-LVI ‘Semnan’, VH-LVJ ‘Kerman’ and VH-LVK ‘Kashan’. At this time it is not lmown whether the IPTAS Bandeirantes will operate in Iran under civil or military control.

In early 12/91 Oxley Airlines commenced flying the Shuttle Airlines Bandeirante VH-FCE on its routes, however later that month the Bandeirante was grounded in Brisbane after being damaged in a hailstorm. VH-FCE resumed service with Oxley in late 02/92 with the aircraft carrying both Oxley and Shuttle Airlines titles.

Pacific Island 737s

Boeing must be very pleased with the way its 737 airliner is cornering the market among the island airlines of the South Pacific. During 1992 Air Nauru, Air Pacific, Polynesian and Solomon Airlines will add new Boeing 737 equipment to their fleets.

Air Nauru has for a number of years operated a fleet of three Boeing 737-200s on its wide ranging operations throughout the Central and South Pacific. These aircraft will be replaced by two Boeing 737-400s which will be delivered in 12/92 and 03/93. Niue Airlines lease an Air Nauru Boeing 737 to operate a weekly service on the route from Auckland to Niue and Raratonga.

The Boeing 737 will return to the Air Pacific fleet in 08/92 after an absence oftwo years. In 03/92 Air Pacific contracted to lease a Boeing 737-500 from Guiness Peat Aviation and on its entry into service Air Pacific will retire its two ATR42s DQ-FEP and DQ-FEQ.

Polynesian Airlines is another former Boeing 737 operator who is bringing this type back into its fleet, as in 04/92 Polynesian will terminate its lease on Ansett Australia Boeing 727-277 VH-RMN. Initially Polynesian will lease Boeing 737-3S3 5W-ILF msn 23788 from ILFC, however this will be an interim aircraft until delivery of Polynesian’s own Boeing 737-3S3 in 09/92.

Solomon Airlines commenced Boeing 737 operations in 06/90 with a -200 H4-SAL leased from ILFC. In 05/92 Solomon will replace this aircraft with Boeing 737-4Q8 H4-SOL msn 25163, which will also be leased from ILFC. This in turn means that Royal Tongan Airlines who lease the Solomon 737for a twice weekly Auckland to Tongatapu service will also upgrade its equipment.

While we have mentioned the smaller island airlines of the South Pacific and their commonality with Boeing 737 equipment we should also mention that Air New Zealand has in service 12 Boeing 737-200s with a further 6 -300s on order. Across the Tasman, Ansett Australia has 16 Boeing 737-300s while by 03/93 Australian Airlines will have an operating fleet of 16 Boeing 737-300s and 15 -400s.

Bizjet News

There is very little activity in this area of the market at present so it gives me an opportunity to update information on bizjet aircraft recently sold overseas.

Lear 35A VH-EMP which was operated by Esso Australia was registered N345LJ in 01/92 to Joda Partnership in the United States. Cessna 550 VH-J VS was operated out of the Melbourne Jet Base by Switzerland GeneralInsurance. In 11/91 VH-J VS departed Melbourne on ferry to the UK where its sale was handled by Tim Leacock (Aircraft Sales)at Cranfield. The Citation has since been registered G-WYLX to Wilkes Asset Management and replaces in service a previously used King Air 200. Citation 500 VH-NEW of Icena Aviation departed Australia in 05/91 on sale to an owner in the United Arab Emirates, where it is now registered A6-RKH. Another far travelled Citation is the former Paul Terry model 550 N3986G. In 08/91 this Citation was registered CC-DGA to the Chilean DGAC based at Los Cerrillos.

Soviet Freighters

The recent visit to Melbourne oftwo Ilyushin 11-76TD freighters testifies to the enormous changes that are taking place within the airlines of the former Soviet Bloc. On 29/02 11-76TD SSSR-76783 arrived in Melbourne from Nigeria via the Seychelles and Perth. Though the 11-76 carried standard Aeroflot colours with the Soviet hammer and sickle flag on its fin it was in fact being flown by Heavylift Cargo Airlines, which is based in the UK. Inbound to Melbourne SSSR-76783 used the callsign ‘Heavylift 778’. After a few hours on the ground the 11-76 departed Melbourne for Darwin and Singapore. Final destination was Luton, England with its load from Melbourne being documented as car components. Heavylift is better lmown as the operator of the only Short Belfast freighters still flying. It has recently been operating an An-124 and an 11-76 on lease from Aeroflot though not the 11-76 which visited Melbourne. On 17/03 a second 11-76TD, SSSR-76798, flew into Melbourne, this time from Singapore and Jakarta. The Ilyushin was flown to Melbourne to uplift a contingent of Australian Army equipment required by the United Nations peace keeping force in Cambodia. Inbound to Melbourne SSSR-76798 was using the callsign ‘Papa November Papa 951’ an airline callsign of which I have no record.

Closer inspection of this aircraft revealed that the Aeroflot titles had been painted out though their standard colours still remained on the fuselage. The tail had recently been repainted with the Soviet hammer and sickle replaced by a large blue flag on which was a white I or S with three white lines coming out of the left hand side. Outbound from Melbourne the 11-76 used the callsign UN650. No doubt in time we will find out who the operator was but all this activity is certainly breathing new life into the aviation scene thanks to the emergence of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Regional Airline News

Southern Australia Airlines took delivery of its first DHC-8-100, VH-WZJ at Sydney on 17/02 when it flew in from Broome and Alice Springs. Later named ‘City of Devonport’ VH-WZJ entered service with Southern Australia on 06/03 when it operated TN685 from Melbourne to Launceston. Southern Australia’s second DHC-8-100 VH-WZI was delivered to Mildura in mid March. With Southern taking over from Eastern Australia Airlines on the routes from Melbourne to Launceston and from Melbourne to Devonport, Eastern operated its last service to these ports on 06/03. The same day Eastern scheduled its final flight out of Melbourne when DHC-8-100VH-TQP operated TN1628 to Canberra.

Air New Zealand Link operator Air Nelson has added a fifth Saab 340A to its fleet. Noted transiting Brisbane on 12/03 while en route to New Zealand was ex-Crossair Saab 340A HB-AHM. The Saab has since entered service with Air Nelson as ZK-NSK.

Ferry Flights

In last month’s Traffic, we mentioned the delivery of a Harbin Yunshuji Y-12 to Fiji Air. The Y-12 DQ-FHC msn 56 was the first of three ordered by Fiji Air with the others following in 05/92 and 06/92. Also from Fiji comes news that Air Wakaya has added BN2B-26 DQ-FHG msn 2230 to its fleet. The Islander, which operates between Nadi International Airport and the resort island of Wakaya, replaces in service Cessna 402C DQ-FEV. Other Islander news comes from Bankstown where in early 03/92 the former Sunbird Airlines BN2A-21 VH-OCH was noted carrying the markings of Air Cockatoo.

AESL CT-4Bs ZK-FYO and ZK-FYP departed Hamilton on 29/02 on ferry to the Ansett Flying College at Tamworth, where they have since been registered VH-YCK and VH-YCL. Travelling in company with the Ansett CT-4Bs were 2 other CT-4Bs, one of which was ZK-FZD, on delivery to the Royal Thai Air Force. (Refer Ansett/BAe College story elsewhere this issue). DHC-6-300 RPC-1213 of Aerolift departed Manila on 20/02 on return ferry to Talair in New Guinea with whom it has since reverted to P2-RDM. Noted at Cairns on 08/02 en route from Getafe, Spain to New Guinea was the first two Casa CN-235M aircraft for the Papua New Guinea Defence Force