Traffic

For the record the New Guinea based Twin Otter fleet is presently believed to be as follows: Airlink, Rabaul DHC-6- 200 P2-ALT, -ALU; Hevi Lift, Mt Hagen DHC-6-300 P2-HCF Islands Aviation, Rabaul DHC-6-300 P2-IAA, IAE, -IAM; MAF, Mt Hagen DHC-6-200 P2-MFR, -MFS, -MFY DHC-6-300 P2-MFQ; Milne Bay Air, Port Moresby DHC-6-200 P2-MBC, -MBS, -MBU, DHC-6-300 P2-MBI, -MBK, MBL, -MB? ex DQ-FEU; Southwest Air, Mendi DHC-6-300 P2-SWE. Many of these operators have benefited from Talair’s withdrawal from PNG operations and the retirement of its fleet of Twin Otter’s. Talair aircraft still in storage at Mareeba are: DHC-6-200s P2-RDB and -RDE; and DHC-6-300s P2-GVI, -RDI, -RDJ, -RDK, -RDM, -RDV, -RDX, -RDY.

Meanwhile, Fiji Air has purchased two DHC-6-300 Vista Liner’s from Scenic Airlines in Las Vegas. DQ-AFL msn 433, which was previously operated by Scenic as N239SA, entered service in November while DQ-AFM msn 448, which was previously N234SA, entered service in January.

Regional Airline News

Air Cairns commenced RPT operations in mid November from Thursday Island to 11 island destinations in the Torres Strait. Due however to the continued presence of charter operators flying over its routes, Air Cairns termi- HERON nated RPT services on February 18 and reverted to charter operations the following day. Air Cairns operates PA23- 250Fs VH-BOC and VH-WJQ along with Cessna 310R VH-BPI from Thursday Island while PA31-350 VH-NEH, Cessna 310R VH-BZK and PA23-250F VH-JEN are based in Cairns. Air Kangaroo Island, which was placed in the hands of a receiver last November, was sold in February to the South Australian based OPM Investment Services Ltd. The sale of the airline did not include the four aircraft previously operated by Air Kangaroo Island which were DHC-6-200 VH-ATK, Cessna 402B VH-ATI and ATY and Beech H-18 Tri-Gear VH-ATX. The Twin Otter has already been sold to Whitaker Air Charters at Bundaberg while the remainder of the Air Kangaroo fleet has been placed on the market.

Flight West took delivery of its fourth Brasilia on January 25 when Cape Verde EMB-120RT D4-CAZ arrived in Brisbane. After receiving preservice maintenance the Brasilia entered service with Flight West registered VH-XFZ. Flight West are offering for sale Baron 58s VH-HFI, -PRH and -XGF. These aircraft were previously operated on the Flying Surgeon and Flying Obstetrician contract out of Longreach and Roma respectively. On January 1 this three year Queensland Government contract was taken over by Heli-muster which has replaced the Baron 58s with Cessna 421B’s VH-LFB, -LTL and -YRK.

Gawne Airlines, a division of the Shepparton based Gawne Aviation, commenced regional airline operations between Shepparton and Melbourne on March 17. A twice daily, Monday to Friday, PA31-350 service is scheduled into Tullamarine where the aircraft is handled at the Qantas domestic terminal. Gawne Airlines is not new to the regional airline scene as between March 1979 and June 1983 it operated services between Shepparton and Melbourne using Baron C55 VH-WSW and PA23-250D VH-PFD. Peninsula Air Services commenced operations between Melbourne/Essendon and Hamilton with a twice daily service from mid March.

Sunstate Airlines Shorts 330 VH-KNQ re-entered service on February 4 initially to cover the painting of the other Shorts aircraft in the Sunstate fleet. VH-KNQ has been static at Brisbane since September 1993 when it returned from contract in Malaysia. The first Sunstate Shorts 360 to be painted in the Qantas Regional Airlines colours was VH-FCU which arrived at Tamworth on February 4. VH-FCU was followed into the Eastern Australia hangar at Tamworth later in the month by Shorts 360 VH-BWO. A Profile of Sunstate’s operations appears elsewhere in this edition.

Tamair added the Forster to Sydney route to its net- SAN VERDE work on February 14 with a twice daily, Monday to Friday, service using PA31-350 equipment. Tamair has delayed the delivery of its third Metro III VH-NEK until May. Latest traf. released by the Tamworth city council show that in January Tamair carried 3259 passengers on the Tamworth to Sydney route as against 2010 by Eastern.

Uzu Air commenced regional airline operations on February 14 from Thursday Island to 11 destinations in the Torres Strait group of islands. Equipment used by Uzu Air are two former Flight West BN-2A-26 Islanders VH-XFF and VH-XFI which have been painted in Uzu Air’s very striking blue and red livery.

Airline News

Air Nauru took delivery of Boeing 737-4L7s C2-RN10 and C2-RN11 in June and Sept 93 respectively. Previously, its fleet consisted of Boeing 737-2L7C C2-RN3, Boeing 737-217 C2-RN6 and Boeing 737-2L9 C2-RN8, however since the introduction of the Boeing 737-4L7s very little has been heard of the three older aircraft. It is believed that while C2-RN3 continues in service C2-RN6 and C2-RN8 have been parked at Auckland. The use of one of the Air Nauru Boeing 737-200s is believed to be behind a proposed new freight service planned to operate between Brisbane and SE Asia. Air New Zealand took delivery of Boeing 737-204 G-BHWE at Christchurch on February 13 with the former Britannia Airways aircraft later entering service as ZK-NAB. Boeing 737-204 G-BHWF which was delivered to Christchurch on December 16 entered service with Air New Zealand on January 17 as ZK-NAI ‘Poaka’. It is also reported that Boeing 737-2M6 ZK-NAZ was withdrawn from service at Auckland on January 7.

Ansett Air Freight BAe 146-200QTs VH-JJY and VH-JJZ have recently had their colour schemes changed from the TNT orange and white to the all white of Ansett Air Freight. VH-JJY was first noted in the new scheme at Brisbane on January 15 while VH-JJZ was noted on the 30th. Ansett Australia took delivery of Boeing 737-33A VH-CZW at Melbourne on January 24. As Ansett 5981 VH-CZW ferried in from Dothan, Alabama via San Diego, Hilo, Apia and Nadi. The third Boeing 737-33A to be leased by Ansett Australia from Ansett Worldwide, VH-CZX was delivered to Melbourne in late February.

At the time of writing Australia Air was planning to commence operations on March 20 with a weekly service on the route Melbourne/Sydney/Beijing and return. At presstime flights were to be operated by a wet leased Tower Air Boeing 747-200 in a 21/44/358 configuration. Australian air Express is to lease a Boeing 737-300QC from National Jet Systems in Adelaide for operation on its east coast freight network. The aircraft concerned, which is Presently at Pemco Aeroplex having a freight door fitted, is Boeing 737-3Q8 N101GU which National Jet has leased from ILFC. The Boeing was initially leased by ILFC to Iberia as EC-EHM between March 1988 and March. 1990 before being leased to Aviateca in Guatemala as N101GU. Independent Air Freighters DC-9-33F VH-IPC was hushkitted by Air New Zealand in Auckland before return- ing to service in late February.

Qantas took delivery of Boeing 737-476 VH-TJU ‘Currawong’ at Melbourne on February 3. As QF6900 VH-TJU was ferried from Seattle to Melbourne via Honolulu, Apia and Nadi. VH-TJU was the final 737-400 on order for Qantas and brings the 737-476 fleet total to 17 units. Also part of the Qantas fleet are 16 Boeing 737-376s. Boeing 747-338s VH-EBT, VH-EBX and VH-EBY are expected to return to the Qantas fleet in late March after completing their two year lease to Japan Air Lines.

Bizjet News

Firstly a correction to last month’s traffic column concerning the Cessna Citation 500 msn 0263 which was delivered to Essendon on December 25. The history of this aircraft has become quite complicated with the allocation or use of no fewer than four different registrations within a two month period, On November 26 Citation msn 0263 was officially registered in Australia as VH-AQR however for the ferry flight from Austin, Texas to Melbourne via the Azores in late December the aircraft carried its US registration N263AL. On January 7 the Citation was registered as VH-AQS and not VH-AWS as we quoted in March Traffic and was ferried from Essendon to Moorabbin, After being refurbished and repainted by Aerospray the Citation was rolled out on February 10 as VH-ZMD before being delivered later in the month to its new owner Litmill P/L, in Cairns. As a post-script we might mention that the registration VH-ZMD was previously carried by a Baron 58P and to allow the Citation to take up this registration the Baron 58P became VH-CLD.

Noted at Darwin on January 29 while enroute to Denpasar was Citation 551 N127BU. I believe that this is the first visit of N127BU to Australia even though it has been based for some time with Air Oceania in Papeete. BAe 125- 400F VH-PAB was sold in late January to Federal Hotels in Malaysia by Brisbane based air charter company Adagold Aviation. While the BAe 125-400F has moved its operating base from Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur it is still uncertain at this time whether it will remain as VH-PAB or be allocated a Malaysian registration.

Two other Australian Bizjets that have recently found new homes overseas are Associated Airlines Gulfstream IIB VH-ASG and the GFW Aviation Falcon 200 VH-NGF. The Gulfstream IIB VH-ASG, which was traded in to Gulfstream Aerospace on Gulfstream IV-SP VH-ASQ, departed Essen- don for Savannah, Georgia on September 26. On November 25 VH-ASG was cancelled from the register to become N427AC with Gulfstream Aerospace. Falcon 200 VH-NGF departed Australia as long ago as May ’93 however the aircraft remained on the register until October 27 when it was cancelled on its sale to a Mexican operator as XA-SKO.

Essendon based Interair has placed long time resident MU-2F N756Q on the Australian register as VH-ESA. The MU-2F, which is the first of its type in Australia, was delivered to Interair in September 1988 and in the interim has done all its flying in Australia under its US registration. MU-2L F-GDHV which is registered to Champagne Aviation was noted at Townsville on January 19 enroute to Noumea and Papeete. Whether the Mitsubishi was on an extended charter or has moved into our area permanently has yet to be resolved.

The Return of Convair Vh-Bzm

In early February Air Freight NZ added a third Convair 580 to its fleet and while this is news in itself the aircraft concerned is of special interest to many of our readers. As VH-BZM this particular Convair flew in Australia as a model 440 with Ansett-ANA from late 1957 until mid 1962.

The story of VH-BZM started in 1956 when Ansett Airways placed an order with Convair for four Model 440 Metropolitan airliners. Designated the 440-97 the four aircraft were registered VH-BZF, VH-BZH, VH-BZI and VH-BZM with planned delivery during 1957. A further two Convair 440-758, VH-BZN and VH-BZO, which had been built in anticipation of an order from Scandinavian Airlines were also acquired by Ansett Airways for delivery in late 1957.

In the interim Ansett Transport Industries acquired Australian National Airways on October 4 1957 with the new airline commencing operations as Ansett-ANA. It was therefore to the new Ansett-ANA that some of the Convairs including VH-BZM were delivered. VH-BZM msn 465 was the final aircraft in the initial order for four and it was accepted by Ansett at San Diego on October 24 1957. The following day VH-BZM departed San Diego on its delivery flight to Melbourne with the routing being via San Francisco, Honolulu, Canton Island and Tontouta. On October 30 VH-BZM touched down on Australian soil for the first time at Essendon Airport.

VH-BZM remained in operation with Ansett-ANA until May 1962 when it was retired from service. On June 1 the Convair 440 departed Essendon on delivery to Allegheny Airlines with whom it was registered N8422H. In late 1967 Allegheny replaced the P&W R-2800 engines on N8422H with Allison 501-D13 engines thus changing its designation from a model 440 to a model 580. At the same time the registration of the former VH-BZM was changed to N5835. when the aircraft joined the fleet of Commuter Airlines of Allegheny continued operating N5835 until the late 1970’s Binghampton, New York. This was soon followed by a move to Freedom Airlines of Cleveland, Ohio. In the mid ’80’s tion being changed to C-GGWH. N5835 was sold by Freedom to Air Ontario with its Air Freight NZ took delivery of its first Convair 580 in May 1989 with the arrival of ZK-FTA. In July 1989 a second Convair 580 ZK-FTB was added to the fleet however this aircraft was destroyed the same month in an accident at Auckland Airport. In April 1990 ZK-KFL was added to the Air Freight NZ fleet as a replacement for ZK-FTB.

Air Freight NZ’s search for a third Convair led them to London, Ontario where local airline Air Ontario operated two Convair 580s including the former VH-BZM. Air Ontario at the time had VH-BZM or C-GGWH as it now was operating on lease to the Toronto based Canair Cargo in a combi configuration carrying passengers and cargo.

After its sale to Air Freight NZ C-GGWH was ferried from Toronto to Kelowna in British Columbia where it was fitted with long range ferry tanks. Under the command of Capt John Cotton the CEO of Air Freight NZ C-GGWH was ferried across the Pacific from Kelowna to Auckland via Honolulu and Pago Pago. Later registered ZK-JDQ the former VH-BZM has now settled down to life in New Zealand as a freighter with Air Freight NZ.