Traffic

Aus-Air has added a second Bandeirante to its fleet with the purchase of EMB-110P1 VH-XFJ from Flight West Airlines. Until delivery of VH-XFJ Aus-Air leased EMB-110P1 VH-XFD from Flight West Airlines with the Bandeirante delivered to Moorabbin on December 19. VH-XFD returned to Flight West in Brisbane on January 14 and the following day Aus-Air took delivery of VH-XFJ. It is interesting to note that Aus-Air has in fact owned and operated VH-XFJ before. Then registered VH-CRG, the Bandeirante entered service with Aus-Air in July ’89 before being re-registered VH-OZG the following May. In July ’91 VH-OZG was sold to Flight West and it again re-registered the Bandeirante this time as VH-XFJ. It is expected that by the time this is read the Bandeirante will once again be flying with Aus-Air as VH-OZG.

Eastern Australia Airlines terminated services to Cooma on December 31.

Emu Airways added PA-31-350 Chieftain VH-ONC to its fleet on December 19 with the aircraft entering service the following day.

Flight West Airlines took delivery of its seventh EMB-120RT at Brisbane on January 22 when N274UE msn 120054 ferried in from the United States. Later registered VH-FNQ the Brasilia was painted in the colours of the North Queensland Cowboys Rugby League team during its pre-service lay-up. DHC-8-102 ZK-NEV returned to Brisbane on December 21 on termination of its lease to Ansett New Zealand. Later registered VH-XFU the Dash 8 returned to service still carrying the colours of Ansett New Zealand but with Flight West titles. DHC-8-102 VH-XFT was planned for return to Flight West in early February on termination of its lease to Ansett New Zealand as ZK-NEW.

Flight West has sold two of its pool of ex Talair DHC-6-300 Twin Otters with one aircraft going to Polynesian Airlines and the other to Hawker Pacific. DHC-6-300 P2-RDK was registered to Flight West on December 14 as VH-FNX however on the 16th it departed Brisbane on delivery to Polynesian Airlines. DHC-6-300 P2-RDV was sold to Hawker Pacific in January with the Twin Otter being registered VH-HPY prior to it being leased to the Australian Army.

Heron Airlines has had an administrator appointed to the company and is offering for sale its DH.114 Herons VH-NJI and VH-NJP.

Impulse Airlines took over the Sydney to Cooma route from Eastern Australia Airlines on January 1. Impulse had operated between Sydney and Cooma previously but only during the peak winter ski season. From February 19 Impulse is scheduling two Beech 1900D return flights daily between Sydney and Cooma. Beech 1900D VH-SMH msn UE-191 was delivered to Impulse in late January while in March it will take delivery of Beech 1900D VH-AFR msn UE-200. Impulse plans to import a further two Beech 1900Ds in the second quarter of ’96 to bring its fleet numbers of this type to seven. In April ’95 Impulse planned to import Beech 1900D N3217L msn UE-149 however in effect N3217L was never delivered even though it came off the Wichita production line in Impulse colours. In October ’95 the prospective Impulse Beech 1900D N3217L was sold to Mobil Producing in Nigeria as 5N-MPA.

Pacific Eagle will be the operating name used by the Coffs Harbour based Adventure Air should they be granted an RPT licence to operate between Sydney and Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Port Macquarie and Taree.

Tamair took delivery of Metro 23 N30220 msn CC-842B at its Tamworth base on January 2 thus becoming the seventh operator of this popular 19 seater in our region. In Australia the Metro 23 is flown by Airnorth, Hazelton, Kendell, Skippers and Skywest Aviation and in New Zealand by Air Post. N30220 was flown to Australia by Tamair’s chief pilot Grahame Murray with the aircraft being routed from Addison, Texas to Tamworth via Oakland, Honolulu, Apia (left) A DC-10-30 of French airline AOM (who commenced twice weekly Paris/Sydney services late last year) on approach to Sydney Airport. The DC-10 sports Cubana titles, reflecting its use on lease by the Cuban airline for flights from Havana to Europe. (right) An Aerolineas Argentinas 747-200 in the airline’s revamped livery touches down in Sydney, completing the final leg of its flight from Buenos Aires via Auckland. Aerolineas flew into Sydney between the termination of its agreement with Qantas to fly the Sydney/Auckland stage of its Sydney/BA service and its new agreement with Ansett, which came into effect on December 19. (John Ruming) 74 Australian Aviation March 1996 Airbus A330s and A340s are becoming increasingly common sights at Australia’s airports. (left) Cathay Pacific has begun flying A330s into Perth while (right) this AirLanka A340 flew into Sydney recently on a charter flight. (Keith Anderson and John Ruming) and Brisbane. Tamair transferred Metro III VH-NEL to Airlines of Tasmania operations on January 1. As mentioned under the Airlines of Tasmania item, Metro III VH-NEM returned to Fairchild Aircraft on termination of its lease. Metro III VH-NEM was the first of its type to be delivered to Tamair and it entered service in April 93 on the newly awarded route between Tamworth and Sydney. Between June ’94 and July ’95 VH-NEM operated on lease to Asia Pacific Airlines in Kuala Lumpur before returning to Australia to see further service with Tamair and latterly Airlines of Tasmania.

National Jet Fleet Movements

BAe 146-100 G-BLVJ was delivered to National Jet Systems in Adelaide on November 28. Later registered VH-JSF the BAe 146-100 was flown to Perth in early December where it commenced operations on National Jet Systems’ resources contract between Perth and Telfer. In early January the registration of the BAe 146-100 was changed from VH-JSF to VH-NJD. The main sphere of operation for VH-NJD will be on National Jet Systems’ newly awarded RPT service which commenced in late January connecting Broome with Christmas Island, Denpasar, Singapore and Surabaya and on the Santos contract between Adelaide and Moomba. On the Santos contract the BAe 146-100 will share the flying with the Jetstream 41 VH-JSX which was previously registered VH-IMQ and which National Jet has leased from JSX Capital Corporation.

RJ70 G-OLXX was delivered to National Jet Systems in Adelaide on December 8. Later registered VH-NJT the RJ70, which is the first of its type in Australia, was ferried to Perth on December 18 where it commenced operations between Perth and Telfer.

BAe 146-200QT VH-NJQ departed Adelaide on January 8 on termination of its lease from BAe’s Asset Management Organisation. It is believed that the next lease for VH-NJQ will be to Air Jet of Paris, France. VH-NJQ was delivered to National Jet Systems in Adelaide in July ’91 with the aircraft primarily required to operate the Santos Contract and on the Australian air Express freight service between Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

To allow its jet fleet to carry registrations in the VH-NJ block National Jet has re-registered its turboprop Dash 8 fleet as follows: DHC-8-103 VH-LAR to VH-JSI, DHC-8-103 VH-NJD to VH-JSJ, DHC-8-311 VH-NJT to VH-JSQ and DHC-8-311 VH-NJU to VH-JSU.

Airline News

Air New Zealand terminated its wet lease on the Britannia Airways Boeing 767-204ER G-BRIG on December 18 with the aircraft departing Christchurch for Darwin the following day on its return to the UK. G-BRIG, which arrived in Christchurch on November 1, retained its full Britannia Airways colour scheme while in service with Air New Zealand.

Boeing 737-2Y5 ZK-NAD was withdrawn from Air New Zealand service in early December. Later allocated the Cypriot registration 5B-DBF the Boeing departed Christchurch for Sydney and onwards ferry to Europe on December 11.

Ansett Australia took delivery of its seventh Boeing 767-200 at Melbourne on December 25 when Boeing 767-204ER VH-RML, which was previously operated by Britannia Airways, ferried into Melbourne from Dothan, Alabama via Hilo and Nadi as AN4291. Ansett will take delivery of Boeing 767-216ER VH-RMM in late March after the aircraft terminates its current lease to LAN Chile as CC-CEF. It is also reported that Ansett is planning to take delivery of a ninth Boeing 767-200 as well as its first Boeing 767-300 in the second quarter of 1996. Ansett added Auckland to its route network on December 18 with the commencement of a twice weekly Boeing 747 service from Sydney. The first Ansett Australia flight on the Sydney/Auckland/Sydney route was AN861/860 which was operated by Boeing 747-312 VH-INJ. Ansett Australia Fokker F28-1000s VH-FKA and VH-FKF had been reduced to components at Tullamarine by January 20.

Ansett New Zealand took delivery of Dash 8-102 ZK-NEU at Christchurch on December 17 after the aircraft ferried in from Tamworth. Dash 8 ZK-NET was planned for delivery to Christchurch in January while Dash 8 ZK-NES which arrived in Tamworth from Taipei on December 3 will have joined the Ansett New Zealand fleet by the time this is read. Ansett New Zealand has terminated its lease on Dash 8 ZK-NEV with the aircraft departing Christchurch for Brisbane on December 21 on its return to Flight West. Ansett New Zealand planned to return Dash 8 ZK-NEW to Flight West in early February on termination of its lease.

Freedom Air took delivery of Boeing 757-204 G-BYAF at Auckland on December 4. The 757, which has been leased from Britannia Airways, operated a proving flight from Auckland to Sydney and return on December 7 surprisingly using Air New Zealand flight numbers ANZ757/758. Freedom Air operated its first scheduled service the following day over the same route, this time as ANZ940/941. It wasn’t until December 11 that Freedom Air started using their allocated IATA code of SJ.

Mount Cook Airline took delivery of its third and fourth ATR 72-210s in this period with ZK-MCS arriving in Christchurch on December 3 and ZK-MCW on December 14. Earlier on November 28 ATR 72-210 ZK-MCW then carrying its French test registration of F-WWLO was engaged in an air-to-air photo shoot over Woodford, England in company with a Jetstream 41 and an Avro RJ85. On December 14 before departing Sydney for Christchurch ZK-MCW was again the subject of an air-to-air photo shoot.

Pacific Transair planned to take delivery of its first Boeing 737-200 in late January with twice daily services planned to commence on the Sydney to Melbourne route in late February. Pacific Transair’s first Boeing 737 will be -291 N16254 msn 20365. This is a 1969 production aircraft which was delivered to Frontier Airlines in November of that year as N7377F. The Boeing was later leased by Continental Airlines who changed the registration to N16254.

King Air 200 Fleet Update

This has been a busy period for this popular type with the importation of no fewer than five aircraft.

The Australian Army leased four EMB-110 Bandeirantes from Flight West Airlines in early 1995 as a stopgap replacement for its fleet of grounded Nomads. In mid December the Bandeirantes VH-XFD, -XFJ, -XFK and -XTL were returned to Flight West and from February 1 were replaced by three King Air 200s and one Twin Otter which were contracted for 12 months from Hawker Pacific. King Air B200s N3214D msn BB-1504 and N3197L msn BB-1505, which were later registered VH-HPW and VH-HPX respectively, were flown in from the United States in mid January while Hawker Pacific stock aircraft King Air B200C VH-AJM was re-registered VH-HPZ. The leased Twin Otter was VH-HPY, previously operated by Talair as P2-RDV.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service/Western Operations imported King Air B200C N43CE msn BL-72 on December 21 with the aircraft ferrying into Sydney from Pago Pago and Norfolk Island. After modification to RFDS standard the King Air is planned for delivery to the RFDS base at Port Hedland in early April.

Skywest Aviation has imported two King Air 200s as replacement aircraft for its Darwin based GAF N-24A Nomad fleet which are contracted to the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service. Arriving in Perth from Christmas Island on December 13 were King Air 200C F-GILF msn BL-12 and King Air 200 F-GIQV msn BB-529. The King Airs were later registered to Skywest Aviation as VH-SWO and VH-SWP respectively.

Fokker 50/saab 340 Exchange

Ansett Australia has concluded a deal with Skyways Sweden whereby Ansett will exchange three of its Fokker 50s for three of Skyways Saab 340Bs. Ansett Australia has long had an excess of Fokker 50s in its fleet and the transfer of three of these aircraft to Sweden will help to alleviate this problem. Ansett Australia will pass the three Swedish Saab 340B’s to Kendell Airlines who is planning to expand its network in NSW which includes taking over the Canberra/Sydney route.

The first Ansett Fokker 50 to depart for Sweden was VH-FNG which flew out of Sydney on December 27 as AN4294 bound for Alice Springs and Darwin. VH-FNG was (left) Airi Tungaru’s CASA C-212 left Brisbane for Tarawa in mid December to return to service following maintenance work with Pacific Aviation. Former Talair Twin Otter VH-FNX departing Brisbane for its new life with Polynesian Airlines in December. (Steve Bottom and Francis Nickleson) 76 Australian Aviation March 1996 (left) Ansett F28-1000 VH-FKD being broken up at Ansett’s Tullamarine maintenance base late last year. (right) Another Ansett operated Fokker about to meet a similar fate is this Comair F27-200 ZS-JVA, which was delivered to Ansett-ANA in early 1960 and later served with Ansett Airlines of NSW before it was sold to Comair in November 1976. At December 1 last year the former VH-FND had logged 68,739 hours and 75,025 cycles. It is due to be retired around mid year when it will most likely be broken up for spares. Two other ex Ansett F27s serve alongside ZS-JVA — VH-FNI (now ZS-KUI) and VH-FNJ (now ZS-KVJ) — are also due for retirement. (Brian Wilkes and Capt Cam Walker) previously operated by Skywest Airlines and had all its markings removed in Perth before departing there for Sydney on December 15. Prior to its departure from Sydney for Sweden VH-FNG briefly returned to Ansett service.

The second Ansett Fokker 50 for Sweden is VH-FNF which was planned to depart Australia in mid February. At a later date a third Fokker 50, which is reported to be VH-FNH, will be ferried to Sweden. It is interesting to note that Skyways Sweden already operates Fokker 50 SE-LEA which is owned by Ansett Aircraft Leasing (not AWAS) and was the prospective VH-FNK.

Other Fokker 50 news concerns Skywest Airlines who took delivery of Fokker 50 VH-FND on December 8 after the aircraft ferried into Perth from Melbourne. In turn Fokker 50 VH-FNG was withdrawn from Skywest service before departing Perth for Sydney on December 15. Fokker 50 VH-FNB was delivered to Perth on December 31 and it was expected that it would replace VH-FNH in the Skywest fleet. However in the interim Skywest Fokker 50 VH-FNA was flown to Melbourne in early January for a planned maintenance lay-up.

Kendell Airlines planned to take delivery of the first of three Skyways Saab 340Bs at Wagga on February 8 with the second aircraft arriving later in the month. The Saab 340Bs concerned are SE-KVN msn 322 and SE-KVO msn 325 and they will be registered to Kendell as VH-KDV and VH-KDQ respectively. The third Skyways Saab 340B for Kendell, which will be delivered in May, will either be SE-KSI msn 223 or SE-KSK msn 229. The delivery of the three Swedish aircraft to Kendell will bring their Saab 340 fleet to 12 (Saab 340A x 6, Saab 340B x 6).

Ferry Flights

Dash 7 VH-UUM was delivered to Jetcraft at its Cairns base in January. The Dash 7 later entered service on Jetcraft’s recently awarded resources contract between Cairns and the Kidston Mine. In Traffic/Jan-Feb ’96 we mentioned that the Dash 7 was planned to be serial number 56 however before departure from the United States there was a change of aircraft with VH-UUM now being serial number 43. Dash 7 serial number 43 made its first flight in March ’81 before being delivered the following month to Golden West Airlines of Los Angeles as N705GW. By March ’83 N705GW had been withdrawn from service with Golden West and was parked at Las Vegas. From September ’83 until March ’84 N705GW was leased to Ransome Airlines of Philadelphia. In April ’84 the Dash 7 moved to Honolulu where it was based for the next 10 years with Hawaiian Airlines. In July ’94 N705GW was flown to the mainland United States and parked while awaiting a new owner.

DHC-6-300 C-FWQF msn 729 ferried from Denpasar to Port Moresby on January 6 however the ultimate destination for the Twin Otter was unknown at time of writing.

DHC-6-100 N950SM msn 90 ferried into Sydney from Norfolk Island on January 2 on completion of its trans Pacific ferry flight. Previously operated by Skydive of Umatilla, Florida N950SM or ‘Turbo Gator One’ as it is named was on delivery to the Sydney Skydiving Centre at Wilton. N950SM was later noted in early January participating at the Australian Skydiving Championships at Corowa, NSW.

CASA C-212 T3-ATC departed Brisbane on December 10 for Tarawa and return to service with Air Tungaru after completing a planned overhaul with Pacific Aviation. Interestingly T3-ATC carried no colour scheme with the aircraft being an all over white.

Bell 205A-1 C-GFHO of Frontier Helicopters, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada was leased to Jayrow Helicopters for the summer fire season and was first noted at Moorabbin on November 13. On December 13 C-GFHO crashed near Buxton, Victoria while enroute from Cockatoo to Benalla. As a replacement Frontier Helicopters airfreighted Bell 205A-1 C-GXLF to Australia with the helicopter first being noted at Moorabbin on January 3.

BN-2A-21 5Y-RAJ of Eagle Aviation, Mombasa, Kenya was noted at Archerfield on December 5.

BAe 125-700 VH-JFT of AirServices Australia departed Essendon on December 20 for the UK and onward delivery to a new owner in the United States.

Canadair Challenger 601 CS-MAC which was recently delivered to the Sociedada de Turismo de Duiversoes de Macau flew into Perth from Macau on December 20.