Traffic

Meanwhile Air New Zealand Boeing 747-219B ZK-NZY will return to service in August after completion of a three year lease to Air Pacific. As we mentioned in Traffic/June Air New Zealand has leased Boeing 767-300ER ZK-NCM from Itochu Airlease for three years from April 1. Boeing 767-35HER ZK-NCM was delivered to Air New Zealand in Auckland on April 13 after operating flight ANZ6100 from Kansai.

At a ceremony held at Auckland on April 29 Boeing 767-35ER ZK-NCM and Boeing 737-219 ZK-NAV were rolled out in the new Air New Zealand ‘Pacific Wave’ colour scheme as illustrated in June AA. Prior to this however ZK-NCM flew its first flight for Air New Zealand on April 27 when it was pressed into service to operate Auckland/Sydney/Auckland and Auckland/Melbourne/Auckland. This earlier than planned entry into service was evidently as a result of Boeing 767-204ER ZK-NBI sustaining engine damage while parked at Brisbane Airport.

Air New Zealand engineering in Auckland recently handled the refurbishment and repaint of Britannia Airways Boeing 767-204ER G-BPFV. The Boeing, which is owned by Polaris Leasing, had completed its lease to Britannia Airways and was then in turn leased to the Spanish operator Air Europa. G-BPFV departed Luton, England on April 7 on ferry to Bangkok and Auckland where it was refurbished and repainted in Air Europa colours. On April 24 the Boeing, now registered EC-276, departed Auckland for Bangkok using the Air Europa flight number AEA001.

As mentioned, Air Pacific currently operates Boeing 747-219B ZK-NZY which is leased from Air New Zealand. On August 2 the lease on this aircraft is to be terminated with ZK-NZY returning to the Air New Zealand fleet. From August 3 Air Pacific will lease Boeing 747-238B VH-EBR from Qantas for two years. Prior to delivery VH-EBR will be painted in Air Pacific’s livery.

Ansett Australia Airbus A320-211 VH-HYY was delivered to Melbourne in mid June with A320-211 VH-HYX following a week later. The two A320-211s were previously operated by Onur Air of Istanbul (Turkey) as TC-ONB and TC-ONA respectively and were planned to commence service with Ansett Australia by late June. The former Britannia Airways Boeing 767-204 VH-RMO is planned for delivery to Ansett Australia in Melbourne in early July.

Pacific Transair Boeing 737-291 N737RD which was ferried from Sydney to Melbourne/Essendon on April 19 was still resident there as of May 27. It was reported however that the Boeing had been leased to an operator in the Philippines for three months with delivery planned for late May or early June.

Premier Airlines Boeing 727-2J4F VH-DHE ferried into Avalon from Melbourne on May 17 to commence a planned maintenance layup. While VH-DHE was at Avalon DHL moved the Continental Micronesia Boeing 727-264F N622DH from Manila to Auckland via Cairns on May 17 with the aircraft later operating the Premier trans Tasman service between Auckland and Sydney.

Qantas took delivery of its 16th Boeing 767-338ER at Sydney in early June when VH-OGP ferried in from Seattle. Qantas currently has on order one other Boeing 767-338ER, VH-OGQ, which is planned for delivery in early August.

From July 3 Qantas will return to India with a twice weekly Boeing 767-300 service routed from southeast Australia to Bombay via Singapore. From July 2 Qantas will commence a weekly direct Boeing 747-438 service from Melbourne to Johannesburg. With a scheduled flight time of 13 hours 45 minutes this will become the longest nonstop flight operated by Qantas from an Australian port.

Bae 146 Fleet Update

Airlink is to lease a further three BAe 146 aircraft (BAe 146-100 x 1, BAe 146-200 x 2) from National Jet Systems.

BAe 146-100 VH-NJE (msn 1104) was originally planned for delivery to Airlink in early May however this aircraft was not due to enter service before late June. The two BAe 146-200s (msn 2072 and msn 2073) will join the Airlink fleet in late September and their delivery will allow Airlink to increase flights on a number of routes to Central Australia such as Alice Springs to Ayers Rock, Ayers Rock to Cairns, Cairns to Alice Springs and Perth/Ayers Rock/Perth.

The BAe 146-200s were built on order for Pacific Southwest Airlines of San Diego, California with msn 2072 making its first flight in March ’87 followed by msn 2073 in April. Later registered N366PS and N367PS respectively, the two aircraft departed Hatfield, England on June 10 on their delivery flights to San Diego. In May ’87 PSA was taken over by the USAir Group and in March ’88 the aircraft were registered to USAir as N190US and N191US. In May ’90 USAir’s lease on N190US and N191US was terminated and the aircraft were placed in temporary storage.

N190US returned to the UK in June ’90 prior to being leased to Crossair, Switzerland as HB-IXC while in August N191US completed the North Atlantic ferry to Basle where it later entered service with Crossair as HB-IXD. In late ’93 Crossair terminated its lease on the two 146-200s with the aircraft then being leased to Cityjet, Dublin. Msn 2073 now registered EI-JET was delivered to Cityjet in December ’93 while msn 2072 now registered EI-CTY was delivered in January ’94. While operating with Cityjet the two BAe 146-200s carried the colours of Virgin Atlantic Airways.

The delivery of the above mentioned aircraft will bring the Airlink BAe 146 fleet to 12 aircraft as follows: BAe 146-300 – VH-NJL, -NJN. BAe 146-200 – VH-NJG, -NJH, -NJJ, -NJ?, -NJ?. BAe 146-100 – VH-NJC, -NJE, -NJR, -NJY, -NJZ.

The delivery of these three aircraft will bring the current fleet of BAe 146s in Australia and New Zealand to 38.

Airlink (12) BAe 146-300 x 2; BAe 146-200 x 5; BAe 146-100 x 5. Ansett Australia (12) BAe 146-300 x 5; BAe 146-200 x 7. Ansett New Zealand (9) BAe 146-200QC x 1; BAe 146-300 x 8. Australian air Express (3) BAe 146-300QT x 2; BAe 146-100QT x 1. National Jet Systems (2) BAe 146-100 x 1, RJ70 x 1.

Pacific Island News

Air Marshall Islands’ BAe 748-2B V7-8203 was withdrawn from service at Christchurch on February 7 after the aircraft ferried in from Nadi and Auckland. V7-8203 is currently parked at Christchurch and has been advertised for sale. Air Marshall Islands’ second Saab 2000 V7-9509 has been leased to Regional Airlines of Nantes, France until November. The Saab 2000 was noted at Toulouse in late April now registered F-GMVR but still carrying the colours of Air Marshall Islands.

Float Air terminated RPT services from its Picton base in late April with its DHC-2FP Otter ZK-CMU offered for sale.

Milne Bay Air is reported to have purchased two Dash 8-100s and four DHC-6-300 Twin Otters previously operated by Canadian airline NorOntair. The aircraft concerned are Dash 8-102 C-GJCB msn 006 and C-GPYD msn 012; and DHC-6-300 C-GNHB msn 441, C-GOVG msn 592, C-GHRB msn 673 and C-GRBY msn 741.

Soundsair Cessna 208 Caravan N1289N, which was later registered ZK-PDM, was noted at Pago Pago on April 7 en route to New Zealand from the United States. Soundsair imported ZK-PDM as a replacement for Cessna 208 ZK-SFA which was destroyed in an accident near Picton on January 29.

Western Pacific Airlines PA-31 Navajo H4-WPE was noted at Brisbane on May 24 awaiting delivery to Honiara.

Kiwi International Fleet Update

Kiwi International Airlines took delivery of Airbus A320-231 S7-RGX at Hamilton on May 26 with the aircraft ferrying in from the UK via Dubai, Bangkok and Darwin. The A320 is powered by two IAE V2500 engines has been leased by Kiwi from ORIX through Regionair of Singapore. A320-231 msn 238 made its first flight in August ’91 before being delivered in October of that year to ORIX who then leased the aircraft to Mexicana as N238RX. In May ’94 Mexicana terminated its lease on the aircraft and the following month it entered service with Holiday Air of Istanbul as TC-GAA. After only six months the aircraft was returned to ORIX again to be registered N238RX. In June ’95 ORIX leased the aircraft through Regionair to Vietnam Airlines as S7-RGX.

Kiwi International Airlines has also contracted to lease Boeing 737-3Y0 TF-ABK from Aviareps in the UK, with this aircraft planned for delivery to Christchurch on June 29. Boeing 737-3Y0 msn 23922 was built on order for the GPA Group and was delivered in April ’88. The aircraft was leased the same month to the Spanish operator Hispania Lineas Aereas initially as EC-151 but later as EC-EHZ. In August ’89 the Boeing returned to GPA who registered it EI-BZO while another lease was sought. From October ’89 through October ’94 the Boeing was leased to VARIG as PP-VOM. In April ’95 the aircraft was registered to the General Electric Capital Corp (GECAS) of Stamford, CT as N922AB before being leased to Aviareps the following month. Aviareps is a UK based airline representation company who in turn leased the 737 to Air Atlanta of Iceland. Although the Boeing was registered in Iceland as TF-ABK it has spent most of its time operating out of Faro, Portugal.

Kiwi operated leased Air 2000 Boeing 757-2Y0 G-OOOU for the last time on May 1 when the aircraft flew the KC019/020 service from Hamilton to Sydney and return. The following day G-OOOU departed Hamilton for Honolulu, Winnipeg and Manchester on termination of its lease. With the departure of the Boeing 757, Kiwi leased Boeing 737-4L7 C2-RN10 from Air Nauru with the aircraft entering service on May 3 on flight KC240 from Brisbane to Sydney and Hamilton.

Freedom Air International Boeing 737-3S1 N371TA which has been leased from TACA International of El Salvador operated its first flight on April 27 from Hamilton to Brisbane (SJ313).

Freedom Air flew leased Britannia Airways Boeing 757-204 G-BYAF for the last time on April 26 with the aircraft operating Auckland/Brisbane/Auckland followed by Auckland/Sydney/Hamilton/Sydney. The following day G-BYAF departed Auckland for Cairns on termination of its lease.

Regional Airline News

Airlines of Tasmania EMB-110P1 Bandeirante VH-WPI was parked at Bankstown in early May devoid of any airline markings.

Cape York Air has added Cessna Caravan VH-CYC to its fleet.

Flight West Airlines has cancelled plans to operate flights from Brisbane to Newcastle and from Brisbane to Newcastle via NSW coastal ports. As a result it will continue to be hosted in the Ansett reservations system – refer Traffic/June.

Impulse Airlines took delivery of its fifth Beech 1900D at Sydney on March 26 after the aircraft ferried in from Honolulu and Pago Pago as N3193Q. Later registered VH-AFR the Beech 1900D entered service with Impulse on March 29 on the Newcastle to Canberra route. Impulse has ordered a further two Beech 1900Ds with msn UE-214 planned for delivery in early June and msn UE-230 in late July. Impulse will also add a second Beech 1900C-1 to its fleet with the aircraft currently being sourced in the United States. It is also reported that Impulse will dispose of its four Beech C99 aircraft. If this proves to be correct it will then leave Impulse with an operating fleet of seven Beech 1900Ds and two Beech 1900C-1s.

Kendell Airlines originally planned to take delivery of Saab 340B VH-KDR at its Wagga base in early May, however delivery of this aircraft has now slipped back until July. The prospective VH-KDR msn 229 is currently operating with Skyways of Linkoping, Sweden as SE-KSK and when delivered will be the third Saab 340B from the Skyways fleet (which Ansett swapped for three Fokker 50s) to enter service with Kendell. With the prospect of adding the Sydney to Coffs Harbour route to its network Kendell will add a 13th Saab 340 and seventh Saab 340B to its fleet in July. At time of writing this aircraft had not been positively identified as it was still being sourced in the United States.

Majestic Airways Mohawk 298 VH-HIX has been moved by road from Bundaberg to Caboolture where it has become an exhibit in the Queensland Air Museum. (Refer Warbirds for additional information.)

Pacific Interline plans to commence services between Sydney and Lord Howe Island from late June using Beech King Air 200 equipment. Pacific Interline was awarded the second licence on the Sydney to Lord Howe route after the failure of Heron Airlines to commence RPT operations.

Southern Australia sold Cessna 404 Titan VH-BPO to Rossair in late April. VH-BPO was one of six Southern Australia Titans based at Essendon operating on contract to Air Ambulance Victoria.

Sunstate Airlines is planning to add a further two Shorts 360-300s to its fleet in August. Both aircraft are reported to be from Germany where they are currently operated by Rheinland Air Service of Dusseldorf. The Short 360-300s will replace on a one for one basis two of Sunstate’s current fleet of Shorts 360-100 aircraft.