Traffic

A380-842 VH-OQB, which ferried from Sydney to Abu Dhabi as QF6011 for planned maintenance on May 14, was still there as of early August.

Qantas 747-400 aircraft were noted operating a number of military charters in this period.

747-438ER VH-OEH operated QF1364 from Rockhampton to Darwin on July 27 and QF1364 from Rockhampton to Adelaide on July 28, while 747-438 VH-OJU operated QF1364 from Rockhampton to Adelaide on July 29.

QantasLink 717-231 VH-NXL was painted in the silver roo colour scheme by Flying Colours at Townsville between June 21 and July 7.

717-23S VH-NXE finished its maintenance in Seletar on July 19 and then operated QJE6251 to Broome and Cairns on July 19.

717-2K9 VH-YQX ferried as QJE6250 from Cairns to Broome and Seletar on July 21 for planned maintenance.

QantasLink/Network Aviation Fokker 100 VH-NHJ, as NWK6683, was ferried from Perth to Port Hedland and Seletar on June 1 for planned maintenance (Traffic/July). On completion, as QF6683, it ferried from Seletar to Port Hedland and Perth on July 1, returning to service on July 3 as NWK1650 from Perth to Karratha.

Qantas Freight continued their lease of the Pacific Air Express 757-225(PCF) VH-PQA (Traffic/July) through to early August.

Qantas Freight 737-43S/SF VH-XNH, which ferried from Perth to Seletar for planned maintenance on April 18 (Traffic/July), returned to Perth as QF7309 on July 4.

737-376/SF VH-XMB, which ferried from Perth to Seletar as QF7302 on July 5 for planned maintenance, was still there as of early August.

Airline News

In this issue we report the delivery of an A321neo to Air New Zealand, an ATR 72-600 to Air New Zealand Link, and a Dash 8-400 to Cobham, while departing was a 737-800 of Fiji Airways.

Air New Zealand took delivery of the A321neo ZK-NNF msn 8839 at Christchurch on July 18 after it completed its ferry flight NZ6099 from Finkenwerder via Muscat, Kuala Lumpur and Cairns. The aircraft entered service with the airline on July 25 when it operated NZ522 from Christchurch to Auckland, while its first international service was operated on July 26 as NZ891 from Christchurch to Melbourne.

Air New Zealand Link ATR 72-600 ZK-MVZ msn 1562 was registered to Mount Cook Airlines on July 27 and the following day departed Toulouse for Heraklion on the first leg of its delivery flight to Christchurch where it arrived on August 2. En route it stopped at Muscat, Colombo, Kuala Lumpur, Denpasar and Brisbane.

Fiji Airways withdrew 737-8X2 DQ-FJG from service on July 24 after operating FJ920 from Brisbane to Nadi. On July 30, as FJ2002, it ferried out of Nadi bound for Honolulu, Los Angeles and Orlando (Sanford) Florida where it was reduced to produce.

Alliance announced on July 10 that it had purchased five Fokker 100 aircraft previously operated by Helvetic Airways. The five, which are all in storage, are HB-JVC msn 11501, HB-JVE msn 11459, HB-JVF msn 11466, HB-JVG msn 11478 and HB-JVH msn 11324.

Alliance Fokker 70 VH-QQW left Perth on July 22 on ferry to Norwich, UK for planned maintenance. The flight was operated by Southern Cross as SXI 1910 and routed via Surabaya, Kuala Lumpur, Hyderabad and Heraklion.

Fokker 70 VH-KBX, which still carries the colours of the Dutch Royal Flight, operated a charter on July 10 as QQ551/552 from Brisbane to Adelaide and Melbourne before returning to Brisbane from Melbourne and Sydney on July 17 as QQ553/554.

Cobham Aviation RJ-85 VH-NJW, scheduled to operate a flight on July 30 from Perth to the Granny Smith mine, was damaged when taxying for departure in a collision with the Cobham terminal.

Cobham added Dash 8-402 OE-IIP msn 4539 to its fleet and on June 30 it was ferried from Saarbrucken, Germany to Shannon, Ireland where it was painted in Cobham colours by International Aerospace Coatings. The aircraft then returned to Saarbrucken from where it departed on July 24 on ferry to Perth, arriving on July 30 via Heraklion, Cairo, Al Bateen, Ahmedabad, Madras, Surat Thani/Thailand, Subang, Denpasar and Broome. It was later registered to Cobham as VH-IYJ.

JetGo ERJ-135LR VH-JGB, which has been parked at Sydney since arriving from Brisbane on June 22 ’18, was cancelled from the Australian register on July 17 ’19 and placed on the US register on July 19 as N135PP to TVPX Aircraft Solutions of North Salt Lake. It was noted at Sydney on July 25 carrying its US registration.

Pionair Australia has leased its BAe 146-200QC VH-SAZ to Parcelair for eight weeks to cover planned maintenance. On July 9, as flight SFZ801, it was ferried from Bankstown to Sydney and Auckland.

Regional Airline News

In this issue we report the departure of an Air Tahiti ATR 72-500.

Air Kiribati DHC-8-102 T3-AKA msn 388, ex C-FRXH, which had been under maintenance at Cairns, departed for Honiara on August 2 and onward delivery to Kiribati.

The Air Tahiti ATR 72-500 F-OIQV msn 806, which has been sold to Hi Air of South Korea, arrived in Cairns on July 18 from Papeete, Apia and Port Vila and continued to Kupang and Subang after overnighting.

Air Tahiti ATR 72-500 F-OIQR msn 862, sold earlier to Hi Air and which transited Cairns on April 5 (Traffic/June), has since been registered to Hi Air as HL8243.

Pearl Aviation Dornier 328-110 VH-PPJ, msn 3059, was noted parked at Malaga, Spain on July 27.

Maroomba Airlines Dash 8-102 VH-AEP msn 197, ex P2-MCI (Traffic/August), was placed on the Australian register on July 5 with registered holder PNG Air of Boroko, PNG and the registered operator Nantay of Perth.

Bizjet News

In this issue we report the delivery of a Falcon 7X and a King Air 350i.

The RAAF Falcon 7X A56-003 msn 147, call sign ASY330, which is the third of type to replace the Challenger 604 in the RAAF inventory, arrived at Canberra on August 5 from Paris/Le Bourget and Vancouver.

Gulfstream 500 N100JS msn 72023, reported to be first of type to visit Australia, was noted at Essendon on July 11, Darwin on July 19 and Cairns on July 23.

Two bizjets that are candidates for Australian registration arrived in the period under review.CitationJet CJ-3+ N211ML msn 525B-0211, which is registered to Roney Leasing of St Petersburg, Florida arrived at Jandakot from Cocos Island and Port Hedland on August 3. The second bizjet, Eclipse 500 N257AK, which is registered to AGC of Oklahoma City, arrived at Archerfield on July 29 from Seletar via Surabaya, Kupang, Darwin, Mount Isa and Proserpine.

Learjet 60 VH-AND, registered to Seletar Jet Charter and rarely seen in Australia, arrived into Perth from Lombok as ‘Medic 78’ on July 14 before departing the following day to Seletar.

CitationJet CJ2 VH-MOR msn 525A-0063 changed its registered operator on May 29 to Altitude Aviation of Belmont, NSW.

TAG Aviation Asia Global 5000 T7-BLQ msn 9715 arrived at Albury on July 4 from Hong Kong and Essendon. It returned to Essendon from Albury on July 9 before continuing to Hong Kong.

Citation Sovereign HI985 msn 680-0001, which is operated by Helidosa of the Dominican Republic, arrived at Melbourne from Colombo and Lombok on July 18 before departing to Sydney and Pago Pago on July 20.

Citation Sovereign N37VR msn 680-0576 arrived at Essendon from Majuro and Brisbane on July 3 and departed on July 14 for Mangalore, Broome, Perth and Broome.

Skyfirst Falcon 7X 9H-TOO arrived in Sydney from Gimpo on July 6 before continuing to Hobart and Melbourne on July 15, Ayers Rock on July 18 and Broome on July 19.

King Air 350i N881HG msn FL-1155, which was on delivery to Tasman Aviation, arrived at Nelson on July 2 after ferrying in from Surabaya, Darwin, the Gold Coast and Auckland. It was later registered ZK-VME to Tasman Aviation on July 10.

Avanti N61WC msn 3001, which arrived at Perth on June 6 for planned maintenance, departed Perth for Broome and Lombok on August 1.

Pegasus Air PC-12/47E VH-YKG msn 1410, ex VH-YDU, which is operated by Pegasus Air of Loftus, NSW changed its registration on July 9.

Ferry Flights

Air Tractor 502XP VH-XPN msn 502A-3192 departed Albury on July 1 for Lord Howe Island before continuing to Hamilton and Fielding. It was then cancelled from the Australian register on July 5 before being registered ZK-SXP to Super Air of Hamilton on July 8.

Spectrem Air Basler BT-67 ZS-ASN, on completion of survey work in Western Australia, departed Jandakot on July 3 for Broome and Denpasar and onward stops to its base at Lanseria, South Africa. It had been operating from Jandakot since November ’17.

BK-117 P2-TAH, which was carrying the colours of its previous operator East Anglia Air Ambulance, departed Bankstown on June 30 for Port Macquarie and Ballina. It was later reported on July 1 ferrying from Gladstone to Mackay and Cairns, and the following day from Cairns to Cooktown, Horn Island and Daru.

Gateway Air Center Cessna 208B N9023W msn 208B2317 departed Merced/CA on June 26 for Wanaka where it arrived on July 1 via Honolulu, Apia, and Auckland. It was later registered ZK-SLA on July 28 to Southern Lakes Aviation of Queenstown which will reportedly use the aircraft for Skydive operations.

Cessna 172N ZK-ELF departed Kerikeri for Tongatapu on July 31 with the aircraft reported to be on delivery to a local operator.

Altitude Flight Ops of Belmont, NSW EMB-820C VH-HVA ferried into Ardmore on July 29 from Lord Howe Island and Kerikeri.

TBM-900 VH-LZJ was cancelled from the Australian register on June 24 after being sold in the United States and the following day was registered to Avcorp of Wilmington/Delaware as N900LZ. On July 15 it departed Jandakot for Port Hedland and Surabaya with onwards stops to the United States.

PA-24 HB-OVY departed Kerikeri for Norfolk Island on July 6 before continuing to Magenta/Noumea on July 8.

Heavy Metal

Antonov Airlines Antonov An-124 UR-82009, as ADB2529, arrived into Adelaide from Honolulu and Brisbane on July 14 and departed on July 23 direct to Honolulu as ADB229F.

Kalitta Air 747-4B5(F) N705CK, as CKS232, arrived at Darwin on July 24 from Kadena and departed the same day to U-Tapao.

Atlas Air 747-446 N465MC, as GTI8530, arrived into Darwin from Kadena on July 17 before returning the following day to Kadena as GTI8530.

Atlas Air 747-481 N263SG, as GTI8310, arrived at Perth from Honolulu on July 17 before departing the following day to Singapore.

Atlas Air 747-446 N464MC, as GTI8647, arrived at Townsville on July 31 from Houston and Honolulu.

Omni Air International 777-2U8(ER) N846AX, as OAE398, arrived at Darwin from Kadena on July 20 and departed the following day to Osan Air Base.

Crystal Luxury Air 777-29M(LR) P4-XTL, as CXB772, which was carrying members of the Manchester United football club, arrived into Perth direct from Manchester, UK on July 8 and departed Perth on July 10 as CXB772 direct to London/Gatwick.

Weststar Aviation 767-238ER 2-TSSA arrived in Sydney from Subang on July 19 before returning to Subang on July 26. The aircraft was originally built on order for Qantas and operated by them as VH-EAQ ‘City of Launceston’ from September 1 ’87 until October 7 ‘04.

Coulson Aviation ‘Fireliner’ 737-3H4 N138CG, as flight CUL138, arrived at RAAF Richmond on July 28 from Bellingham/WA, Sacramento/McClellan, Santa Maria/CA, Hilo, Pago Pago and Norfolk Island.

Embraer EMB 195-E2 PR-ZIQ (Profit Hunter), which was on a demonstration tour of the region, arrived at Brisbane on July 22 from Haneda, Manila and Port Moresby.

The next day it departed Brisbane for Sydney before continuing to Pot Hedland and Halim on July 27.

TALISMAN SABRE 2019

Talisman Sabre 2019, the Australian-US military exercise, was held this year from late June until early August.

Some of the aircraft involved were mentioned in Traffic/August so the list below details other participants.

US Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon 169337/LA 337, call sign Madfox 2, departed Rockhampton for Newcastle on July 21, as did US Navy Boeing P-8A 169339/LA 339, call sign Madfox 8.

US Navy Boeing C-40A/737-7AFC 165834 arrived at Townsville from Amberley on July 24 and Cairns from Amberley on July 30.

US Army Cessna UC-35A Ultra 99-00101, which carried United States of America titles, was noted at Darwin on July 20.

US Marines KC-130J 167926/QD, call sign Sumo 96, was noted at Amberley, Darwin, Proserpine, Rockhampton and Townsville between July 16 and July 27.

US Air Force Lockheed MC-130J 13-5775 was noted departing Townsville on July 25 in company with Lockheed MC-130J 13-5793.

US Air Force/AMC KC-10A 30075 ‘Travis’ was noted at Brisbane on July 16 and July 28, as was US Air Force/AMC KC-10A 60037 ‘McGuire’.

US Army Reserve Command Beech Huron C-12V 95-00088, call sign PAT 88, was noted at Rockhampton, Townsville, Brisbane and Darwin between July 18 and July 20.

US Army C-12V 95-00094, call sign PAT 94, was noted at Rockhampton on July 19 and Darwin on July 20.

US Army C-12V 95-00320, call sign PAT 320, which carried United States of America titles, was noted at Darwin, and Brisbane between July 19 and July 26.

US Navy C-2A Greyhound 162154, in company with US Navy C-2A 162165, was noted at Brisbane, Darwin, Rockhampton and Townsville between July 17 and July 30.