In mid June this year Australian based airline Jetstar announced their intention to commence services to regional New Zealand starting in December this year. A network of at least four initial destinations operated by five Dash 8-Q300 turbo-props has been proposed with the cities/towns to be serviced yet to be announced by the airline.
At this stage three ex Qantaslink/Eastern Australia Airlines Dash 8's have been identified for deployment to New Zealand and the first aircraft, VH-TQM, broke cover from the paintshop at Townsville 12 August having arrived from storage at Tamworth on 27 July. The Dash flew north to Cairns where it sat until 26 August when it positioned south to Brisbane as QLK713.
The 50 seat Dash today flew from Brisbane to Norfolk Island and Auckland arriving just a short time ago.
VH-TQM was delivered to Sydney on 09 August 2004 as C-FZHW and took up its VH marks a couple of days later leased to Eastern Australian Airlines as registered operator. Its first revenue service took place on 20 August 2004.
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| Arriving at Cairns earlier this month. |
The second aircraft is Dash 8-Q300 VH-SBI, and it was delivered to Australia in November 2004 originally registered to Qantas but transferred to Sunstate Airlines (Qld) on 01 June 2006. It was subsequently leased to Eastern Australian Airlines two months later. VH-SBI positioned post repaint from Townsville to Cairns 24 August while VH-TQL arrived at Townsville from Tamworth 22 August. VH-TQL is another 2004 model Q300 and it was delivered to Sydney 15 July 2004 and operated by Eastern Australian Airlines.
On more NZ regional news, Kiwi Regional Airlines Saab 340A ZK-KRA has arrived at Port Hedland, Western Australia this morning after the long haul from Hambantota, Sri Lanka. The aircraft is expected to make landfall at Hamilton this coming Tuesday.
