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East-West Friendships for UK
East-West Airlines have leased six F27-500s to Jersey European Airways in the UK. The six aircraft involved (VH-EWU, -EWV, -EWW, -EWX, -EWY and -EWZ) terminated services with East-West in August 1989 at the start of the pilots’ dispute. All aircraft, with the exception of VH-EWW, were stored at Tamworth. VH-EWW has been based in Sydney operating on lease to Charter Cruise Air, however on August 5th it was ferried to Tamworth in preparation for delivery to Jersey European. The first two aircraft to depart Tamworth were VH-EWY and VH-EWZ which flew out of there for Darwin on August 5th. The following day they continued their ferry to Denpasar and Phuket. Jersey European Airways are part of the Walker Aviation Group who have bases at Exeter and Jersey airports. Prior to delivery of the East-West F27s they were operating a mixed fleet of BAe 748s and F27s. The number of Friendships in our region being offered for sale continues to grow. The New Zealand Transport Ministry operated F27-200s ZK-DCA and ZK-DCB on calibration flights throughout the South Pacific, however both these aircraft are now being offered for sale. Air New Zealand have already withdrawn their five F27-100s (ZK-BXE, -BXF, -BXG, -BXH and -BXI) from service and placed them on the market. The recent announcement that Air New Zealand will withdraw completely from F27 operations by late 1990 will mean another ten F27-500s coming onto the market. Other Fokker changes concern the F28 fleet operated by Ansett NSW, Ansett NT, Ansett WA and East-West. We have already mentioned that the five F28-1000 aircraft operated by Ansett NSW and Ansett WA, VH-FKA, -FKC, -FKD, -FKE and -FKF, are being advertised for sale. As these aircraft are withdrawn they will be replaced by the F28-3000s and -4000s presently operated by East-West. In Traffic/September we mentioned that the Lloyd Aviation F28-4000 VH-LAR was flown from Adelaide to Perth in early July to join the fleet of Ansett WA. VH-LAR was in fact flown to Perth for Ansett WA to carry out a refit on the aircraft. VH-LAR was reregistered VH-FKO before delivery to East-West Airlines in late August. On delivery, East-West would in turn return F28-4000 VH-EWH to Ansett WA where it is planned to return to its original registration of VH-FKJ.
Airline News
Qantas took delivery of their sixth Boeing 767-338ER and seventh Boeing 747-438 in this period, with both flights being used to gain further experience on the long range capabilities of these aircraft. Boeing 767-338ER VH-OGF ‘City of Lismore’ was initially flown from Seattle to Honolulu. There, as QF7636, it picked up passengers for the 4,409nm (8,165km) direct flight to Sydney, where it arrived on July 30th. Boeing 747-438 VH-OJG ‘City of Hobart’ as QF7447 flew into Sydney on August 18th, after taking just over fifteen hours on the direct flight from Vancouver. Air Pacific put their new Boeing 767-204ER DQ-FJA ‘Island of Vanua Levu’ into service on July 8th operating a flight from Nadi to Auckland. The Boeing 767 has replaced in service Boeing 737-2X2 DQ-FDM, which was sold to Japan Fleet Services of Singapore. On July 14th the Boeing 737, now registered N719A, was flown from Suva to Christchurch. After a planned two month refit by Air New Zealand N719A will be delivered to Aramco. Australian Airlines Boeing 737-376 VH-TAU operated on lease to Air Caledonie International between July 15th and 24th. This was while Air Caledonie’s own Boeing 737-33A F-ODGX was in for planned maintenance. Australian Boeing 737-376 VH-TAX, which has been operating on lease to the UK based Inter European Airways since late April, returned to Australia in late August. Air New Zealand have terminated the lease on Britannia Airways Boeing 737-204 G-BADP. The Britannia Boeing, which has been operating with Air New Zealand since early April, flew out of Christchurch on August 13th on its return to the UK. National Jet have also recently painted their titles on their Boeing 727-77C VH-TBS. Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services had on order six Boeing 767-300ER aircraft with options on a further seven. They have recently taken delivery of three Boeing 767-284ERs which were ordered but then cancelled by Olympic Airways. Details of these three aircraft are as follows – msn 24716 built as SX-ERA for Olympic but sold before delivery to AWAS. Handed over to AWAS on May 1st and delivered the same day to LanChile as CC-CEX; msn 24742 built as SX-ERB and delivered to AWAS on June 8th. Leased the same day to Royal Brunei Airlines as V8-RBD. This aircraft set a speed/distance record on its delivery flight from Seattle to the Brunei capital of Bandar Seri Begawan. On departure from Seattle V8-RBD flew direct to Nairobi taking 17hr 22mins between the two points and covering 14,890kms on a great circle route; msn 24762 built as SX-ERC for Olympic and delivered to AWAS on June 12th. The Boeing was leased to LanChileasCC-CEY and departed Seattle the same day on its delivery flight.
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