Spotted at Nelson by Lord Nelson was the Pacific Aerospace 750XL ZK-XLE c/n 151 as listed to Kiwi Air Ltd of Gisborne.
XLE was first registered to Pacific Aerospace Ltd at Hamilton on 03-12-2008 and first flew there on the 22nd and received its CofA the next day.
Ownership changed to Kiwi Air Ltd of Gisborne on 09-01-2009.
Its ZK letters were cancelled on 19-09-2012 for it to become P2-KNA with Niugini Aviation.
It was noted at Taupo this same day and then at Hamilton on the 20th and it departed Hamilton for Ardmore on the 27-09-2012.
It finally departed Taupo for Kerikeri, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island and Toowoomba on 05-11-2012 and carried on to Mackay and Cairns the next day, reaching Port Moresby on the 9th.
A pic of P2-KNA can be found at:-
At some point if must have snuck back into NZ because it took up its old ZK-XLE marks again on 24-01-2014.
ZK-XLE at Nelson today 13-07-2015 from Lord Nelson.
Wasn't Air2there using it to trial a couple of years back? I believe they used it on their routes for a week. It wouldn't have been on their AOC so can't imagine they carried pax on the flights though.
ReplyDeleteAir Nuigini was setup and financed by some local PNG backers who were not satisfied with the cost efficiency of using NZ crew and engineers (who would fly over to service the XLs). So they cancelled their contract with KiwiAir and the aircraft obviously returned. The company has apparently since fallen apart following an incident with local replacement pilots.
Would be interesting to know what a $2mill aircraft is doing just sitting around though. KiwiAir/FarmersAir clearly have pockets of cash as I believe they have a few XL/Falcos sitting around.