Beech 1900D ZK-EAK UE-434 was delivered to Air New Zealand Link operator Eagle Airways as N4474P arriving at Hamilton from Pago Pago on 14 June 2002. It was placed on the ZK register 5 days later. Its first flight under its new registration was on 22 June 2002 when it flew from Hamilton to Tauranga where it was placed on static display at the airport's open day before positioning back to Hamilton. On 24 June 2002 it flew a training detail from/to Hamilton via a GPS approach and overshoot at Tokoroa. The following day it made its first commercial flight carrying passengers from Hamilton to Auckland as NZ2210.
In January 2012 the aircraft, along with ZK-EAG, received the All Black livery and it re-entered service on the 22nd initially positioning from Hamilton to Auckland as NZ2910 then as NZ2365 to Rotorua.
Her last day of flying for Eagle Airways was on 31 December 2014 when she arrived at Hamilton from Auckland as NZ2211.
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| Auckland 31 March 2011 |
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| Wellington 29 September 2014 |
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| Auckland 13 October 2013 |
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| Hamilton 02 February 2015 |
They may not have been particularly glamorous aircraft (the closest feeling to being in a bus, in my opinion) but they worked hard for the 12 years they were in service. So long EAK!
ReplyDeleteNo pictures of her landing with no wheels at WB?
ReplyDeleteNo!!!! Not an All Blacks Beech1900d :( so sad. So long EAK
ReplyDeleteSomeone mentioned where kiwi regional airways will go now that all the routes are takin up now that GBA have filled the kaitia route. ..
ReplyDeletewell there is still competition... and there is still the Hamilton palmerston north palmy to Nelson routes yet to have been filled along with the taupo Wellington flight. Also masterton has been somewhat forgotten since Vincent went bust around the same time eagle air came out with the news...
still hope that inflite and sunair will battle it out to fill the cooperate Hamilton auckland flight but thats still a year away along with the masterton flight. .. Or. .. air2there can feed masterton to Wellington. there is also mount cook, te anau and wanaka that havnt been tried since air nz has pulled out and omaru could be tried one more. ..
HLZ-PMR will upguage to Q300 in mid 2016.
DeleteIf there is money to be made someone will do it! The reason they are not doing so is because there is no money in it with the type of aircraft that are needed for those sectors.
DeleteA lot of those routes you have mentioned have proven that they cannot support a commercial operation with 19 seat TP's or larger aircraft. Wanaka, Mount Cook and Manapouri are classic cases.
Te Anau and Wanaka are not "destinations" like Dunedin or Queenstown for tourists. For locals it is cheaper to drive to Invercargill or Queenstown and catch the cheaper ATR or Jet service so any service will have to compete on the price of road + large aircraft fare.
Omaru is one that has been tried for years but the competition, which is the private motor car is too strong.
ZK-EAG and other aircraft from this fleet are sitting at Bankstown Airport NSW Australia
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