Franz Josef has the IATA code WHO going back to when the community was called Waiho... and presumably when it when it had a regular air service.
I was amazed how quiet Franz and Fox were in terms of helicopter flying and I didn't take a photo of a helicopter... I did however capture Air Safari's Gippsland Airvan ZK-SAE as it was about to leave on a scenic
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| Air Safaris' Gippsland Airvan ZK-SAE at Franz Joseph on 15 January 2022 |
In the past Franz Josef had four operators offering scheduled services...
http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/nacs-glacier-service.html
Back in the late-1990s, I was chatting to a fuel-tanker driver working for Nelson Fuels (I presume they now trade as NPD) at Franz Josef Glacier one day. He was discharging J1 fuel from a B-train tanker into tanks at the old river-gravel airstrip adjacent to the township and he told me he was doing a weekly run from Nelson down the west coast as far as Haast Beach pumping fuel into various facilities south of Hokitika. One week he was carting fuel for service stations and transport operators, the alternate weeks he was carting aviation fuel, mostly J1 to feed the numerous turbine helicopters operating in that region, with most of that J1 going to Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier. They were extremely busy places for commercial air operations back then and right up until Covid-19 spread through the world.
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