Air New Zealand says goodbye to more Beechcraft 1900

In November 2014 Air New Zealand made the decision to retire their fleet of Beechcraft 1900D aircraft belonging to Eagle Air and they wanted them all gone by August 2016. Well the retirement continues and three of these aircraft arrived in Brisbane last night and departed this morning. All three aircraft received their airways clearance to Alice Springs and at first I thought they were heading off to the graveyard. It was only when the tower asked "is Alice Springs your final destination" and I was surprised to hear him say "we are actually heading off to Johannesburg via Alice Springs and Broome; then he mentioned some little island in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius and then Johannesburg as their final destination.

AIR NEW ZEALAND BEECHCRAFT 1900D ZK-EAD (CN UE-427)

AIR NEW ZEALAND BEECHCRAFT 1900D ZK-EAF (CN UE-429) 

AIR NEW ZEALAND BEECHCRAFT 1900D ZK-EAO (CN UE-438) 

The morning started with a fly over of the daily Singapore A380 heading to Auckland,

SINGAPORE AIRBUS A380-841 9V-SKH (CN 021)

Then after that I headed out to the airport very early this to catch the departure of the three rare visitors. I was quite happy when I got out there to find a Bombardier 700 on the logistics apron

BOMBARDIER BD 700-1A10  N60XC (CN 9588)

and then while I was waiting for the 1900's to depart a Hawker 850 departed and then a Falcon 900 arrived along with some of the usual RPT's so it made for a very pleasant morning.

ALLIANCE FOKKER 28-MK70 VH-JFB (CN 11521)

SPORTING THE "BREAST CANCER NETWORK AUSTRALIA SYMBOL"

CHINA SOUTHERN A330-323 B-5966 (CN 1625)

STATE of QUEENSLAND HAWKER 850 XP VH-SGY (CN 258780)

GREAT WESTERN AVIATION PA31-350 VH-OMM (CN 8152153)

BANK OF UTAH FALCON 900EX N940CL (CN 031)

QANTAS LINK B717-200 VH-YQT (CN 55179)

QANTAS A330-303 VH-QPE (CN 0593)

EMIRATES A380-861 A6-EDA (CN 011)

PEL-AIR SAAB 340 VH-KDK (CN 16)

CORPORATE AIR FAIRCHILD 227 VH-VEK (CN DC-845B)