Tuesday Night Storms in Central Queensland and First-Time Airport Visitors on Wednesday

Storms have hit several Central Queensland towns late on Tuesday 21 February causing flights to be diverted or even cancelled. Disruptions occured at Emerald Airport and at Rockhampton Airport, where at least three inbound flights were either diverted or forced to return to Brisbane.

Virgin Australia (Alliance Airlines) Fokker F-100 VH-XWN was one example, departing Brisbane at about 7pm as VOZ1251, before being noted returning into Brisbane around 9pm without landing at Rockhampton. It then departed Brisbane again at around 10pm and was able to get into Rockhampton, with VH-XWN noted returning into Brisbane after midnight as VOZ1252.

Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, Alliance Airlines Fokker F-100 VH-XWQ was noted operating into Proserpine / Whitsunday Coast Airport on behalf of Virgin Australia as VOZ1113. This aircraft is still believed to be in Alliance colours, and is believed to be a substitute aircraft for Fokker F-100 VH-XWM which Virgin has been operating, and seemingly had suffered a technical problem.


Also on Tuesday, a recent arrival in the Virgin Australia fleet in the form of B737-800 VH-YIE made its second visit to Rockhampton Airport, while Alliance Airlines Fokker F-70 VH-QQX was operating to Rockhampton from Brisbane on behalf of QantasLink. Finally, Alliance Airlines Fokker F-100 VH-XWP - the newest Fokker in the Alliance Airlines fleet - was noted operating into Mackay on behalf of QantasLink.


Lastly, on Wednesday 22 February, both Rockhampton and Mackay Airports had first-time visits from a nice new pair of Virgin Australia Boeing B737-800s in the form of VH-YFK and VH-YIF. VH-YIF was operating sectors usually operated by a Fokker F-100 and was thus photographed in Cairns (photo on the Far North Queensland Skies Blog HERE).