It called into Rockhampton Airport while operating the QJE1794/5 service from and back to Brisbane.
VH-YQU underwent planned maintenance at Singapore (Seletar) Airport during May, June and July and it is believed that while it was there, it was re-painted into the new Qantas / QantasLink colour scheme.
Since arriving back into Australia at Brisbane in early July, VH-YQU appears to have been mostly utilised on flights from Brisbane to Cairns (pictured above in August) and Brisbane to Canberra, so its visit to CQ was a great surprise!
VH-YQU is now the tenth of the fleet of Cobham Aviation-operated Boeing B717-200 regional jets to wear the new and updated Qantas livery and kangaroo logo, which was introduced to coincide with the introduction the Boeing B787 Dreamliner into service with the airline in 2017.
It also appears that the previously un-named VH-YQU has now been named 'Royal National Park'.
VH-YQU is also the third of the 2-class QantasLink B717-200 aircraft to be re-painted having previously worn the 2007 'New Roo' style livery.
Of interest, VH-YQU has had an interesting history to the present day. The Boeing B717-2BL (c/n 55180-5132) was originally ordered new in 2004 by Midwest Airlines of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the USA and entered the US Aircraft Register as N918ME in July 2004.
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| N918ME in 2006 (GDClearedToLand / https://www.flickr.com/) |
It operated with the airline until 2008 and was stored at Victorville soon after. In early 2009, the B717-200 was leased to Mexicana Click and was entered onto the Mexican Aircraft Register as XA-CLB in March 2009.
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| XA-CLB at Miami in 2009 (Roberto Collazo / https://www.flickr.com/) |
Mexicana Click ceased operations in 2010 and the aircraft was stored at Mexico City before re-entering the American Aircraft Register as N795BC and subsequently being again stored at Victorville where it remained until August 2013 when it was prepared for lease to Qantas Airways.
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| N795BC at Tulsa in 2011 (aatus / https://www.flickr.com/) |
N795BC was ferried to Jacksonville and painted into full Qantas / QantasLink colours before it was then subsequently ferried to Australia where it arrived into Adelaide in South Australia just before Christmas in 2013.
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| N795BC arrives into Adelaide Airport (Tony Haynes / https://www.flickr.com/) |
It was then registered VH-YQU with National Jet Systems (now Cobham Aviation Services) as the registered operator. VH-YQU entered service with QantasLink in February 2014 when it operated as QFA1510 from Canberra to Sydney.
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| File photo |
It remains one of seven B717-200s in the Qantas / QantasLink fleet to be in a 2-class configuration with 12 Business Class and 98 Economy Class seats, along with Q-Streaming - Qantas' wireless entertainment system.
Finally, it appears that fellow QantasLink (Cobham Aviation) Boeing B717-200 VH-YVQV has ferried overseas to Singapore's Seletar Airport for planned maintenance and I assume, re-painting.
Photos taken by Jonathan Williams and Tony Haynes ©
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