Aerlink ATR 72-500 Turboprop VH-FVR Makes First Visit to CQ at Moranbah Airport

On Tuesday 29 August, Aerlink (formerly Hevilift) ATR 72-500 VH-FVR was noted making what is believed to be its first ever visit into Central Queensland, operating a closed Fly-in Fly-out (FIFO) charter flight in and out of Moranbah Airport.

It arrived from Brisbane as HT720 and later departed back to the capital as HT719.

Of interest, VH-FVR was delivered to Aerlink in Brisbane at the end of May as 2-NEIL.  It had previously operated for low-cost carrier subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, Firefly, as 9M-FYA.

Of further interest, the registration marking of VH-FVR was previously worn by a Virgin Australia ATR 72-600.  After a period of storage at Mareeba and then Cairns in Far North Queensland, VH-FVR left Australia at the start of 2022.  It was then re-painted into the colours of Greece-based Olympic Air and was registered as SX-OBM.

It appears to still be operating with Olympic Air and also operates alongside fellow former Virgin Australia ATR 72-600s VH-FVY (now SX-OBN) and VH-FVQ (now SX-OBO).

Finally, as mentioned previously, during 2022, the Brisbane-based Hevilift Australia (Fixed Wing Division) was reported to have re-branded as Aerlink. However, it wasn’t until mid-January 2023 that Hevilift official ceased operations and Aerlink commenced operations with the fleet of ATR 42 and ATR 72 turboprop aircraft transferring over.

Photos taken by Lloyd Fox, Paul Watson, Daniel Follett and A1 Aviation (via Flickr)  ©