On Wednesday 13 September, a surprise arrival into the region, and making its first ever visit, was Link Airways (Corporate Air / Vee H Aviation) SAAB 340B+ turboprop VH-VER, which flew up from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast to land at Theordore Aerodrome on a Fly-in Fly-out (FIFO) closed charter flight.
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| VH-VER at Sydney just last weekend |
It later returned to the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane and resumed normal operations for the airline by flying from Brisbane down to Tamworth.
Since the SAAB was delivered to Link Airways, it has primarily been operating on regional Regular Passenger Transport (RPT) routes in New South Wales and Victoria. The airline also operates some flights on behalf of Virgin Australia Airlines.
Of interest, VH-VER previously operated in the USA with Mesaba Airlines for Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines as N430XJ, but most recently, it flew with Florida-based Silver Airways as N331AG. It was flown into Australia with that American registration marking in February 2022 and was 'stored' at Goulburn until May 2022 when it was then delivered to Link Airways (Corporate Air / Vee H Aviation) as VH-VER.
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| N430XJ in 2017 (File photo) |
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| N331AG in 2020 (File photo) |
VH-VER was one of three most recently acquired SAAB 340s, and as far as we are aware, the other two which were acquired about this time - VH-VEA and VH-VEQ - are still yet to make an appearance in Central Queensland.
Of interest, also on Wednesday 13 September, fellow Link Airways SAAB 340B VH-VEC flew into Mackay Airport from Townsville and Horn Island before then flying down to Brisbane. VH-VEC had flown up to Townsville from Brisbane the previous day.
Photos taken by Tom Murray-Smith, Tom Turner and Travis Piatek ©
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