Weather Disruptions and More Bizjets at Hamilton Island Airport This Weekend

We had a busy weekend, but it was a very busy day at Hamilton Island Airport on Saturday 16 August, with low cloud and rain passing through causing several flight disruptions, plus a couple of diversions.

Photo taken by 'AC'  ©

The morning QantasLink Dash-8-Q300 flight - QLK2503 from Cairns - spent a period of holding before landing successfully, while the Virgin Australia flight - VOZ1751 from Melbourne (Tullamarine) also spent time holding but diverted to Proserpine / Whitsunday Coast Airport - as shown below.

http://flightaware.com/

After some successful landings, low cloud later on Saturday 16 August also caused some problems with a pair of flight from Brisbane - Virgin VOZ1497 and Jetstar JST852 - unable to land at Hamo.  VOZ1497 - B737-800 VH-YVA actually returned to Brisbane, while JST852 A320 VH-JQG also diverted to Proserpine.

Meanwhile, on Saturday 16 August, one aircraft that did successfully land was Gandel Investments (The Gandel Group) Bombardier BD-700-1A10 Global Express VH-TGG, which arrived at Hamo yet again from Melbourne (Essendon) Airport.  It departed a little later back to Essendon.

It is assumed that VH-TGG - and Balmoral Air Dassault Falcon 2000LX VH-WIO which is still parked at Hamo - are visiting Hamilton Island for Race Week.

Operations seem to be 'back to normal' on Sunday 17 August, and the bizjet visitors continued with Marcplan Charter Embraer EMB-135BJ Legacy VH-VLT spotted departing during the afternoon.

File photo taken by Jamie C  ©

And at the time of writing, there has been a pair of charters into Hamo late on Sunday with Virgin's B737-800 VH-YVA operating from and back to Brisbane and Cessna 402C VH-JOH calling in from its Cairns base.