Monday Morning at Gladstone Airport - Citation Bizjet VH-CCJ Returns - Virgin E-190 ZPA - 'Recognise' Stickers on QLink Q400s - QLink B717 VH-YQW 'Tassie Devil'

Local plane spotter Anthony S returned to Gladstone Airport early on Monday 15 December and captured some of the action which included the visit of a familiar bizjet, a surprise visit by another Virgin Australia E-190 jet and 'Recognise' stickers now being seen on QantasLink Dash-8-Q400 aircraft.

Earth Commodities Cessna 550 Citation Bravo bizjet VH-CCJ called into CQ again, initially touching down at Gladstone from Brisbane.  After a quick turnaround, it departed to Mackay (photos to be published soon!).

Around lunchtime, VH-CCJ returned to Gladstone from Macakay and looks to be staying for the night.

JetGo Australia Embraer E-135 VH-JGB was captured arriving at and departing Gladstone as JG70/71 from and back to Sydney.

It appears the afternoon service has operated as per normal as well today too.

Virgin Australia sent Embraer E-190 jet VH-ZPA on the early morning VOZ1707/1710 scheduled service from and back to Brisbane.

The E-jets of Virgin are becoming familiar visitors with 3-4 flights touching down each week of late.  This pattern will likely continue as school holidays have started and the Christmas and New Years period is coming soon.

Of note, Anthony captured a couple of photos or QantasLink Dash-8-Q400s VH-QOT and VH-QON which now have small 'Recognise' stickers now added just behind the cockpit windows.

In August, QantasLink unveiled Dash-8-Q400 Next Gen VH-LQM in full 'Recognise' livery and at the time released a statement statin that all of their 31 Dash-8-Q400 aircraft will wear a small version of the 'Recognise' logo.

'Recognise' is the movement of Australians campaigning for the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Australian Constitution and to ensure there is no place for discrimination in our founding document. The movement has wide support from across the political spectrum and in the Australian community from grassroots supporters and many major institutions, non-government organisations, companies, sporting codes and faith groups.

Qantas has a longstanding commitment to value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage, cultures and peoples and to recognise the original custodians of Australia. A Reconciliation Action Plan has been in place since 2007 and QANTAS currently holds partnerships with the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, Career Trackers, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Clontarf, the Indigenous Marathon Project, Supply Nation, Engineering Aid Australia, Jawun, Lirrwi Yolngu Tourism Aboriginal Corporation, the Yothu Yindi Foundation, the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation and 'Recognise'.

Finally, one very rare visitor was noted calling into Gladstone Airport on Monday 15 December, just after Anthony left to prepare for work - QantasLink (Cobham Aviation) Boeing B717-200 VH-YQW.

File photo taken by Lloyd Fox  ©

This was the B717's first visit to Gladstone, days after its début appearance up the road at Rockhampton.  VH-YQW operated the scheduled QJE1704/1705 service from and back to Brisbane, presumably in place of fellow B717-200 VH-NXJ which has only just departed Rockhampton Airport this morning after breaking down over the weekend.

VH-YQW is one of five B717-200s in a 2-class configuration with 110 seats, along with Q-Streaming - Qantas' wireless entertainment system.

Sincere thanks to Anthony for capturing and allowing us to share these great photos!

Photos taken by Anthony Schulz  ©