Some Interesting Movements of Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (VARA) ATR 72s

While doing some research for some recent Blog posts, I've discovered some interesting movements of three Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (VARA) ATR 72s around Australia and overseas!

File photo taken by Phil M  ©

We reported earlier this month that ATR 72-500 VH-FVM was grounded at Rockhampton Airport for a week after hitting a bat while arriving from Brisbane late on Friday 2 January.  After it re-positioned back to Brisbane on Friday 9 January, VH-FVM has only just re-entered service this week when it operated the VOZ1713/1716 service into Gladstone from Brisbane on Tuesday 20 January.

VARA ATR 72-600 VH-FVR made another brief visit into Central Queensland in the early part of this week, calling into Emerald and Gladstone while spending a short time operating out of Brisbane.  VH-FVR has recently been - and now continues to be - operating out of Sydney.  VH-FVR had been parked and receiving maintenance at Albury during most of 2014, after the discovery of damage to the horizontal and vertical stabiliser fairing following an over speed event while on descending into Sydney in February last year. 

Finally, VARA ATR-72-600 VH-FVQ operated a scheduled service into Emerald and back to Brisbane on Thursday 8 January.  The next day, VH-FVQ then departed Brisbane for Alice Springs and Port Hedland.  From Port Hedland, VH-FVM then positioned overseas to Singapore (Seletar) Airport for planned maintenance on Saturday 10 January.

What an interesting set of movements!