Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Canadair CL-600-2B16 Challenger 604 Bizjet A37-003 Departs Australia For Good

It appears that on Tuesday 24 September, the second of the three Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Canadair CL-600-2B16 Challenger 604 bizjets A37-003 departed Australia for good following 17 years of service with RAAF's VIP 34 Squadron.

A37-003 at Maryborough Airport in August  (File photo)

A37-003 - as "Ausy 364" - was noted departing Canberra (RAAF Base Fairbairn) for Apia, Samoa, before it then continued to Honolulu, Hawaii and Burbank, California in the United States.

A37-003 (CN: 5538) was delivered to the RAAF in October 2002.  It made numerous visits to Central Queensland with its last believed to be over the course of Wednesday 14 August and Thursday 15 August when it called into Rockhampton and Maryborough Airports - as pictured below.

A37-003 departs Maryborough Airport for Mildura on its final visit to CQ  (File photo)

The RAAF's VIP 34 Squadron is replacing the three current Challenger 604 bizjets with three sleek new leased Dassault Falcon 7X bizjets, all of which have now arrived in the country from overseas.  The first, A56-001 arrived in Canberra in mid-April, A56-002 arrived at the start of June and A56-003 has just arrived at the beginning of August.

A56-002 at Mackay Airport last week  (File photo)

At this stage, we have only seen the first two of the Falcon 7X bizjets in CQ with the most recent visit being by A56-002 into Mackay Airport last week on Tuesday 17 September - as shown above.

Photos taken by David Geck and 'JM'  ©️