06 February 2011

Air Freight's East Coast Aztecs



In October 1999 Air Freight NZ Ltd took over Vincent Aviation’s courier operation to the East Coast using Piper Pa23-250 Aztecs ZK-DGS (c/n 27-7304959) ZK-EVP (c/n 27-8054053), ZK-FMU (c/n 27-2970). These aircraft were all registered to the company the previous month. Again, with no published timetable, it is difficult to know what the aircraft did but the service seemed to follow a similar pattern to Vincent’s operation, with the Palmerston North based aircraft stopping at Napier and Wairoa and spending the day at Gisborne. The service primarily carried courier freight for NZ Couriers and the related operations of Freightways Ltd. The register records DGS being sold in April 2000 and FMU in September 2000. In June 2002 EVP was sold and the East Coast service passed to Sunair.


Piper Aztec ZK-DGS on the Air Freight service to Gisborne on the 13th of October 1999, as it had been the day before. Given the aircraft had been registered to Air Freight in September 1999 I guess Air Freight took over from 1 October 1999.
Later in the same day I caught up with the another Air Freight Aztec, ZK-FMU at Palmerston North.  
The third Air Freight Aztec, ZK-EVP at Gisborne on 9 February 2001

I would really appreciate any additions or corrections to this post, in particular I would be interested in answers to the following questions; 
  • What was the normal flight pattern for the Air Freight East Coast flights?
  • Did the flights ever carry passengers as Vincent Aviation had?
Any replies to me at westland831@gmail.com would be much appreciated.





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