The New Old?

I decided it was a great day to pop out to Wellington Airport, where I caught several “new” aircraft.

Two of Life Flight Trust’s Super King Air B200s put in an appearance. These are new to the Trust, but as with most “new” aircraft, they are not factory fresh. This one is 21 years old.

Beechcraft Super King Air B200, ZK-LFI, of Life Flight Trust holds the nose wheel just off the runway during its take off roll on RWY16.

A lot more factory fresh is Air New Zealand’s newest ATR-72-600, ZK-MZF, registered at the end of 2021.

ATR-GIE ATR-72-600, ZK-MZF, of Air New Zealand.

A little older, but not so much, is type leader, A321neo, ZK-NNA, resplendent in Air New Zealand’s black colour scheme variation. It’s my favourite type for this treatment.

Airbus A321neo, ZK-NNA, of Air New Zealand floats over the threshold of RWY16, trailing flap vortices.

By far the most interesting aircraft was this Qantas 737-800. The airframe is about 10 years old, but it wears a livery more like 50 years old. It is now known as the “Retro Roo” scheme.

Boeing 737-800, VH-XZP, of Qantas wears the “Retro Roo” scheme.

When I arrived at this spotting location, I bumped into none other than Tim Gorman, aka ZKAviation. He was telling me that this aircraft had until very recently been confined to Australian domestic operations, but had now been ETOPS certified for trans-Tasman services to cover some fleet maintenance.


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