Pionair Australia (Sydney Bankstown) has deployed its first BAe 146-300(QT) into revenue service, operating the freighter on behalf of Qantas Freight (Sydney Kingsford Smith).
According to Flightradar24 ADS-B data, VH-SAJ (msn E3150), a 30.4-year-old quadjet previously operated by Germany's WDL Aviation (Cologne/Bonn), was ferried from pre-delivery maintenance at Sydney Bankstown airport to Sydney Kingsford Smith on December 17 and operated its first commercial flight as QF7442 to Melbourne Tullamarine shortly thereafter. It has since been operating services between Sydney, Melbourne, and Launceston in Tasmania on behalf of the Australian flag carrier's cargo division.
The aircraft is one of a trio of BAe 146-300(QT)s Pionair acquired from WDL Aviation. The other two units, msn E3153 and E3151, have yet to be deployed into revenue service by the Australian carrier. The former aircraft was ferried to Australia in mid-December 2019.
Pionair also operates two BAe 146-200(QC)s and three BAe 146-200(QT)s. It is in the process of adding a further two -200s, also acquired from WDL Aviation. It will also operate two E190-E2s for Air Kiribati (IK, Tarawa), of which the first, VH-IKJ (msn 19020029), was delivered shortly before the end of 2019 and is currently being ferried to Oceania.
Qantas Freight also wet-leases two B747-8(F)s from Atlas Air (5Y, New York JFK), four B737-300(F)s, one B737-400(F), and one B767-300F from Express Freighters Australia (QE, Sydney Kingsford Smith), four BAe 146-300(QT)s from JetEx (Australia) (Adelaide International), and one B757-200(F) from Pacific Air Express (Australia) (PE, Brisbane International), the ch-aviation fleets module shows.
