Australia’s Maroomba Airlines to add maiden Q300

Maroomba Airlines (Perth Int’l) is set to add its first DHC-8-Q300, ch-aviation research has revealed.

At 18.7 years old, OY-CJY (msn 592) was operated by ANA Wings (EH, Sapporo Chitose) between 2002 and 2012, and then by Widerøe (WF, Bodø) between 2012 and August 2020. After a period of storage at Bodø, it was ferried to Billund in April 2021 and more recently to East Midlands for repainting on June 10, 2021. It was repositioned to Exeter on June 23 ahead of the planned delivery flight to Australia.

Once delivered, the De Havilland Aircraft of Canada turboprop will be re-registered in Australia as VH-QQH and will join Maroomba Airlines’ current fleet of three DHC-8-100s – including two owned and one dry-leased from PNG Air – and two Beech 1900Ds. The carrier deploys all five units on charter services across Western Australia.

Maroomba Airlines did not respond to ch-aviation’s request for comment concerning the Q300’s expected service entry date.