Australia’s Pacific Air Express retires only aircraft

Pacific Air Express (Australia) (PE, Brisbane Int’l) has retired its only active aircraft, B757-200(PCF) VH-PQA (msn 22611), and effectively suspended operations.

The 36-year-old Boeing converted freighter, delivered initially to Eastern Air Lines (1926) in 1985, was used for a long-term cargo wet-lease contract with Qantas Freight through the end of April 2021. It has been stored at Brisbane Int’l since then. On October 19-20, 2021, it was ferried via Kahului to Kansas City Int’l. The carrier said the aircraft would have “a new home in the Northern Hemisphere”, indicating that it is not yet to be scrapped. Pacific Air Express did not reveal the identity of the next operator. As of November 7, the aircraft remains registered in Australia.

Pacific Air Express, which has been dormant since the end of April, did not respond to ch-aviation’s query concerning its potential plans for adding other aircraft.

The Australian cargo specialist owns another B757-200(PCF), N314ST (msn 22211). In 2019, the airline planned to use the second aircraft to operate flights between Darwin and Guangzhou under its code. However, it has remained at Budapest airport and was never delivered to let alone registered in Australia. Pacific Air Express never launched the proposed services to China, even though it had considered doing so as early as 2017.

Qantas Freight replaced the wet-leased B757, which operated the Melbourne Tullamarine-Perth Int’l route, with A321-200(P2F)s operated on its behalf by subsidiary Express Freighters Australia, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. Flightradar24 ADS-B data indicates that the airline also uses B737-300(F)s, B737-300(SF)s, and B737-400(SF)s operated by Express Freighters Australia on the transcontinental route.