Sunstate airlines

[Flying_triplet]

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone could kindly direct me to a site that could give me a bit of info, history etc etc on sunstate airlines!!

Yep got an interview next week with them.......just wanted to be up to date!!

Big thanks in advance!!!

Cheers FT:O

[QF skywalker]

flying triplet,

A few people have come on pprune before asking for information about sunstate and eastern. As they are now Qantaslink it is difficult to find information on the history of these 2 subsidiarys before they become wholly owned by Qantas.

However, here are some general specifics of the DH8 aircraft which are of course operated by eastern and sunstate- a search on pprune on sunstate will perhaps find you some past info posted by sunstate crew.
http://users.chariot.net.au/~theburfs/dash8MAIN.html

Congratulations for being selected for an interview and good luck, keep us posted on your progress.

The sunstate fleet consists of 5 Dash 8 (100), 2 (200) and 4 (300) (50 seat - 2 flight attendants) with a new Dash8-300 which arrived in June. The company comes under the QantasLink banner, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas.

It operates to the following destinations:

Weipa, Horn Is., Cairns, Townsville, Hamilton Is., Mackay, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Blackwater, Emerald, Barcaldine, Blackall, Longreach, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle, Bundaberg, Coolangatta, Roma, Charleville, Lord Howe Is. and Melbourne.

Bases are currently Brisbane and Cairns.

Chief Pilot is Don Anderson, Acting General Manager Elsa D'Alessio

Started by Bevan Whittaker as Noosa Air, later renamed Sunstate Airlines.

Commenced Operations 1981 in Maryborough with 17 seat aircraft operating to Hervey Bay,
Bundaberg and Brisbane.

Acquired by Australian Airlines in 1990 , which in turn become Qantas.

Reputation for professionalism, reliability and personalised service.

[VH-KMH]

Info courtesy of: http://users.chariot.net.au/~theburfs/regional5.html

SUNSTATE AIRLINES
Airline code - QF. With Noosa Air, Sunstate was owned by Whitaker Pty. Ltd. in the early 1980s. In 1989 Sunstate, based at Hamilton, Central Queensland, operated a fleet consisting of three Shorts 360s, two Shorts 330s, one EMB-110P1 Bandeirante and two Twin Otters. Ports served were Blackwater, Bundaberg, Cairns, Emerald, Gladstone, Hervey Bay, Mackay, Maroochydore, Maryborough, Noosa, Rockhampton, Thangool / Bileola, Toowoomba and Townsville.
During 1989 Australian Airlines purchased a one-third share of Sunstate. Three Bandeirantes, a Twin Otter, and two GAF N-24As were disposed of or withdrawn from service for other uses.
Another subsidiary company, Whitaker Air Services (airline code SE) operated charter services linking Bundaberg and Maryborough with Lady Elliot and Fraser Islands, using Twin Otter, Islander and GAF N-22B aircraft.
Australian Airlines, previously with a 33% ownership of Sunstate, purchased the remainder in October 1990, and the airline's livery reflected this as its Shorts 360s were repainted over ensuing weeks in Australian's colours. The fleet then consisted of three Shorts 360s, three Shorts 330s, an EMB-110P1, two DHC-6-300s and a Cessna 404.
During the 1989 pilots' dispute Sunstate took up a number of services on the Queensland coast, and south through Brisbane to Sydney, NSW. Toowoomba was dropped and taken up by Eastland Air as the designated Australian Airlines carrier.
In mid-1992 Sunstate took delivery of its first DHC-8s, two from the USA followed by a third ex-Australian Regional aircraft. With the third aircraft, Australian Regional also transferred the Cairns, Bamaga and Thursday Island route to Sunstate. A month later they took delivery of the former Southern Australia Shorts 360, VH-MVX.
Sunstate began a weekly service Brisbane / Lord Howe Island in September 1992, using the Dash-8. Their fleet now consisted of three Dash 8s, four Shorts 360s, two Shorts 330s and two EMB-110P1s. They carried 165,946 passengers in the year ending 30th June 1992.
Sunstate took over the fleet and routes of Australian Regional Airlines from 1st October, 1993. This added to Sunstate's network the ports of Brampton Island, Dunk Island, Kreat Keppel Island, Lizard Island, Shute Harbour, Thursday Island and Townsville. Fleet changes included withdrawal of the Shorts 330 and the Bandeirante types. The Sunstate fleet was now composed of three Dash 8s, four Shorts 360s, and five DHC-6-300s.
Sunstate carried 308,000 passengers for the year ending 30th June 1994. In 1998 this had risen to 477,093.
Sunstate began withdrawing its Twin Otter fleet in late 1997, with closure of its routes to Dunk Island and Lizard Island. In 1998 its fleet consisted of one Dash 8-200, four Dash 8-100s and five Shorts 360s.
Sunstate was the first Australian operator of the 50 seat Dash 8-300 when it began using the aircraft on its routes linking Cairns, Qld., with Horn Island, Hamilton Island, and Townsville in 1999/2000. Its fleet of 11 aircraft comprised Shorts 300s and Dash 8-100 and -300 aircraft, flying to 21 destinations. Sunstate is 100% owned by Qantas.
Along with other Qantas regionals, in May 2001 Sunstate commenced operating under the common QantasLink brand, as QantasLink / Sunstate Airlines


QANTASLINK / SUNSTATE AIRLINES
Airline code QF/QFA. Queensland-based QantasLink / Sunstate, in 2001, operated Dash 8 and Shorts 360 aircraft to link the eastern Australian ports of Ballina, Blackwater, Brisbane, Bundaberg, Cairns, Charleville, Coffs Harbour, Coolangatta, Emerald, Gladstone, Longreach, Lord Howe Island, Mackay, Melbourne, Newcastle/Williamtown, Rockhampton, Roma, Thursday Island and Townsville.
Its fleet then comprised five Dash 8-100s (VH-TND, -TNG, -TNU, -TNW, -TNX), the Dash 8-200s (VH-SOA, -SDE) and Dash 8-300s VH-SBB and -SBG, with the Shorts 360-300s VH-SUL. -SUM and -SUR (with -SUF being withdrawn from their service during the year).


DHC Dash 8
Data for Dash 8 Series 100
TYPE: STOL turboprop regional airliner.
PERIOD BUILT: 1984-
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada
ENGINES: 2x Pratt & whitney Canada PW120A turboprops of 2,000 hp each
DIMENSIONS:
Wing span: 85 ft 0 in / 25.91 m.
Length: 73 ft 0 in / 22.25 m
Height: 24 ft 7 in / 7.49 m.
WEIGHTS:
Empty: 22,000 lb / 9,979 kg
Max. takeoff: 34,500 lb / 15,650 kg
PERFORMANCE:
Max. cruising speed: 308 mph / 497 kph
Operating ceiling: 25,000 ft / 7,620 m
Range: 1,249 mls / 2,010 km with full passenger load.
ACCOMMODATION: 36 passengers
Development of the Dash 8 began in the 1980s, and it became De Havilland Canada's first transport not optimised for short take-off and landing. The Series 100 first flew in June 1983, and entered service late in 1984.
The Series 100 met a demand for 30-40 seat short range airline transport. It was followed in 1986 by the Series 300, stretched to accommodate 50-56 passengers. After Boeing acquired DHC in 1987, design began on a further stretched version of the Dash 8, the Series 400, with a 66-70 seat range.
The aircraft features a standard fuselage cargo loading door, retractable tricycle landing gear with twin wheel units, and a high mounted wing with two fuel-efficient Pratt & Whitney PW120 advanced turboprop engines driving four-bladed propellors, producing very low noise levels. A safety feature ensures that if one engine fails, the other automatically increases its output to 2,000 shp.
The Australian civil register for 2002 listed 45 Dash 8s.


- Australian Regional Airlines Index - (http://users.chariot.net.au/~theburfs/regional5.html)

Hope this helps! :D Good Luck! :ok:

KMH

[QF skywalker]

flying triplet,

Just to confirm with you that sunstate no longer operate the shorts360 a/c as said in the above history. The fleet is now an all dash 8 fleet.

5 - dash 8-100's ( 36 seat / 1 f/a )
2 - dash 8-200's (36 seat / 1 f/a )
5 - dash 8-300's (50 seat / 2 f/a's )

[qfmike737]

Sunnies people are funky and cool! - They have the best looking crew!!! They get to strut their stuff on the runway....(i mean tarmac) And do their THANG!!! They always STOP traffic on the Tarmac with a few whistles :-) GO Sunnies baby!

[QF skywalker]

qfmike - how true ! how true !

Usually it's our pprune friend "qwannas" that stops all the traffic, when the baggage handlers are beeping and perving at her for holding the tarmac traffic up she usually does a good judith lucy impersonation saying " ohhh blow it out your a$$ " ;)

[qfmike737]

Well maybe she really needed to reapply some lipstick??? Sunnies crew are IMMACULATE!!! - imagines qwannas walking to gate 1 BNE stopping traffic gets our her little powder mirror and paints some lippy :-)

Dr. Phil....the truck rolling and trailers jacknifing is just normal :-) ....my life is just like hollywood scenes baby

....actually i wish i could be in sunnies so i could stop traffic....if i stood in the way i'll end up as roadkill :-( I get run over by cabinbags as it is in the ailes! LOL even when i'm shaking my tail in the aisle doing seats!

[Qwannas]

Hi All !

lololol - loOOOOOOooved the dramatic posts. And yes, I can just imagine the HUGE Hollywood scene (nuns, penguins the lot!) if I managed to stop traffic on the tarmac. Folks, there is nothing wrong with applying emergency lip gloss whilst walking pax across the the tarmac - its all very civil and quite possibly in the Runway Guide as standard procedures!

(But seriously now, if one of those poor baggage handlers dared to hit me at the moment I could do a bit of damage! I am ENORMOUS! Only 3 weeks to go and baby Qwannas will be here)

So sorry I havent responded to all of your digs earlier. I have been a little distracted from PPruNE of late.

PS QF skywalker, One of the things that I do miss about work at the moment is the 'Judith Lucy' overtones to my PA's. :D

[surfnetb]

Hi there,
I got a call last week for an interview with Sunstate coming up in November, anybody else?
Please feel free to give us your experience ;)
Cheers,
Surfnetb.

[m00ving_on]

Hi Sunnies,
there is an urban legend at Eastern that cabin crew at Sunnies get paid more than Eastern cabin crew and you're rostered (on average) for less than 100 hours per month. Also, you're all so happy with the company that a significant number of you don't bother to progress to QF but stay on at Sunnies for years and years.
I personally find it hard to believe but have never been able to verify the rumours as I don't know anyone who works there.
Could someone please set the record straight for those of my colleagues who are too naive to question the legends.
Thanks and enjoy the sunshine.;)

[surfnetb]

m00ving_on it looks like Sunnies are too busy to reply ...
Flying_triplet how did u go with your interview?

[surfnetb]

Anybody went to the last Sunstate's interview this Friday 18th? Wanna share your feedback? I've found everyone very nice and that was an interesting experience, we have to wait now for a letter to know if we are going to the next stage. Funny though they won't give a call just like they did to invite us to this first group interview?
Good luck to all of you who went there :ok: