Originally Posted by
megan
The airline flew its final trip 11 May 1954, with all staff then integrated into QANTAS.
Maybe the Australian staff did (as did the initial DC-4s in the late 1940s when replaced by the DC-6s), but the complete DC-6 fleet and likely the Kiwi crews went over to TEAL in New Zealand as their first land aircraft, replacing their Short Solent flying boats on the Australia run and the route to Fiji, where they connected with Qantas Constellations now running on to the USA. When later supplanted by Lockheed Electras they were moved on
en-bloc again to the RNZAF, the last ran in 1968 after some 20 years in the region. BCPA was owned by Australia, New Zealand and the UK, I believe directly by their governments rather than their relevant airlines.
Originally Posted by
CV880
A couple of years later when working in Asia I saw a vaguely familiar old DC6 in Royal Air Lao colours outside our hangar one night shift (I think I recognized the dents in the engine cowls etc). On closer inspection all the emergency equipment, engine fire bottles etc. still had the old Air New Zealand tags installed. I don’t recall ever seeing it again.
Sold there by an Australian dealer, it was in Laos from 1968-71, then went to a minor Indonesian operator, who lost it within months when it ran out of fuel and attempted a forced landing.