Actually it is VH-OZD that is painted in the Norfolk Air paint scheme.
Ozjet operates for Norfolk Air by way of ACMI lease with that contract transferring shortly to Our Airline.
The present Ozjet contract calls for an aircraft to be based on the island and I suspect the contract with Our Airline would be the same.
Apparently at present there is some 35 hours of revenue flying, with two and half days where the aircraft sits on the ground.
Significantly Norfolk Air has not had the loads to fill the present Ozjet 732 for quite some time, with some loads being ridiculously low. (The present state of the economy probably doesn’t help)
Begs the following questions:
If you cannot fill a 110 odd seat aircraft where is the advantage to Norfolk Air of getting a larger and more expensive 130 odd seat aircraft? (Yeah I know, more fuel efficient but the financial part of the argument really only works if you fill the aircraft).
How long can Norfolk Air continue with low loads? It has already cancelled its Gold Coast service (bet they still hurt from the money spent on that venture), one Melbourne return service and one Sydney return service.
No matter what the loads are they still have to pay the ACMI lease to whoever does their flying. Maybe there is a route restructure in place which would then allow ON to use NLK for other operations.
Someone wont last there, that is for sure, and feenix you are probably on a good bet, but keep in mind that Norfolk Island has not got a good history running its own airline (Norfolk Jet comes to mind), and the Norfolk Island economy is not so exceptional that they could afford to back a money black hole operation if Norfolk Air makes a loss.
Our Airline (Air Nauru) has also past experience with the repossession agents when they lost VH-RON back to the financier.
Also Ozjet don’t have lease costs and I’d imagine that parking for their 733-200’s would be cheaper than Our Airlines leasing costs for its two aircraft.
As a side issue, how is the “C” check going on VH-INU. Seems that is has been out of the air for quite some time now.