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Friday 27 October 2023

1990s: Possible replacement of Mount Cook Airline HS748 with Saab 2000

 



In 1992 Martyn Gosling wrote in the Dominion about the possibility of Mount Cook Airline replacing the Hawker Siddeley HS748 with the Saab 2000, with the article very much indicating that an order was imminent.  This did not happen.

Mount Cook Airline/Air NZ ordered the Aerospatiale ATR-72 to replace the HS748, but this did not occur for another three years. By that time, Air NZ was branding all Mount Cook Airline aircraft as Air NZ.

The Saab 2000 had capacity of up to 58 seats but was not a success, with only 63 built between 1992 and 1999.  However, the Saab 340 had been a success in NZ, as Air Nelson had ordered the type and operated it from 1990 until 2007 (of course from 1995 onwards Air Nelson was a 100% subsidiary of Air NZ, and Mount Cook Airline had become a 100% subsidiary of Air NZ in 1991).

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