FNQ EXTRA - The AN-12 returns
After
nearly a decade since the type last graced Cairns,
a welcome return of this veteran freighter occurred on Monday 17 October 2016 with
the first arrival of Ukraine
Air Alliance’s
UR-CAK. This example is a familiar one
as it has visited Australia
several times before and has been recently operating out of Brisbane
to Honiara and Nauru. Cairns however has not been fortunate in
witnessing many AN-12 movements in the past and in fact only received its first
example into the new millennium. This may have been related to Heavylift’s
Shorts Belfast
freighter based here, which took on many charters that would have required an
AN-12 type freighter. The AN-12 was of course already familiar during the nineties
in locations such as Townsville, Darwin, Perth, Port Hedland, Brisbane
and Melbourne when
several examples from various operators performed cargo charters. Our records
show only three AN-12’s had previously visited Cairns in the period 2001 to 2007. They were Volare’s UR-LTG, Airmark’s UN-11650
and Air Bridge Group’s ER-AXA.
A
selection of images of these in Cairns
are posted below.
 |
| Volare AN12 UR-LTG, Photo by GAFLIKS |
 |
| Volare AN12 UR-LTG, Photo by GAFLIKS |
 |
Air Mark UN-11650 AN12 at Cairns.
UN-11650 arr'd on the 3/2/2007 and dep'd 4/2/2007. |
 |
| ER-AXA AN12 Air Bridge Group at Cairns, Photo by GAFLIKS. |
 |
| ER-AXA AN12 Air Bridge Group at Cairns, Photo by GAFLIKS. |
Thanks to GAFLIKS for providing this report.
