FNQ EXTRA - The AN-12 returns

    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.