VH-NKU operated the late afternoon / early evening Brisbane to Gladstone service as VA2913 on Thursday 15 March, and after remaining overnight as intended, the flight was cancelled Friday morning prior to departing to Brisbane as VA2700. Coincidentally, VH-NKU eventually departed empty to Brisbane late morning only moments before VH-XWR got airborne with a heavy payload.
Commencing operations in 2002 with a modest fleet of two Fokker 100 and two Embraer EMB120 Brasilia aircraft when Brisbane based Queensland Airline Holdings acquired the assets of Flight West Airlines which had become dormant after the collapse of Ansett Airlines, Alliance Airlines has grown since it's inception to become the worlds largest operator of Fokker aircraft.
Initially leveraging the business towards Fly-in / Fly-out (FIFO) operations in support of the mining and energy sector, adhoc charter services to a number of airlines including Qantas and Virgin Australia, as well as corporate and government customers, Alliance Airlines has never stopped seeking opportunities to strengthen the airline leading to the commencement of commercial services in more recent times to a number of cities in Queensland and New South Wales, most of them in partnership with Virgin Australia.
While it is difficult to ascertain exactly the current "operational" size of Alliance Airlines fleet, it appears five Fokker 50s, nine Fokker 70s and eighteen Fokker 100s may be a good (or close) number.
