Air New Zealand 737 200C (Combi) Poster

So this is the interesting and unique 737 I was talking about, ZK-NQC. Passenger plane during the day, and cargo plane at night, this 737-200C was delivered brand new to Air New Zealand on 2/12/1982 and flew with them until 2001 when it was sold to Airwork. This plane also wore a large special decal towards the back of the fuselage advertising the All Blacks and the 1999 Rugby World Cup which was hosted in the UK (I couldn't find any decals of this special livery so for now have not included it).

In May 2001 this aircraft was leased to Air New Zealand's low cost subsidiary Freedom Air, however the fuselage was all white except for 'freedomair.com' titles, and the tail was all white too except for the Freedom Air logo (I also haven't included this one). Before that, however, the plane was registered to Airwork in March 2001 but was leased to Air New Zealand and Freedom Air until the lease expired in October that same year. The plane was painted into a bright yellow livery with the CourierPost logo on the tail in January 2009.

This plane was the only 737 Combi to be operated by Air New Zealand (and I think one of the only comibs to ever be operated by them at all), which makes it very special. It would be a shame to lose such a special aircraft, and so fortunately the good news is that this plane is still flying today! The plane is in Canada as C-GTVO with Chrono Aviation, and it has been with them since 2012.

The aviation preservation group Bring Our Birds Home was going to try and get this aircraft to be put onto display in Wanaka, until the discovery that ex NAC/Air New Zealand 737-219 ZK-NAD was still intact in the East Coast of the USA. However, there is still opportunity to save this unique Air New Zealand plane once it is retired from the skies, but who knows when that'll be.

ZK-NQC: 1982 Boeing 737-219C | Air New Zealand | Currently: Active with Chrono Aviation in Canada as C-GTVO