Ex-Origin Jetstreams at Nelson & Wellington

[flyjoe180]

The two former-Origin Pacific BAe J41's that have been sitting at Wellington for some time have been run over the past few days and are apparently due to leave for the USA soon.

And today I was at Nelson and noticed the three ex-Origin Jetstreams sitting at Nelson. I think these are J31's, the more capable J32's having been snapped up by Air National and re-registered and resprayed accordingly. JSA obvioulsy will not fly again, it's a spares machine by the looks of it, but what of the other two? They still have their engines and props fitted. Could they fly again? Anyone know what the deal is with them?

Just being nosey really, curiosity got the better of me

[DragonflyDH90]

My understanding was that the airframes were owned by Origin but that they had leased engines, which makes them extremely difficult to sell. They are really only worth the scrap value unless someone has deep pockets and buys the engines and props also (expensive excercise which could potentially cost more than the aircraft are worth secondhand).
I might have got this wrong but pretty sure this was the case as it came from one of the guys flying the Jetstream to the US.

[flyjoe180]

Cheers for that. Seems a bit of a waste with them sitting there idle. The engines and props must need deep maintenance after such a long period of time parked up. I heard from an engineer who was working on reactivating one of the J41's here in Wellington that the biggest problems were geting spares, and the avionics had all packed up due to lack of use.

[hairy]

flyjoe180 said:

and the avionics had all packed up due to lack of use.

Reminds me of some a/c in Blenheim.

[corsair67]

My understanding was that the airframes were owned by Origin but that they had leased engines, which makes them extremely difficult to sell.

Is that a common practice in the airline industry? Seems a bit iffie, if you ask me!

[Bruce]

Leasing powerplants is actually a common practice and quite good from an operational point of view. At CityJet we were planning to sell our engines to Pratt and Whitney and lease them back. Such a lease company would hold many engines. actual operating costs per engine are then set at a fixed rate, and the airline doesnt have to hold spares, as the lease company would have a large pool to share around the different operators they support. When an engine comes due for overhaul or module replacement, A new one is provided ready to go reducing downtime. from the airlines point of view they have generated income by selling the engines, and the paper capital cost of the aircraft are reduced. Operating costs are increased due to the lease costs but for some reason or other I dont understand, this is easier to account for! (probably beacuse it is then a fixed sum) Smoke and Mirrors financially, but it does have definite operational advantages as well.

[hairy]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Air NZ lease its 777 engines?

[kiwi]

JSA has been like that for about 3 years