The Question time circuit has gone all quiet.

I add the pic below to help stimutate your phagocyte's

Budapest delayed...until further notice

Malev will not gain a license to commence services to Belgrade despite its desires for many years. The Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate rejected the Hungarian national carrier, yet again, due to the impact it could have on the struggling Serbian carrier Jat Airways. Malev is a major threat to Jat due to the fact that it could take over many Serbian passengers travelling to Western Europe as well as further abroad. Realising the success Malev could have on this line, earlier this year it requested double daily flights from Budapest to Belgrade for the 2009 summer season. However it will have wait another year as Jat’s redevelopment is set to begin in February 2009 and the government does not wish to create further pressure for the airline. This also puts in doubt other airlines that requested licenses in order to commence flights to Belgrade – low-cost Wizz Air and Nikki. However there is some good news for the Serbian public. Croatia and Serbia are negotiating a free sky agreement which could see regular services restart between the two countries. Jat Airways operated seasonal flights for the first time this year, after 16 years, to Pula however the new agreement could also see Croatia Airlines in Belgrade. The Serbian Aviation Directorate is also negotiating with China for direct flights to recommence between the two countries after 8 years.

On Saturday Nebojša Starčević, former Jat CEO, was named as the head of the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate (that issues licenses to foreign airlines) starting January 2009.

Finally found the Titan outside in the sunshine at Wigram today.

ZK-NDY c/n 404-0693, photographed just after 10am this morning, taxying out for departure.

It still carries these titles on the port side (as seen at Timaru on 21-02-08).

Found another pic of Ceres ZK-BZO c/n 9. Taken at Silverstream on 22-07-1982.

Found an old shoe box among the collection of unsorted junk that has been awaiting sorting since moving into this house. This box offered up many olde photos & slides, including the following moth eaten colour slides. A quick run under the scanner produced the following shots. Not as good as the originals but of sufficient historical interest to blog up.
Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA28 Ceres Type C VH-CEL was first registered to the manufacturer on 20-09-1960. It was cancelled on 03-02-1961 for it to join the NZ civil register as ZK-BZO on 07-02-1961 for Aerial Farming of NZ Ltd. I believe it first flew here on 30-01-1961. It quickly joined the Cookson Airspread Ltd fleet at Wairoa and remained with them, through at least three incidents until moving to Manawatu Aerial Top Dressing Co Ltd on 01-12-1969.

Above shot at Feilding 29-10-1970

Above. Working out of Paraparaumu on 08-04-1971.

Near Paraparaumu 08-04-1971.

On 17-01-1972 it was damaged on the Pahiatua Track.

The above two shots give an idea of the damage. Pics at Feilding 20-11-1972. The registration was cancelled on 30-03-1976.

It then spent some time at The Silverstream Museum (between Stokes Valley & Upper Hutt) before going into storage. I believe a Mike Nicholls imported a Wirraway tubular forward fuselage section in about 1990 with the intention of converting BZO back to a RAAF Wirraway.

Can anybody add to this ?

ZK-HWH S/N: LN098 joins HYY & HUA for Garden of Eden Helicopters. Christchruch 19th Dec

Good old days - Inex-Adria 1985

Adria Airways will postpone the scheduled construction of a new maintenance hangar because of the financial crisis, the flag carrier's chairman Tadej Tufek has told a daily. Tufek added that the carrier was preparing plans in the event of a major economic downturn. Adria is not facing difficulties with liquidity since it took out all its main loans in 2006 under favourable conditions, Tufek told Monday's edition of the daily Dnevnik. "Problems would only arise if we were to undertake unnecessary investments this year or the next", he added. This is why the carrier will be shelving plans for the construction of a third maintenance hangar, worth between 3 million and 4 million Euros, at Ljubljana Airport in 2009.

As for plans for next year, Tufek said that the best-case scenario would mean that passenger numbers would remain flat compared to this year. "The worst-case scenario involves a 15% fall in passenger numbers". He said Adria was well prepared to handle a potential fall in demand, because up to 20% of all its capacities were flexible. He also called on Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport to lower its prices for the carrier. Adria generates up to 80% of all passenger numbers at the airport and Tufek believes Ljubljana Airport "should adapt its prices for the main carrier. "Given the 80% share, we are only right to expect lower prices than that offered to our competitors", he told Dnevnik. He suggested that from an economic viewpoint Adria would find it best to move all its flights to Maribor, although that is not possible since it is building its hub in Ljubljana. Tufek explained that falling fuel prices have only been felt by Adria in the last month. Adria flew on expensive fuel throughout the main season, he stressed. "But the drop in fuel prices will surely offset some of the drop in revenue caused by falling demand next year". According to him, Adria has expanded at three times the speed of its regional rivals on average in the past three years. Its revenues have gone up over 50% to 210 million Euros and passenger numbers by 60% to 1.3 million.