By Chris Murray
On Friday, 16th May, the last QantasLink flight rolled into Lord Howe at around 2.45pm piloted by senior QantasLink captains, Mark Nesbitt and Jarrod Seen. This flight marked the end of an era that began on the 1st of June, 1991, when VH-TQP an aircraft owned by Eastern Australia Airlines – arrived at Lord Howe bearing passengers, freight and mail from Sydney.
In those days, Eastern Australia Airlines was an Australian Airlines (formerly TAA) subsidiary, but things only altered a little when Australian Airlines and Qantas merged towards the end of 1992. With the change of ownership, the paint job on the aircraft changed but here at Lord Howe it was the same company flying the same aircraft, with the same pilots, and handled by the same ground crew. Thus, the RPT license – Sydney to Lord Howe awarded to Eastern Australia Airlines early in 1991, remained in continuous hands just short of 34 years. This gave the Island its longest-ever RPT air service, eclipsing the previous record held by Ansett Flying Boat Services from 1953-1974, a record of 21 years.
The Island airstrip was constructed in 1974 by the Australian Army Corp of Engineers but initially, owing to its short length of only 880 metres, it could only be used by commuter aircraft like the Beechcraft King Air, Rockwell Aero Commander and Piper Navaho. These small aircraft did an amazing job but could carry no more than about 8-12 passengers per flight.
However, in December, 1989, the then RPT operator, Norfolk Airlines, secured a DeHavilland Dash 8-100 series, a forerunner of the Dash 8-200 series later employed by QantasLink. These aircraft could carry up to 36 passengers and had the performance necessary to operate on Lord Howe’s short runway. Unfortunately, Norfolk Airlines ran into the perfect storm when the world-wide recession hit in the early 1990s – passenger numbers fell and interest rates on borrowed money sky-rocketed. In early March, 1991, the Airline was placed in administration. The Island was suddenly without its main air carrier, and – despite the valiant efforts of the smaller airlines, like Oxley Air – the local economy was left precipitously in the lurch.
At that time, there was only one airline having similar aircraft operating out of Sydney. It was Eastern Australia Airlines, an Australian Airlines subsidiary . Ian Menzies, then the Commercial Manager of EAA recalled: “During my time at Eastern the two most thrilling route acquisitions were gaining access to Canberra and of course Lord Howe Island. both came about by industry upheavals Canberra due to the pilot strike and LDH as a result of Norfolk Airlines failure. In terms of the latter, I still vividly remember the Friday afternoon their aircraft was impounded and on that same afternoon, after some hasty negotiations with the State government, Eastern operated its first flight to Moree. This unfortunate event left open the opportunity for Eastern to apply for the Sydney/Lord Howe Island route. As you know, the engineering and flight operations teams had to overcome major operational hurdles to establish the Lord Howe route, primarily because of the remote nature of the destination and the difficult flight approaches to the airport. On the other hand, the commercial team were passionate about the destination and with the full support of the Managing Director, John Roworth, the first flight operated in June, 1991, and as they say, the rest was history!”
The Brisbane/Lord Howe service commenced 15 months later in September, 1992. It had originally been planned to operate this as an Eastern Australia Airlines service flying Sydney/Lord Howe/Brisbane return, but Australian Airlines management allocated the route to Sunstate Airlines, a Queensland subsidiary of Australian Airlines.
At its apex, QantasLink operated five high-performance Dash 8 200s to Lord Howe: three from Sydney (VH-TQG, TQS and TQX); and two from Brisbane (VH-SDA and SDE). In peak season, there could be up to 19 flights per week into Lord Howe. These included services on Saturday and Sunday from Brisbane, and on Saturday to Port Macquarie via Lord Howe. On one remarkable day, four Dash 8s arrived nearly simultaneously, with a fifth one also headed for Lord Howe!
As there is only room on the “ramp” (near the terminal) for two aircraft, the third one had to be parked on the taxiway and the fourth on the airstrip itself. When the two innermost aircraft departed, the aircraft on the taxiway and the strip both had to be reversed to make way for those departing only then could the two later arrivals take their turn on the “ramp”. All these extraordinary manoeuvres were handled by Lord Howe ramp manager at the time, Leon Brice, with some assistance from the aircraft pilots.
Last QantasLink Flight Sunday 16th May.
When the last QantasLink flight arrived on Friday, 16th May, many Island people, including the schoolchildren, were gathered at the airport to show their deep appreciation. Present, also, were local agents for the Airline past and present -including Taylah Kent, Erica Thompson, James (“Jeeves”) Lonergan and James (“Chopper”) Thompson, Chelsea Holden, Christie Mills, Francesc Solans, Erin Cook, Cindy Charlton Shick, Leon Brice and Chris and Margaret Murray.
Mark Nesbitt, one of the pilots, made a short speech which was received with quiet respect by the assembled Island community. A copy of Mark’s speech is given below. The weather on the day was sombre with intervals of rain but the rain lifted for about 30 minutes, just long enough for Mark to give his address, for presentations to be made, and photos taken to mark the occasion.
World Heritage books, signed by Qantas ground handling staff at Lord Howe and members of the Lord Howe Historical Society Committee, were presented to the pilots. These were delivered inside locally made palm baskets, and Kentia palms were a special gift from Erica, Taylah, Tara, Bree and the current ground-handling team. (This echoed the very first flight by EAA in June, 1991, when the passengers received a palm basket with some brochures and an LHI bicentennial book inside.) The flight attendant on the last flight was Mark Kerr, who has been flying to Lord Howe for 15 years.
Prior to this final flight on Friday, 16th June, three other QantasLink flights were piloted by long serving flight crew: on the 3rd of May, by Captain Andrew Gainey; on Sunday 11th, by Captain Theo Lymberis with his nephew, Will, as First Officer ; on Wednesday 14th, by Captain Pete Tilia and First Officer, David Wakil. Farewell messages from all these pilots are reproduced separately in the Signal.
The QantasLink era at Lord Howe will be remembered for:
Steady, reliable tourist flows of around 17,000 passengers per year bringing unparalleled prosperity to the Island. (This is near maximum capacity as the bed limit here is limited to 400 by local government ordinance.)
A reliable year-round schedule.
Conveniently connecting flights all the way from Lord Howe to London, New York or a host of other national and international destinations.
The convenience of using Qantas Terminal 3 in Sydney.
Safe aircraft operation on Lord Howe’s short, difficult runway.
Special fares for Island residents and visiting friends and relations to help keep us in touch with the mainland. The architect of these fares was Ian Menzies, Commercial Manager of EAA at the time the service commenced in 1991. A special resident discount was offered on the very first flight to Sydney, and these fares were quickly refined into the resident “within-10-day” and advance purchase fares we know today. Being such a remote community, we cannot help appreciating the ease of contact they afford with our friends and relatives who live elsewhere.
Despite the strict weight limit on all aircraft operating into Lord Howe, QantasLink has allowed residents an extra 9kg of baggage over the advertised 14kg baggage limit. Although the extra 9kg was always subject-to-load (and may not sound much) it can be very helpful if you need to buy some critical extras whilst you’re on a visit to Sydney.
We will all, of course, be very, very sorry to see QantasLink go. It may be a long time before QantasLink’s 34-year record of safety, reliability, and customer service at Lord Howe is broken. And the comfort of seeing that striking red and white Qantas tail over Lord Howe will long be remembered… truly the end of a remarkable era!
Editor’s note: The EAA flight on the 1/6/1991 was EAA’s first commercial flight, but not its first flight. Before an airline commences a commercial service into a new port, it usually operates a “proving flight”. This took place on the 14th of April, 1991, when check-and-training Captain, John Archer, flew in with two other senior EAA pilots, Greg Blades and Rick Duldig. John recalled conditions being so good that they were able to practice landings at both ends of the runway. Ian Menzies arrived with them, and was introduced to Chris and Margaret Murray, who were shortly after offered the job as “Principal Agents” for EAA at Lord Howe. The three pilots on this “proving flight” John, Rick and Greg later flew regularly into Lord Howe on many EAA/QantasLink commercial flights, becoming well known to many Island residents.
Shortly after their appointment as Principal Agents, Chris and Margaret Murray established the “Lord Howe Travellers” partnership to manage the EAA and Sunstate Ground Handling which soon included Suzy Gillett, Cindy-Charlton Shick, Leon Brice and May Shick. This partnership managed flight turnarounds, resident fare bookings, freight deliveries and represented QantasLink on the Lord Howe Island Tourism Association for 28 years, before retiring in January, 2020. Since then, Eastern Airlines at Port Macquarie has taken responsibility for ground-handling QantasLink flights at Lord Howe with Island residents, including Erica Thompson, Taylah Kent, Tara Pitman and Bree Wilson managing on their behalf. The resident fare bookings are now the responsibility of Port Macquarie Travel.
Speech Delivered by Captain Mark Nesbitt to all Those at the Airport on Friday, 16th May.
“Good afternoon everyone. It’s fantastic to see so many people here today for the last Eastern Australia Airlines crewed Qantaslink Dash 8 service to and from Lord Howe Island.
Everyone at Eastern Australia Airlines, past and present, is very proud of the service we have provided for more than 30 years to keep the Island connected with the mainland. I made my first flight to the Island back in 1995, and have been lucky enough to holiday here several times so I know what a special place you have here.
Although each time we visit we only spend 30 minutes with you on every turnaround, we have been doing it for so long, we all feel very much like we have been part of your community. We couldn’t have provided this service without the help and support of our dedicated ground staff, past and present. We thank you all.
It’s sad that our part in the history of maintaining an air service to Lord Howe Island is coming to an end today. However, we will always fondly remember you, Lord Howe Island, and the part we have all played in the Islands’ aviation history.
Thank You”.
