AirQuarius Aviation

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AirQuarius Aviation is a charter airline based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It operates air charters and aircraft leasing. Contracts are maintained with companies throughout Africa and the Middle East. Its main base is Lanseria International Airport (HLA), Johannesburg, with a hub at Cape Town International Airport (CPT).

1 Code Data
2 History
3 Fleet
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Code Data

ICAO Code: AQU
Callsign: QUARIUS ^[1]

[edit] History

The airline was established and started operations in 1999 and is wholly owned by Gavin Branson. AirQuarius crews were to operate the only commercial passenger service to Baghdad during the Second Gulf War. They were also the first to operate passenger services to Basra since the start of the Second Gulf War. Other destinations for Royal Jordanian include Erbil (N. Iraq) as well as Beirut and Damascus. Many media articles have been written and TV News clips have been made of the highly unusual operations into Baghdad.

AirQuarius crews are specialists who operate in some of the worlds most challenging environments. Other war zone contracts apart from Iraq have included Sudan (UN), and Afghanistan (UN). The crews have operated in most countries in Africa, including in the Central Sahara - often wholly independent from support for extended periods.

[edit] Fleet

The AirQuarius Aviation fleet includes the following aircraft (at August 2006) ^[2] :

2 Fokker F28 Mk2000
8 Fokker F28 Mk4000

They are ZS-XGV, ZS-XGW, (ZS-XGX is a hangar queen), ZS-DRF, ZS-JES, ZS-JAS, ZS-IJN, ZS-JAV. ZS-XGW and ZS-DRF are wet leased to Royal Jordanian and the South African crews operate these aircraft on passenger services to Iraq, and have been since March 2003. ZS-JES and ZS-JAS are currently contracted to SA Express and fly domestic passenger routes within South Africa. ZS-IJN is on contract to Interair and flies regional routes between the RSA and Congo. ZS-JAV is on standby to provide immediate support.