Sunstate Airlines

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Sunstate Airlines is a subsidiary of Qantas which operates regional flights under the QantasLink banner throughout Queensland.

The airline was originally an independent company operating in Queensland. In the 1980's, it purchased Mildura based Murray Valley Airlines, gaining it's routes in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. The airline now had two unconnected networks.

Later in the 1980's it was purchased by Australian Airlines. It broke up the two networks into "Sunstate" and Southern Australia Airlines. In the early 1990's, Australian Airlines merged with Qantas, and the two ex-Sunstate groups took on lower capacity ex-Australian Airlines routes.

Later in the 90's, both became known to the public as QantasLink, though they retained a certain amount of independence.

[edit] Code Data

• ICAO Code: SSQ
• Callsign: SUNSTATE ^[1]

[edit] Fleet

As of August 2006 the Sunstate Airlines fleet includes ^[2] :

• 2 Bombardier Dash 8 Q100
• 2 Bombardier Dash 8 Q200
• 8 Bombardier Dash 8 Q300
• 5 Bombardier Dash 8 Q400

Previously operated:

• De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter
• Shorts 360
• BAe Jetstream 31

[edit] References

1. ^ Airline Codes
2. ^ Flight International, 3-9 October 2006