Icelandic regional airline Eagle Air (Flugfélagið Ernir) has sold one of its four Jetstreams 32 with registration TF-ORG to New Zealand. As Flugblogg reported in September 2019, the CEO of Eagle Air Hörður Guðmundsson decided to put his Jetstream 32 TF-ORG for sale because of the decrease in tourism. “The market is not so strong now, so we offered this plane for sale, however, we haven’t sold the aircraft yet”, Guðmundsson told Flugblogg in 2019. At that time the airline has four Jetstream 32 and one Dornier 328-100TP. Meanwhile, one of the Jetstreams was under long-term maintenance. “TF-ORA is under maintenance for the last three months. We had to send both its engines to the US for overhaul. The situation with spare parts on the market is not the easiest one”, Hörður Gudmundsson said.
The deal was signed in December 2019, Hörður Guðmundsson told Morgunblaðið, however, the delivery of the plane had been postponed due to COVID-19. Guðmundsson said that initially, they wanted to deliver the plane in February, but the epidemic situation broke all plans. At some point Hörður Guðmundsson thought that the deal will not be finished, however, he got the call two weeks ago, and the buyer requested the plane as soon as possible.
Now Eagle Air has to perform the longest delivery in Icelandic aviation history to the other side of the Earth. Two pilots will ferry the plane: captain Sigurður Egill Sigurðsson and Hörður Guðmundsson’s granddaughter Birna Borg Gunnarsdóttir.
Read more about the history and fleet of Eagle Air on Flugblogg.
