13/08/2026
ON THIS DAY - 26-Aug-2016... Manchester Airport, 10 years ago!
LZ-BHJ, Airbus A320-211, BH Air.
First flown with the Airbus test registration F-WWDI in Nov-90, this aircraft was delivered to Ansett Airlines Australia as VH-HYJ in Jan-91. Ansett ceased operations in Mar-02 and it was stored at Melbourne.
It was sold to a lessor in Sep-02, leased to Lufthansa Technik and ferried to Berlin-Schoenefeld in Sep-02 as D-AKFX for further storage. It was due to be leased to Air Canada in Apr-03 but the deal fell through.
Later it was due to be leased to Armavia as EK-32009, but that didn't happen either. It was eventually leased to LAT Charter as YL-BBC in Dec-03. It was sub-leased to Hellas Jet (Greece) as SX-BVD in Mar-07.
While it was away, LAT Charter was renamed SmartLynx Airlines in Sep-08 and the aircraft was returned to SmartLynx as YL-BBC in Jan-09. The aircraft spent much of the next few years on wet-lease to other airlines.
ChamWings Airlines (Syria) Mar/Jun-10, NAS Air (Saudi Arabia) Oct/Dec-11 on Haj Pilgrimage ops, Astra Airlines (Greece) May/Oct-12, NAS Air again Feb/May-13, Tailwind Airlines May/Nov-13 and Ryanair Jun/Oct-15.
In May-16 it was sub-leased to BH Air as LZ-BHJ. The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Dec-16 and stored at Montpellier, France. It was sold to Khors Aircompany (Ukraine) as UR-CQI at the end of May-17, then sold a week later to Zagros Air (Iran) for spares. It was 26 years old.
Photo and a lot of words, Ken Fielding.
