National Jet puts its 717s to work

National Jet Systems (NJS) will take delivery of the eighth, and last, 115-seat Boeing 717 on March 1, to replace the venerable workhorse, the BAe-146, on services in Western Australia and across the top end.

Five 717s are based in Perth, two in Darwin and one in Cairns.

The aircraft are owned by the Qantas group and have been most recently operated by Jetstar in the eastern states, however NJS now operates, maintains and crews the aircraft on behalf of QantasLink – Qantas’s regional operation.

Two BAe-146s are being retained by NJS for QantasLink services into locations with very short runways, such as Leinster and Mt Keith, while NJS will continue to operate a fleet of seven BAe-146s to service the mining community charters.

The 717 (pictured right)  is proving extremely popular with passengers and is quieter and more spacious than the BAe-146 with a wider fuselage but the same seat cross-section. The aircraft has had an interesting life in Australia.

Qantas inherited them when it bought Impulse Airlines in May 2001 and then transferred them and their flight crews to QantasLink operations in the eastern states.

When Qantas set up JetStar in 2004, it transferred the Boeing 717 operation to that low-cost airline as a temporary measure until a fleet of larger Airbus A320s arrived.