Air Chathams Metroliner at Wellington

An unusual visitor to Wellington today is this Air Chathams-operated Fairchild SA227-AC Metroliner, ZK-CIC, which is painted in their really-quite-awesome Whakātane livery applied.

While I say the aircraft is an unusual visitor, many of you will realise that these aircraft used to be very common at Wellington - firstly operated by Air Nelson and then as the Lifeflight Air Ambulance, amongst a host of other freight, passenger and air ambulance operators. The last time I photographed this aircraft was also in Wellington, back in April 2015 and it was a very boring plain white at the time.

I'm assuming that the aircraft is here on a charter related to the rugby match between the British & Irish Lions and the mighty, victorious All Blacks [who says I can't be a little biased??! 😃].

Fairchild SA227-AC Metroliner, ZK-CIC, operated by Air Chathams

Fairchild SA227-AC Metroliner, ZK-CIC, operated by Air Chathams