Vincent Aviation was an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

based in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It operated

air charter Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a airline ticket, ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad h ...

, freight and subcontract flights with a hub at

Wellington International Airport Wellington International Airport (formerly known as Rongotai Airport) is an international airport located in the suburb of Rongotai in Wellington. It lies 3 NM or 5.5 km south-east from the city centre. It is a hub for Air New Zealand an ...

. It was founded by Peter Vincent in 1992. On 28 May 2014 the Australian business (Vincent Aviation Australia) was placed into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

. On 24 October 2014 the New Zealand division was placed into receivership.

History

Vincent briefly operated a helicopter shuttle service from Wellington to Picton using a Bell 212. Vincent used a re-engined Riley Heron for wine-trail charters from Wellington to Blenheim. It was intended to use this aircraft for a service to the Chatham Islands, but this never eventuated. In the late 1990s, the airline acquired three Cessna 402Cs which were used on small freight contracts and overflow work from DHL. They also briefly operated a PA34 Seneca as well as a Beech Baron on similar work. In 2002 Vincent won a contract to fly UN peace keepers to East Timor using a Reims F406. Before long Vincent acquired its first Beech 1900C for use on this contract, with a D model following. From that first UN contract, the Darwin-based side of the business grew quickly, picking up contracts throughout the NT, mainly serving the resources sector. At its peak the Darwin base operated up to nine Beech 1900C/Ds. In the early/mid-2000s, Vincent's first two Beech 1900s (ZK-VAE and -VAB) were used for Air New Zealand flights from Christchurch to Blenheim and Wellington to Palmerston North. Later a Dash 8-100 was acquired by the New Zealand business for charter work. For some time this aircraft was used heavily by Air Nelson to operate Air New Zealand services. In more recent times Vincent NZ have acquired four Jetstreams and a BAe 146-200.

Services

Vincent Aviation serves primarily as a charter airline. Its former scheduled passenger services in Australia were to

Groote Eylandt Groote Eylandt ( Anindilyakwa: ''Ayangkidarrba'' meaning "island" ) is the largest island in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the fourth largest island in Australia. It was named by the explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 and is Dutch for "Large Island" in ...

and

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

from Darwin,

Narrabri Narrabri ( ) is a locality and seat of Narrabri Shire local government area in the North West Slopes, New South Wales, Australia on the Namoi River, northwest of Sydney. It sits on the junction of the Kamilaroi Highway and the Newell Highway. At ...

from

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and regular charter flights from Darwin to Kununurra, Bootu Creek, Jabiru, Fortescue/Christmas Creek and from Brisbane to Roma. Vincent has also done work in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. For a few months it operated scheduled flights from Darwin to Dili, Timor Leste, but these ceased early in 2012. Vincent Aviation's air charter business in New Zealand currently operates one British Aerospace Jetstream 32EP exclusively for LifeFlight based in Wellington on

air ambulance Air medical services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation, aeroplane or helicopter, to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and cri ...

duties and a further two Jetstream 32EPs and one

British Aerospace Jetstream 31 The British Aerospace Jetstream is a small twin-turboprop airliner, with a pressurised fuselage, developed as the ''Jetstream 31'' from the earlier Handley Page Jetstream. A larger version of the Jetstream was also manufactured, the British ...

on charter services throughout New Zealand. Vincent has a contract to transport inmates around New Zealand for the Corrections Department.

Airways New Zealand Airways New Zealand (Airways Corporation of New Zealand Limited) is the sole Air Traffic Service provider in New Zealand. The company was created 1987 as a State-Owned Enterprise having formerly being a division of the Ministry of Transport, a ...

awarded Vincent the contract to provide air capability for the calibration of

instrument approach In aviation, an instrument approach or instrument approach procedure (IAP) is a series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft operating under instrument flight rules from the beginning of the initial approach to a landi ...

aids throughout New Zealand. In August 2014 Vincent was chosen by the local Wairarapa council to operate a scheduled service from Masterton Hood Aerodrome to Auckland using a Saab 340B. The aircraft will be based overnight at Masterton and flights are expected to commence in the later stages of 2014.

Fleet

As of August 2014, the Vincent Aviation fleet consisted of the following aircraft: Wellington, New Zealand based fleet

Vincent Aviation Australia

On Wednesday 28 May 2014, Andrew Fielding and Gerald Collins of BDO Business Recovery & Insolvency (Qld) Pty Ltd were appointed Receivers and Managers of Vincent Aviation (Australia). The Receivers and Managers ceased trading while an urgent assessment of the business and its operations is undertaken. Accordingly, all flights were cancelled and passengers told to seek alternative travel arrangements.

References

External links