Trans Maldivian Airways Brand New Aircraft Arrives in the Maldives
Trans Maldivian Airways (TMA) has proudly announced the arrival of its latest addition to the fleet which is a brand new Twin Otter 400 series.
According to the TMA press release, this is the fourth aircraft being released from production that is manufactured by Viking Air Limited. This will bring TMA’s total operational fleet to 23 aircraft. TMA has another two new 400 series Twin Otter aircraft arriving in the upcoming months.
TMA said that the aircraft was accepted at Viking Air Limited, of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on the 5th April 2011 and then flown from Canada to the Maldives. The aircraft was piloted by two Maldivians: Captain Mohamed Fahud and Captain Adil Hussain accompanied by a seasoned ferry pilot Captain Gordon Johnson(Canadian national). TMA said that the route that they flew was from: Victoria (west coast Canada) to Calgary (central Canada) to Iqaluit (east Coast of Canada) to Iceland to Sweden to Serbia then onto Luxor in Egypt to Muscat in Oman then directly to the Maldives.
“The crew has experienced all types of terrain and sights on the way from the ice sheets of Greenland to the deserts of Egypt to the open seas of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. This has been an experience of a life time and what that many twin otter pilots only dream of,” TMA’s press release said.
TMA said that the aircraft now will be converted from wheels and placed on 13000 Wipline floats and painted in the Trans Maldivian distinctive yellow and blue livery by the TMA engineering team and put into service in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the de Havilland Twin Otter experienced a production span of twenty-three years, before the line was officially shut down in 1988 after a total of 844 aircraft were delivered. The “Legacy fleet”, as it is now known, has remained in active use since the program end, at present there are nearly 600 remaining legacy aircraft in operation.
In 2005, Viking Air Limited, of Victoria, BC, Canada, purchased the Type Certificates for all of the out-of-production de Havilland aircraft (DHC-1 through DHC-7), including the Twin Otter. After extensive market analysis, it was determined there was an overwhelming demand to bring the Twin Otter back into production, thus the Viking Series 400 Twin Otter Program was announced in 2007.
The Series 400 Twin Otter will take off where the original de Havilland Series 300 Twin Otter left off, introducing upgraded Pratt & Whitney PT6A-34 engines, fully integrated Honeywell Primus Apex digital avionics suite, use of composite materials, and other general modernization items. Overall, approximately 800 changes have been incorporated to modify and improve upon the original production model.