JetGo Australia's First Embraer ERJ-140LR Regional Jet N297SK (to be VH-ZJG) Touches Down in Australia

The first Embraer ERJ-140LR (ERJ-135KL) regional jet bound for JetGo Australia has arrived in Australia on completion of a week-long delivery flight from the United States of America (USA) via Alaska, Russia, Japan and Palau.  The ERJ-140LR still wears its American registration marking of N297SK which it operated for Republic Airways Holdings, which provides regional services to the major network carriers in the USA.  It has been repainted into JetGo Australia livery and will ultimately wear Australian registration VH-ZJG when it enters service.

N297SK lands at Townsville on Wednesday

N297SK was spotted arriving into Townsville Airport late on Wednesday 19 October from Palau where it spent the night.  On Thursday 20 October, the ERJ-140LR ferried South to Brisbane.  During the delivery flight it was noted using the flight number and callsign of JG99 ("JetGo 99").

N297SK at Brisbane

VH-ZJG / N297SK (cn 145522) is the first of two 44-seat ERJ-140LRs (ERJ-135KL) due for delivery to JetGo with the other identified as N295SK (cn 145513) which will wear the Australian registration marking of VH-ZJE.  It is expected to arrive in Australia in late-November.

N297SK at Chicago in 2012  (David Osborn / https://www.flickr.com/)

Presently, JetGo flys three 37-seat Embraer ERJ-135LRs - VH-JTG, VH-JGB and VH-JZG - on its regular public transport (RPT) and Fly-in Fly-out (FIFO) networks across three states along Australia’s east coast.

The oldest aircraft in the fleet VH-JTG (file photos shown above) is expected to be off-lease in the coming weeks with probable departure overseas soon after.

Photos taken by 'Shinpow16', Lloyd Fox, Micah S and Dave  ©