De Havilland Canada buys back world's oldest active Dash 8, ferrying it to Canada

De Havilland Canada has bought back the oldest active Dash 8 in the world and is flying it home. The aircraft, a Dash 8-100 with serial number 004, is making the journey to Canada over eight days with 15 intermediate stops, including a stop in Athens.

It first flew in April 1984 at Downsview near Toronto. De Havilland Canada designed the type for short feeder routes of around 37 passengers, with many take-offs and landings a day and small airports. To promote the new model, the manufacturer sent serial number 004 to Australia in November 1984 as a demonstrator, registered C-GGPJ, visiting Canberra and Melbourne among other places.

Its first customer was closer to home. In 1988 it flew briefly for the Canadian regional carrier Air Atlantic. The following year it returned to Australia, initially flying for Eastern Australia Airlines, a subsidiary of Australian Airlines, and later under the Qantas Link brand. Airlines PNG of Papua New Guinea and Queensland Regional Airlines of Cairns followed; the latter was absorbed into Skytrans in 2007.

Between 2006 and 2015 the Dash 8-100 carried miners to mine sites in Western Australia for Maroomba Airlines. From 2016 until summer 2026 it flew for Skytrans as VH-QQB. Skytrans retired the aircraft in July after more than 61,500 flight cycles and 42.5 years, and sold it to De Havilland.

In Canada the aircraft is to become part of a historical fleet, according to the report.