NEW ZEALAND & PACIFIC ISLANDS CIVIL AIRCRAFT REGISTERS

Compiled by David Wise

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
EARLY REGISTER
ZK- REGISTER
INDEX to ZK- files
ZM- REGISTER
PACIFIC ISLAND REGISTERS


INTRODUCTION

This is an attempt at compiling a set of complete historic civil aircraft registers for New Zealand and the independent Pacific Islands nations.

It was started in the mid 1980's when I found a lack of published historic information following visits to NZ, and it has been progressively accumulating ever since.

A primary reason for publishing the list is to provoke feedback. I would welcome any additions, corrections or more detailed information, however small. Please e-mail: dave.wise@btinternet.com

The information given is: registration; issue sequence number for reused registrations; registration date (month); type (using recognised abbreviations for most common types); construction number; previous identities (in reverse chronological order, following Air Britain practice, which I think is logical) and status or fate. Owner/operator details have not been included except for airliners and some commercial operators..

For New Zealand, definitive information including ownership details is available on the NZ CAA website for currently registered aircraft and historic changes back to 2002. More extensive information on aircraft first registered up to the early 1970's was published in Air Britain Archive.

The lists have been provided as a set of html tables. Updates are provided periodically, usually monthly, as new information comes to light.

You may copy information from this web-site only for your own personal use.

Please contact me if you want to use this information commercially or re-publish any of it in any magazine, book or any other medium.

To maintain currency, do not copy these registers or production lists onto any other website. Instead provide a link to this site.

This information has been compiled from a variety of second-hand sources and cannot be guaranteed. You use it entirely at your own risk.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For New Zealand, the early registrations have been summarised from the excellent serialisation of the early NZ register in Air Britain Archive compiled by Janic Geelen - this also included a lot more information than is shown here, including ownership and operational details. This started in the Spring 1981 issue and ran until 2004, covering the period from the beginning up to about 1974/5, to ZK-DZZ and the corresponding glider, helicopter and out-of-sequence lists.

Other sources of data were New Zealand registers published by Air Britain and LAAS; some issues of the annual White's Directory (more recently Wings Directory); the Aviation Historical Society of NZ book on the Aircraft of the RNZAF, including serial listings and civil impressments and disposals. Helicopters and Gyros have been cross-checked against the listing on the Rotorspot website. I have trawled through early Air Britain magazines from the start, and including a complete set of Air Britain News from its beginning in 1970 up to date.

The official current NZ register has been published on the NZ CAA website since 1999. A look-up of details of individual current aircraft, and also a link to download a zip file with the complete current register are on https://www.aviation.govt.nz/aircraft/aircraft-registration/aircraft-register-search/.

Monthly listings of historic changes back to 2002 are available on: https://www.aviation.govt.nz/aircraft/aircraft-registration/aircraft-register-search/aircraft-register-amendments/
Change listings back to 1990 used to be available but have been deleted - I have archived a copy.

NZ Accident reports are published by the NZ CAA, but do not give the registration of the aircraft involved.

Additional useful information has come from sources in the Aviation Historical Society of New Zealand, particularly Ray Deerness, David Paull, Mike Condon, Keith Morris (NZCivair blog) and Phil Craig (SPaNZ blog); also in Air Britain, particularly Ian Burnett and David Partington, and also from Tony Arbon, Joe Barr and Brian Clarke in Australia.

There has also been welcome feedback from individuals and also reports and discussions on a variety of e-mail groups, particularly Airfields and AB-IX.

Proprietary registration data-bases which have recently become available, have not been checked.


ABBREVIATIONS

AACA = Amateur Aircraft Constructors Association of New Zealand (since renamed as SAANZ)
amdd = amended
AUF = Australian Ultralight Federation (recently renamed RAAA)
chgd = changed
c = approximate date
c/n = construction number (plans number or kit number)
CAA = Civil Aviation Authority (in several countries)
CofA = Certificate of Airworthiness (to ICAO standard)
coll = collision
const = constructed by
conv = converted (usually model change, often to match engine change)
cr = crashed
cx = cancelled from official register
dbf = damaged/destroyed by fire
dbflood = damaged/destroyed by flood
dbg = damaged/destroyed by gale
dbh = damaged/destroyed by hurricane
dbhc = damaged/destroyed by hangar collapse
dbhf = damaged/destroyed in hangar fire
dbr = damaged beyond repair (i.e. insurance write-off, though occasionally then rebuilt)
dbs = damaged/destroyed by storm
DCA = Department of Civil Aviation (official body in NZ - since renamed as CAA)
dgd = damaged (probably repairable)
dest = destroyed (though several officially so listed have then been rebuilt)
dism = dismantled
disp = displayed (usually in museum or as 'gate guardian')
ditched = ditched in sea
dnf = damaged/destroyed in non-flying accident
EAA = Experimental Aircraft Association (USA Amateur-builders)
ff = first flight date
f/p = float-plane
INST = Instructional Airframe (RNZAF)
lsd = leased
MAANZ = Microlight Aircraft Association of NZ (renamed RAA-NZ in 1995)
mod = modified
MoTaT = Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland
mus = museum
nc = not completed
ntu = (reserved registration) not taken up
PAC = Pacific Aircraft Corporation, Hamilton NZ
PFA = Popular Flying Association (UK amateur-builders)
PNG = Papua - New Guinea
RAAA = Recreational Aircraft Association of Australia (microlights - formerly AUF)
RAAF = Royal Australian Air Force
RAANZ = Recreational Aircraft Association of NZ (microlights - ex MAANZ in 1995)
RNZAF = Royal New Zealand Air Force
reb = rebuilt
reg = registered
rereg = reregistered
res = resident at or in (other country)
rest = restored (to register)
RSA = Republic of South Africa
SAAA = Sport Aircraft Association of Australia (amateur-builders)
SAANZ = Sport Aircraft Association of New Zealand (amateur-builders, formerly AACA)
scr = scrapped
soc = struck off charge (disposed of by RNZAF or other military)
st = stored
to = re-registered
wfu = withdrawn from use
( ) = around registrations indicate reservations not taken up


EARLY REGISTER

The earliest NZ civil aircraft carried no marks, or used unofficial fleet identities, or from 1919 retained ex-military serials. Then from 1922 to 1928 New Zealand aircraft were registered in the G-NZxx series, which was part of the G- block allocated to the British Empire.

These will be covered in the Early Aircraft file, which is in preparation. This is from the listing by Janic Geelen in the Spring and Summer 1981 issues of Air Britain Archive updated with subsequent information from Malcolm Fillmore. It has also taken on board some recent internet discussions of this topic.


ZK- REGISTER

Aircraft registrations fulfil the dual role of providing legal identities for the aircraft and of providing radio station callsigns. These prefixes are also used for other types of radio station, including ship radios, broadcasting stations, land mobile and radio amateurs.

From 1st January 1929, the aircraft registration and radio callsign prefixes ZK- ZL- and ZM- were allocated to New Zealand by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Radio Telegraph Conference (now called the International Telecommunications Union - ITU). So far, only ZK- has been used extensively for aircraft, ZL- not at all, and ZM- for two special applications, see below.

The ZK- registration sequence was started from 1st January 1929 and surviving G-NZxx aircraft were re-registered.

All types of civil aircraft are covered in a standard sequence, including gliders, balloons and microlights. All 26 letters of the alphabet are used.

The in-sequence series for fixed-wing powered aircraft ran from ZK-AAA to FZZ. It skipped the reserved G, H and I blocks, and continued from ZK-JAA. The current prevalence of out-of-sequence and reissued registrations has meant that, for several years recently, new in-sequence registrations have almost ceased.

Out of sequence registrations were first allocated to a few commercial aircraft from 1958 (The first was ZK-REX C310, followed by the TEAL Electras ZK-TEA/B/C), and were then made available for general use (including balloons but not gliders or helicopters) from about 1977. Reuse of cancelled registrations also started at this point.

Reserved registration blocks are or were:
AMA to AMZ = Originally reserved for maritime aircraft, then made available for general use from 1980's and all originally unused marks have now been allocated.
DCA to DCZ = Aircraft operated by the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA). This was relinquished for general use after DCA was renamed as Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in about 1993.
FAA to FBZ = Balloons and other aerostats (though out-of-sequence registrations have also been allowed) (FBx series used from 1973 then FAx series from 1990, also with reallocations).
GAA to GZZ = Gliders and some motor-gliders (including those used by the Air Training Corps).
HAA to HZZ = Helicopters (also early Gyros, which were re-registered in 1974 into the Rxx series as below).
IAA to IZZ = initially for out-of-sequence general use, but only a few were allocated and all of these have now been cancelled. Reassigned for helicopters in 1990 and used from 1995 (apart from one special-purpose fixed wing allocation ZK-ILI in 1999), as the Hxx block was becoming fully allocated.
QAA to QZZ = not used.
RAA to RBZ = Gyros from 1974 (extended to RDZ from 1996).

From 1946 to 1972, registrations ending in R were not used (ZK-AIR to DYR, GAR to GJR and HAR to HHR). Several of these have been newly allocated since 1980. Also registrations in some reserved blocks noted above were not issued at the time but have been issued more recently. By way of confirmation, sequence number 0 has been included to indicate an in-sequence or contiguous-block registration which was initially not issued at the normal time. 0 has also been used to indicate non-flying airframes carrying false marks.

Since 1987, the ZK-AAA to BZZ, HAA to HAZ and GAA to GAZ blocks have generally been reserved on reallocation for historic aircraft, though some exceptions have been allowed.

Those limitations which apply currently are listed on: https://www.aviation.govt.nz/aircraft/aircraft-registration/registration-marks/

The detailed requirements for aircraft registrations in NZ are in: https://www.aviation.govt.nz/rules/advisory-circulars/show/AC47-1

Registrations used to be made available for re-use immediately they are cancelled, and many cases of same-day reallocation have occurred, also several cases of aircraft directly swapping identities. There was at one stage a requirement in section 47.108 that there would be a 12-month break before a cancelled registration is made available for reallocation, but this is has been withdrawn, and same-day reallocation is again permitted.

Issue sequence numbers are shown throughout, including 1 to avoid ambiguity. Note that these sequence numbers are entirely unofficial and include some not-taken-up reservations where known, but many more reservations have occurred which have been not taken up and cancelled, without being traced.

There have been a few cases of aircraft being de-registered and then restored to the same marks sometime later, while something else has used those marks and been cancelled while they were away! A few registrations have now flown on eight different aircraft, while some aircraft have carried seven different ZK- registrations. Also beware that some museum exhibits carry registrations which have since been reallocated to other aircraft or have been marked with false identities.

The official registration date, when an aircraft is added to the full register and made public, is usually on or shortly before the first flight under NZ certification. For amateur-built aircraft it is common practice for it to be the date of the first flight.

It is necessary that registrations can be reserved. Sometimes, particularly for amateur-built projects and for blocks for airline or club fleets, these reservations can be held for several years. It used to be a standard requirement with amateur-built aircraft for the plans to be submitted to the DCA for approval and issue of a Permit To Build. When this was given, a registration was immediately reserved for it - many gaps in the historic public in-sequence list are due to reservations for uncompleted home-builts.

The CAA used to provide a list of reserved marks on their website but without any details about what they are for - over 500 of them at any time. In about 2009 they changed to providing a list of marks available for issue. Since then, many reservations have been allocated and then cancelled without being taken up and it is impossible to trace them. As these are not officially made public, as a matter of practicality, they have been removed from these listings.

More so than in most other countries, it is widespread practice in NZ, when an aircraft is temporarily withdrawn from use for a prolonged major rebuild, for it to be cancelled from the register; it is then re-registered, usually with the same marks if still available, when completed.

Beware that the monthly register change summaries on the CAA website list all aircraft previously cancelled and now restored to the register as restorations, but this does not necessarily mean restored to the previously allocated registration marks - often they are assigned new registrations. Also when an aircraft is re-registered within the ZK- register, the monthly update listings on the CAA website show the new marks but fail to show the previous identity or the cancellation of the previous marks, and it requires research using construction numbers to complete the traceability record..

Because of the physical impossibility for most aircraft of flying to another country, there is a official exemption so that aircraft operating solely within NZ are not required to carry the ZK- nationality prefix. This even applies to some third-level airliners under 5600 kg. This is taken further with many aircraft in the reserved blocks of ZK-FAx/FBx balloons, ZK-G gliders and ZK-H (but not ZK-I) helicopters, which have official exemptions to display only the last two letters of the registration. Some aircraft, mainly warbirds, have exemptions to operate in military markings or other special schemes without showing their civil registrations. Some Police-operated helicopters and aircraft do not display their registrations and use Police <number> as identifiers and radio callsigns.

The NZ CAA website has a list of three-letter designators and radio callsigns for airlines and commercial operators approved to use with flight numbers within NZ. See:
https://www.aviation.govt.nz/aircraft/aircraft-registration/operator-call-signs/

Exemption for aircraft to fly in historic, usually military, markings are covered in section 47.103. Some of these also have personalised radio callsigns, which are listed on:
https://www.caa.govt.nz/aircraft/aircraft-registration/personalised-call-signs/

I have compiled a list of aircraft known to be operating with special paint schemes or call-signs. This is unofficial and has been compiled from reports and photos on the internet and is not necessarily complete or up to date. Any updates or amendments would be welcome.


INDEX of ZK- files

In order to keep page loading times down to a reasonable level, the register has been split up so that each html file is less than 70K file size.

The earlier fully-subscribed registration blocks have been split into three files for each initial letter. For helicopters, extensive re-allocation necessitated a six-file split. The later blocks, mainly just used for out-of-sequence registrations, have one or two pages for each initial letter.

ZK-AAA to AHZ ZK-AIA to AQZ ZK-ARA to AZZ
ZK-BAA to BHZ ZK-BIA to BQZ ZK-BRA to BZZ
ZK-CAA to CHZ ZK-CIA to CQZ ZK-CRA to CZZ
ZK-DAA to DHZ ZK-DIA to DQZ ZK-DRA to DZZ
ZK-EAA to EHZ ZK-EIA to EQZ ZK-ERA to EZZ
ZK-FAA to FHZ ZK-FIA to FQZ ZK-FRA to FZZ
ZK-GAA to GHZ ZK-GIA to GQZ ZK-GRA to GZZ
ZK-HAA to HDZ ZK-HEA to HHZ ZK-HIA to HLZ
ZK-HMA to HPZ ZK-HQA to HUZ ZK-HVA to HZZ
ZK-IAA to IHZ ZK-IIA to IZZ  
ZK-JAA to JHZ ZK-JIA to JQZ ZK-JRA to JZZ
ZK-KAA to KZZ    
ZK-LAA to LZZ    
ZK-MAA to MHZ ZK-MIA to MZZ  
ZK-NAA to NHZ ZK-NIA to NZZ  
ZK-OAA to OZZ    
ZK-PAA to PZZ    
ZK-Q not used    
ZK-RAA to RHZ ZK-RIA to RZZ  
ZK-SAA to SZZ    
ZK-TAA to THZ ZK-TIA to TZZ  
ZK-UAA to UZZ    
ZK-VAA to VZZ    
ZK-WAA to WZZ    
ZK-XAA to XZZ    
ZK-YAA to YZZ    
ZK-ZAA to ZZZ    
Special paint schemes    

ZM- REGISTER

ZM-AAA to ZZZ

The ZM- register has been used for two purposes:-

ZM-Axx was used in the late 1930's for Mignet Flying Fleas.

ZMZxx (without hyphen) was used from about 1953 to about 1969 as radio callsigns for Royal New Zealand Air Force military aircraft.


PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES REGISTERS

Several smaller Pacific Island territories have become independent countries and have their own aircraft registers. Also some had operated aircraft before independence with British colonial registers in the VQ-F (Fiji) and VP-P (British Pacific) registers. Listings of these are provided as below. Note that several other Pacific territories are still dependencies of USA (mainstream Nxxxx registrations) and France (France d'Outre Mer, F-Oxxx registrations); these use aircraft registered in their parent countries and have not been covered here.

These registers were compiled by working through the register update reports in a complete set of Air Britain News, plus inputs from several books and websites and from correspondents in the Region, particularly Joe Barr and Tony Arbon. and Islander info from BNAPS news: https://www.wightmagic.com/bnaps.htm
The Fiji, Samoa and Cook Islands registers were added in May 2008, the others in Jan 2013, while Tuvalu was first used in 2023.

These registers are based on a variety of sources and in some cases are unofficial best guess deductions. They are published on a "work-in-progress" basis. I would be pleased to hear from anyone who can add any new information or corrections. Please e-mail: dave.wise@btinternet.com

~~~~~~~~~~

Old Registers
VP-Pxx British Pacific High Commission
VQ-Fxx Fiji (old)
MI-<year><number> Marshall Islands (old)
   
Current Registers
A3-xxx Tonga
C2-RN<number> Nauru
DQ-xxx Fiji (new)
E5-xxx Cook Islands
H4-xxx Solomon Islands
T2-xxx Tuvalu
T3-xxx Kiribati
T8A-<number> Palau
V6-<3 letter> & V6-<number>FM Fed. States of Micronesia
V7-<year><number> Marshall Islands (new)
YJ-xx<number> & YJ-xxx Vanuatu
5W-xxx Samoa (prev. Western Samoa)
   

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