Texel Air to continue fleet growth in 2025

Chisholm Enterprises will proceed with its plans to grow its fleet of 737-800BCFs in 2025 after hitting several important milestones in 2024 with its two airlines, Bahrain-based Texel Air and New Zealand-based Texel Air Australasia.

While Texel Air Australasia obtained its AOC in 2023, Texel Air in September celebrated its 10th year of operations.

“We never set out to own an airline and we sort of got into it by default, but it’s been a fantastic journey, starting with very humble beginnings,” George Chisholm, chief executive of Chisholm Enterprises and executive director of Texel Air, says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect.”

After removing its final 737-300F, the fleet stands at ten 737NG freighters, with three -800BCFs and two -700FCs at Texel Air and five -800BCFs at Texel Air Australasia. Two or three more aircraft will join the New Zealand fleet in 2025, Chisholm tells Cargo Facts.

Texel Air Australasia in October received extended diversion time operations (EDTO) approval for up to 120 minutes, which will help the carrier grow its operations for Australia-based Team Global Express and fly certain routes more efficiently, especially between Australia and New Zealand.

“We’ve kind of had to hold back our plans going trans-Tasman until we got the EDTO approval, which we’re happy to say we have now,” Chisholm says. “And now, once we get these few more aircraft into our fleet, we will start to fly that route pretty extensively, mostly between Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and Christchurch, in a variety of route configurations.”

Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more on Texel Air as Chisholm speaks with Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee.