From Nordair to Nicaragua
I continue to be fascinated by aircraft lifecycles. I happened across a Boeing 737-200 delivered to Nordair in November 1975 (pictured in edition header).
C-GNDL served in the Nordair fleet (with two short term leases to US carriers) until January 1987 when it was absorbed into the CP Air / Canadian Airlines fleet and assigned fin #705.
It ended its career in Canada by serving as the charter aircraft for Jean Chrétien's first election campaign as Liberal Party leader in 1993. Interesting that only a relatively small 'Liberal' decal appears on the fuselage as opposed to the full makeovers that aircraft chartered for political campaigns receive today.
After the election, the aircraft was acquired by Polaris Aircraft Leasing where it flew for several small U.S. carriers until 2005 when it began a series of short term leases to airlines in Africa.
It was removed from service in 2010 and has been preserved as a tourist attraction at Managua, Nicaragua (photo below) since July 2012.
See www.planespotters.net for the full list of this aircraft's 45 year career.
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