ZIMEX Welcomes the DHC-6 Twin Otter Classic 300-G
An aircraft is never the whole story. At ZIMEX, we’ve always said it’s roughly 49% of the picture: a capable, reliable machine. The other 51%, the part that actually makes the difference in the field, is experience. Our engineers, our pilots, our planners, and 57 years of knowing exactly what it takes to operate where others can’t.
That’s the lens through which we’re opening our next chapter: ZIMEX is expanding its fleet with two brand-new De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter Classic 300-G aircraft, and once again, we are proud to stand as launch customer for this iconic platform.
From Calgary to Altenrhein and Into Service
The first of our two new Classic 300-Gs was accepted in Calgary this June, straight from De Havilland Aircraft of Canada. From there it was ferried across the Atlantic to our home base in Altenrhein, Switzerland. What happened next is where ZIMEX’s difference shows up: our team took a brand-new airframe and, drawing on decades of Twin Otter operating and maintenance expertise, prepared it for its first real-world mission. It has already been deployed — not as a demonstration, but as a working aircraft, carrying the ZIMEX name into service on day one.
That turnaround, from factory acceptance to active mission, is the product of experience as much as engineering. Anyone can take delivery of an aircraft. Getting it into the field, ready and trusted, is what ZIMEX has spent 57 years learning how to do.
Why the Aircraft Still Matters
None of this is to say the aircraft doesn’t count — it’s the other half of the equation, and the Classic 300-G gives our teams a genuinely better platform to work with: the same legendary Short Take-Off & Landing capability that has defined the type for 50+ years, a modernised Garmin G1000 NXi flight deck, a 400–500 lb weight reduction that translates into more payload and range, and the flexibility to configure for wheels, floats, amphibious floats, wheel skis or intermediate flotation gear depending on the mission. It’s a stronger tool. But a tool is only as good as the operator behind it.
The Difference Is Experience
ZIMEX has built its reputation over nearly six decades supporting humanitarian missions, resource industries and remote communities across Africa, Asia, Latin America and beyond; often on unimproved strips, in conditions where there’s no margin for guesswork. That’s the 51% no aircraft specification sheet can capture, and it’s what our customers are really choosing when they choose ZIMEX.
As we bring these two new aircraft into service, we want to thank the team at De Havilland Aircraft of Canada for their partnership and for trusting ZIMEX, once again, to be the first operator to put the newest generation of the Twin Otter to work.
