[1][2] As of November 1944 the squadron was conducting ten flights each week to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands to supply the Allied forces there.

41 Squadron's Dakotas were deployed to Singapore to transport released prisoners of war and civilian internees back to New Zealand.

As well as supporting other elements of the New Zealand military, these units undertook "quasi-civil" tasks due to a shortage of civilian aircraft.

At the time this was one of the longest air transport routes in the world, with the flights being made via Norfolk Island, Australia, Borneo, the Philippines and Okinawa.

41 Squadron conducted weekly return flights between Singapore and New Zealand transporting British recruits for the RNZAF.

[9][10] At this time the main body of the squadron in New Zealand had been forced to reduce its flying hours due to a shortage of technicians to service the Dakotas.

[4][12] Due to the deployments to Germany and Singapore, at one stage of 1949 the squadron had only a single trained Dakota crew in New Zealand.

[14] Most of its personnel were used to unload ships at Auckland and Wellington during the 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute, greatly disrupting flying.

41 Squadron, which was now equipped with four Bristol Freighters and had a strength of 73 officers and airmen, was deployed to RAF Changi in Singapore as part of an expansion of New Zealand's commitment to the Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve.

[19][20] The Bristol Freighters were slow and uncomfortable aircraft, but proved successful in transporting supplies and personnel throughout Southeast Asia.

The squadron transported a very wide range of equipment, and established the first scheduled air ambulance service in Malaya.

The aircraft transported supplies to SEATO bases in Thailand, and also flew a detachment of 30 New Zealand Special Air Service soldiers into the country from Whenuapai during June 1962.

[27] Two Bristol Freighters were deployed to Thailand between 1963 and 1965 to transport New Zealand Army engineers around remote areas of the country.

41 Squadron's Bristol Freighters were becoming outdated, and historian Margaret McClure has written that they were the "slowest military aircraft in South-east Asia".

The aircraft deployed from Singapore to Borneo operated intensively, with aircrew often flying three or four sorties each day.

41 Squadron Bristol Freighter was hit by machine gun fire after it accidentally crossed the Indonesian border during a supply dropping mission, but none of its crew were wounded.

[30] Instead, the squadron remained at Singapore, but conducted fortnightly flights into Vietnam carrying supplies for the New Zealand military units and medical teams in the country from 1965 onwards.

In early April 1975 the squadron established a detachment at Tan Son Nhat International Airport near Saigon to evacuate New Zealand personnel from the country as North Vietnamese forces rapidly advanced.

By the mid-1970s the Bristol Freighters were considered obsolete, and the RNZAF's newer Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Hawker Siddeley Andover aircraft could be rapidly deployed to Singapore to provide transport when required.

This flight was disbanded in 1989, ending the permanent presence of RNZAF units in South East Asia.