General news

After initial conflicting messages it has now been confirmed that Qantas has taken a 19.9% interest in Alliance Airlines, with the aim to eventually become the majority shareholder. However, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is investigating if there has been a breach of competition rules. Alliance considers the Qantas action as an “unwelcome advance”. Despite the involvement of its competitor Qantas, Virgin Australia has renewed and even extended the wet-lease agreement with Alliance Airlines until end 2021; under the new contract Alliance will not only fly domestically but also to foreign destinations on behalf of Virgin. 

On 10 February 2019 Insel Air suspended all flights until further notice, due to operational problems with their F50s. The deal with InterCaribbean Airways (Turks & Caicos) eventually fell through and other parties that seemed to be interested in buying the airline also withdrew. Insel Air was declared bankrupt on 26 February 2019. 

According to a local newspaper, a new start-up is in the process of formation in the Dutch Antilles for replacing Insel Air. This new airline is a subsidiary of United Caribbean Airlines and will do business as JetAir Caribbean. Plans are to fly with two F70s from its base in Curaçao to other islands in the region, amongst which Haiti and the Dominican Republic. 

The Iranian Oil Industry Pension Fund Investment Company, owner of Karun Airlines, has put the airline for sale. Founded in 1927 and until 2017 named Naft Airlines, it the oldest airline still in inexistence in Iran. The current fleet includes four F100 and six F50 aircraft that are mainly used on domestic services from Ahwaz and Tehran. 

Qeshm Air started a new F100 service from Qeshm, Iran to Muscat, Oman in February 2019. 

On 12 February 2019 Air Niugini suspended all F100 services to Kieta in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville for safety reasons, because solar panels had been stolen that power the airport's Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) system. 

Kenyan Tristar Air, which was already in the previous Fokkernews, has eventually suspended all operations by the end of February. 

A still undisclosed Iranian startup airline from the Chahar Mahaal & Bakhtiari province has reportedly acquired Fokker aircraft for their future operations. Probably the F100’s come from Iran Aseman Airlines.

Fokker F27, Fokker 50 & Fokker 60

Fokker F28, Fokker 70 & Fokker 100

Over the past few years Air Panama has retired a number of their Fokkers. Cargo Friendship HP-1604 (10471) is stored for at least five years in Panama City and is for sale (Sebastian Sowa; Marcos A. Gelabert airport, 27 February 2019)

Also Air Panama’s HP-1631, a Friendship 500F (10658), was withdrawn from use some years ago and is awaiting its fate in a corner of the airport. It looks to be in a rather good condition (Sebastian Sowa; Marcos A. Gelabert airport, 27 February 2019)

In late 2016 Air Panama acquired two F50s from VLM. As to present, none of them has entered service. HP-1922 (20144) is stored in Panama City without engines and titles. Notably, three previous operators are still visible: Cityjet (tail colors), Flybe (sticker at entrance door) and Denim Air (PH-DMD under the wing) (Sebastian Sowa; Marcos A. Gelabert airport, 27 February 2019)

The KLIA College of Aviation Management, which is located at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, has one F50 in use for cabin staff training. The aircraft is missing engines and landing gear and was recently painted in the house colors of the college. Supposedly it is 9M-MGG (20170), but this is not entirely certain, as it might be one of the other MASWings F50s (KLIA College website; Selangor, accessed 24 February 2019)

During the air show at Kish Island, Iran, a small group of Dutch spotters was able to shoot pictures of some rarely seen Iranian Fokkers. Kish Air F50 EP-LCG (20236) is in storage in the south-west corner of the airport, accompanied by Qeshm Air EP-FQA (20274) and EP-FQC (20275), all devoid of their engines and some other parts (Jan Swart; Kish island, 29 November 2018)

Currently three Helvetic F100s are in storage, awaiting what will happen further. HB-JVH (11324) is leading the row (Niki Kapsamunov; Bratislava, 18 February 2019)

Kish Air still has two active F100s, which are mainly operating between Kish island in the south and Tehran. EP-LCR (11330) is one of them (Jan Swart; Kish island, 29 November 2018)

Qeshm Airlines operates three active F100s, two of which were seen during the Kish Island air show: EP-FQG (11462) and EP-FQJ (11477) showing the new and old livery, respectively (Jan Swart; Kish island, 29 and 27 November 2018)

Another Kish Air F100 is apparently withdrawn from use, EP-LCP (11495); the left side carries only the Iranian flag and on the right it still has Kish Air tail colors (Jan Swart; Kish island, 26 November 2018)