Fokkernews September 2019 (issue 22)

General news

During the MAKS air show in Moscow, Bek Air of Kazakhstan has announced its intention to purchase ten Irkut MC-21-300 twin jets as a replacement for their F100 fleet.

It appears that Gran Colombia de Aviación needs more time to start operations. In the meantime the fleet plans seem to have changed: for the time being only B737-400 will be used. The future of the Fokker 50 in GCA service is now uncertain.

After its bankruptcy, Insel Air (Curacao) has left a US$75 million debt, with nearly 1,300 creditors.

Fokker F27, Fokker 50 & Fokker 60

c/n type registration new registration comment
10381 500 EC-GYL Boreal Aviación. Cancelled August 2019 as part of the cleaning-up process of the EC-register. Since 2018 AESA, the Spanish Civil Aviation Authority, is legally allowed to cancel registrations if the owner is unavailable. Reportedly, the airframe was scrapped already back in 2014 at Madrid after more than 12 years storage in Seven Air colors.
10610 500RF D2-ESN SJL Aéronautica. Seen at Luanda 040918, no information on status.
20109 50 OO-VLS Air Antwerp. Made its first commercial flight 9 September 2019 from Antwerp to London City and return. At departure it got a water salute by the Antwerp fire brigade. Flight number was WP100/101, in code share with KLM.
20171 50 SE-LJH 5Y-MHT Silverstone Air Services. Registered 19 August 2019, after SE-LJH was deregistered 16 July 2019. Delivered from Malmö via Heraklion and Aswan to Nairobi 2-3 September 2019, all white.
20179 50 HP-1606PST Air Panama. Shortly after taking off, flight 7P-972 from Panama City Gelabert airport to David on 5 September 2019, the crew had to shut down one engine in flight due to a mechanical defect. The F50 diverted to Balboa and landed safely there.

Fokker F28, Fokker 70 & Fokker 100

c/n type registration new registration comment
11020 1000C TC-53 Argentina Air Force (LADE). Made its last flight from El Palomar air base to Aeroparque airport on 16 August 2019 and was withdrawn from use due to maintenance issues. These prevented the planned official F28 farewell flight in late August.
11307 100 5Y-SIA Salaam Air Express. This new Somalian airline made its inaugural flight 29 August 2019 at Mogadishu. Most likely the aircraft is leased from Jetways.
11324 100 HB-JVH Alliance Airlines. Seen at Bratislava on 4 September 2019 in full Helvtic Airways livery performing an airtest, so transfer to Australia is probably imminent.
11359 100 OE-LVJ VH-UQP Alliance Airlines Pty Ltd. Registered 17 August 2019. The aircraft is still in Bratislava.
11365 100 VH-FKF Alliance Airlines. Flew from Perth via Surabaya, Penang, Mangalore, Al Ain, Hurghada, Belgrade to Norwich 29 August to 1 September 2019 for heavy maintenenace by KLM UK Engineering.
11466 100 HB-JVF Alliance Airlines. Delivery 5-8 September 2019 from Bratislava via Hurghada, Muscat, Nagpur, Penang, Surabaya to Perth as SXI1947. Rumors says that it will be parted out for spares.
11470 100 UP-F1009 Bek Air. Noted 7 July 2019 at NurSultan airport in the white Bek Air livery, that was introduced in April by UP-F1014.
11478 100 HB-JVG VH-VKP Alliance Airlines. Registered 26 August 2019. A picture on the net shows the aircraft in Brisbane, still in full Helvetic livery.
11521 70 VH-JFB Alliance Airlines. Noted at Brisbane 8 September 2019 in standard color scheme; until recently it still had the dark blue belly from its time in Ford Motors service.
11532 70 VH-NUU Alliance Airlines. Delivery flight 16-20 August 2019 from Norwich via Bratislava, Hurghada, Al Ain, Nagpur, Kuala Lumpur, Kupang, Townsville to Brisbane as SXI1912. Made its first commercial flight 2 September 2019 from Brisbane via Maroochydore to Emerald and back as QQ4078.
11536 70 5B-DDA TUS Airways. Ferried 23 August 2019 from Larnaca to Woensdrecht for maintenance by Fokker Techniek. It returned to Larnaca 13 September.
11556 70 PZ-TFA Fly All Ways. Seen at Paramaribo 27 August 2019 doing air test after nearly 9 months storage. Returned into service 28-29 August 2019 flying from Paramaribo via Curacao to St. Martin and back.
11569 70 VH-QQW Alliance Airlines. This F70 departed Norwich on 23 September 2019 for its delivery flight to Brisbane.
11581 70 5Y-JWF Fly-Ade Airline. Seen 28 August 2019 arriving at Mogadishu airport in full livery of this new Somalian airline. Their Facebook page suggests that Fly-Ade, not Safe Air Company, was the operator of F100 UP-F1007 (11496) in the first half of 2019.

Landhelgisgæzlan Islands, the Icelandic Coast Guard, used to operate two Friendships between 1972 and 2009 for all kinds of coast guard duties. One of these F27, a Mark 200 Maritime version TF-SYN (10545), is preserved in the aviation museum at Akureyri airport, in northern Iceland. This Friendship was equipped with radar, special  telecommunication instruments, long-range fuel tanks and also carried maritime rescue equipment. The aircraft is on display in its latest color scheme (Alexander Lutz; Akureyri, 14 June 2019).

 

A new airline has become active in Somalia in late August 2019, named Salaam Air Express. According to their website they do operate domestic flights as well as connections to Nairobi. Both passenger services and cargo flights are offered. F100 5Y-SIA (11307) is painted in full company colors (Salaam Air Express on Facebook; Mogadishu, 17 August 2019)

 

After spending some five years at Osijek airport in various stages of disintegration, it looks as if the end of life has finally come for Trade Air (Sun-Adria) 9A-BTF (11336). In August only the hull and loose parts remained (Josip Andračić on Twitter; Osijek, 18 August 2019)

 

As mentioned previously, Alliance Airlines has contracted KLM UK Engineering for heavy maintenance of their Fokker fleet. This time it was VH-FKF (11365) that arrived in Norwich after the long trip from Perth (Graham Reeve; Norwich, 1 September 2019)

 

Just like sistership UP-1014, Bek Air UP-F1009 (11470) is now carrying the modified color scheme, which is white with titles (Damir Kagarmanov; Almaty, 18 August 2019)

 

One of the more recent Fokker acquisitions by Air Niugini is P2-ANY (11551), which had a long history with KLM Cityhopper. As far as we know, this is the first picture in Air Niugini livery on the web (David/Aeroprints.com; Port Moresby, 8 March 2019)

 

Alliance Airlines is about to take another ex-Austrian F70 in service shortly; it is VH-NUV (11554). The aircraft has just been painted in regular Alliance colors (Graham Reeve; Norwich, 22 August 2019)

 

Recently Alliance Airlines VH-QQW (11569) was undergoing maintenance at Norwich and it got a new paint scheme commemorating the centenary of the first flights between England and Australia (Mark Connett; Norwich, 14 September 2019). The special livery features the winners of the 1919 Great Air Race, pilots Ross and Keith Smith, along with mechanics Sergeants Walter Shiers and James Bennett, who won the competition in their Vickers Vimy G-EAOU. Their aircraft took off from Hounslow aerodrome in West London on 12 November 1919 and landed at Fannie Bay in the Northern Territory 29 days later. After a local test flight on 20 September 2019, VH-QQW departed three days later for its delivery flight to Brisbane.

 

Another Somalian startup is Fly-Ade Airline, who is operating Jetways’ F70 5Y-JWF (11581) provided with titles, the tag line ‘connecting places’ and logos (alessioaviationpics on Instagram; Mogadishu, 29 August 2019)

Credits

All photographers, Australian Aviation, Aviation Herald, Aviator.aero, airlinerwatch.com, Merv Crowe, FlightAware, Flightradar24, David Garbett, Hans Groen, Greg Hyde, Luchtvaartnieuws, Luchtzak.be, Graham Reeve, Scramble, Skyliner, Jacques Vooren, Henk Wadman, Willem Westerhof.