General news

Fly Allways has recently added a weekly F70 service from Port-au-Prince (Haïti) via Port of Spain (Trinidad) to Paramaribo. 

After the crash of one of their Fokkers, Bek Air is considering moving to Kyrgyzstan or another country, now the Kazakh CAA continues the suspension indefinitely. Another consequence of the crash is the withdrawal of Bek Air's IATA designator code Z9. 

According to the Kenyan newspaper The Star, Silverstone Air Services is on the brink of collapse two months after suspending passenger operations. Most pilots and ground staff were laid off. Three passenger F50 have been wet leased to Maandeeq Air. Also Somalian airlines Som Air and Salaam Air are believed to have leased F50 equipment from Silverstone, but it is unclear which aircraft are concerned. Silverstone cargo operations continue with three F50 freighters.

Fokker F27, Fokker 50 & Fokker 60

Fokker F28, Fokker 70 & Fokker 100

After Business Express had withdrawn N143PM (10109) from active service, the aircraft was stored in Florida and changed owners numerous times, without moving for more than 20 years. The local fire brigade has used it for training purposes. Currently it sits abandoned in deplorable condition (Walter Heukensfeld; Brooksville Tampa Bay Airport, November 9, 2019)

Merpati took factory-new Friendship PK-MFQ (10623) into use in 1982, operated it until 2006 and then parked it, prey to the tropical climate. The cockpit was used to build a F27 flight simulator, which is in the hangar of Merpati Maintenance Facilities; the pictures show external and internal views (Ad Jan Altevogt; Surabaya-Juanda, October 8, 2019)

Friendship with construction number 10632 started its flying career in 1983 with TAM in Brazil, was sold in 1999, and converted to freighter operating for Farnair in Europe. In 2012 Asialink Cargo Express bought it and used it for some years as PK-KRA. Now it is stored at the Merpati parking in seemingly good condition, waiting for a buyer (Ad Jan Altevogt; Surabaya-Juanda, October 8, 2019)

In December the VNCE (Foundation for Flying Dutch Cultural Heritage) acquired a civil registration for their ex-US Army Troopship. As N27FF (10668) the aircraft is currently waiting for all paperwork to be completed before the transfer flight to The Netherlands can begin. Apart from the registration, the logos of two major sponsors were also applied (VNCE;  Laurinburg-Maxton, December 18, 2019)

The 60 years of existence are clearly discernable on Fairchild F-27J N222DG (031). In 2003 Empire Airlines, the last operator, donated the aircraft to the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula, MT, USA and despite intentions to preserve it as part of the collection, it is slowly perishing outdoors (Benjamin Donnely; Missoula, December 21, 2019)

Celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year, the Philippines Government Fellowship 1250 (11153) is still in active service and looking perfect (Gerard Anthony Belvis; Davao, December 20, 2019)

Montenegro Airlines celebrates their 25^th anniversary and have adorned their aircraft with a special sticker. The single F100 in active service 4O-AOM (11321) also sports the ‘25’ sticker on the nose (Johannes Wirl; Frankfurt, December 29, 2019)

It is not known when Merpati Airlines took F100 PK-MJC (11463) out of service, but its current condition in a corner of Husein Sastranegara airport makes us believe that it will never fly again (Ad Jan Altevogt; Bandung, October 3, 2019)

Another F100 in special livery, since Alliance Airlines had their newest F100 fleet addition VH-UQG (11520) painted for commemorating the unsuccessful speed record flight by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith from Wyndham, Australia to London in autumn 1931 in his Avro 616 Avian called Southern Cross Minor, also with registration VH-UQG (Graham Reeve; Norwich, January 3, 2020)