General news

On 22 June 2020 Alliance Airlines will add a new route to their network, from Brisbane to Proserpine (Whitsunday Coast airport), to be served four times a week. The aircraft type has not been announced yet, but for sure it will be a Fokker. 

Not all airlines are suffering from the coronavirus crisis. Alliance Airlines reported a substantial increase in demand for sports and mining-related charters and expects a profit of over AU$ 40 million (some 25 million euro). 

Alliance Airlines has successfully acquired fresh capital for fleet expansion. The airline prefers Fokkers, but if these are not available, might choose other 80-100 seat types for performing additional charters. 

In contrast to many other airlines, Air Niugini sees opportunities in the COVID pandemic. The airline expects to be able to negotiate the lowest possible prices for replacement aircraft for their current Fokker fleet (six F70 and seven F100). 

Amapola Flyg has agreed with BRA (Braathens Regional Airlines) to take over the flights between Stockholm-Bromma and Malmö, Gothenburg, Visby, Angelholm and Halmstad for the 2020 summer season.

Fokker F27, Fokker 50 & Fokker 60

Fokker F28, Fokker 70 & Fokker 100

The ’El Holande Errante’ (The Flying Dutchman) Bed & Breakfast near Chingaza National Park, east of Bogotá, Colombia has transformed a Friendship into a holiday apartment. This F27 is not positively identified yet, but Fokker experts believe that former Air Panama HP-1543PST (10268) is the most likely candidate. The United Nations logo is in remembrance of UN duties in Georgia in the 1990s, when it still was HB-AAZ (El Holande Errante website; Bogotá, date unknown).

After retirement from Merpati F28 PK-MGJ (11175) serves as a nature movie theater (Theather Alam) in the Baturraden educational park near Banyumas, Central Java, Indonesia. The aircraft is visible on Google Maps (-7.313651, 109.228946). (Crisco1492 at Wikimedia; Baturraden Park, March 23, 2015)

Another former Merpati F28 PK-GKQ (11201) is preserved in the same area, namely in the Owabang Park Bojongsari in Purbalingga, Central Java, Indonesia (Google Maps -7.349019, 109.350247). The livery of its last operator can no longer be recognized, but the registration is still visible underwing (Minnan Nurrokhman at Google Maps; Purbalingga, July 2019)

The Police Academy at Semarang, Indonesia, has former Merpati F28 PK-GKR (11202) on their premises for use as a hijacking training object (Google Maps -7.018717, 110.409890). Initially it retained the Merpati livery, then got full Lion Air colors and is currently adorned with ‘Platina” titles, the name of the Akpol anti-terror unit. It is definitely the world’s most peculiar Fellowship as the engines are mounted under the wings (APY_COOL.45 at Twitter; Semarang, December 11, 2019)

Another ex Merpati F28 that still survives is PK-GKV (11211). It is one of the attractions in the Kyai Langgeng recreation park in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia (Google Maps -7.484920, 110.209581). Not so long ago it got a new livery in orange and white, with large ‘KLM OER’ titles, as the aerial overview shows; we have no information what this means (Kyai Langgeng park website; Magelang, date unknown)

After the demise of OLT Express, this F100 was acquired by Avanti Air as a spare parts donor. Officially it is D-AOLH (11265), now replaced by the fake registration D-PIRRI, probably because the local fire brigade uses it as a training object (William Musculus; Saarbrücken, December 30, 2019)

The association of aviation friends Airliners.sk has started a crowd funding action for preserving former Austrian Airlines F100 OE-LVJ (11359, now registered OE-IMX), rescuing it from being scrapped. In cooperation with Austrian Airlines Technik – Bratislava, s.r.o. the aircraft will be prepared for exhibition at the Aviation Museum in Slávnica, Slovakia. Please see https://www.airliners.sk/en/airliners-sk-is-going-to-save-the-fokker-100-from-scrapping for the full story and https://www.airliners.sk/en/f100/ if you want to make a donation. The aircraft is parked since November 2017 at Bratislava (airliners.sk; Bratislava, May 27, 2020)

One of the former Pelita F100s, PK-PFZ (11486), was recently added to the collection of the Aviation educational park, Obyek Wisata in Cilimus, Kuningan, West Java. It now carries ‘J&J Paksi Airlines’ titles and a fake registration PK-J&J, after the company that runs the park. On the nose is a sticker saying ‘aviation academy Kuningan SMK Taufiq Mubarok’, presumably as a sign that the students of this institute helped preserving the airframe (Asep Rusdiyanto at Facebook; Cilimus, February 17, 2020)