Fokkernews November 2020 (issue 36)

General news

Alliance Airlines has reported a profit after tax of US$ 19.4 in fiscal year 2020 at a total revenue of US$ 214.9. Both are improvements over the 2019 numbers, by 18.9% and 7.8%, respectively. A remarkable result now the aviation industry is heavily hit by the pandemic and nearly all airlines are reporting losses. 

Due to low demand, Air Antwerp has suspended their F50 service from Antwerp to London-City until 2 January 2021. 

The Australian Civil Aviation Authorities have granted permission to Virgin Australia and Alliance Airlines for cooperating on 41 regional routes and two short-haul international routes. Together these airlines operate some 50 Fokker jets. 

Congolese CAA (Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation) plans to soon dispose of their Fokker fleet. According to our data they have still two F50 in airworthy condition. 

In Sweden, Skåneflyg is a new airline preparing for operations between Kristianstad-Österlen and Stockholm, starting in summer 2021. Although the company website shows a Saab 340, a leased Fokker 50 is also mentioned as the possible aircraft of choice of the airline.

Fokker F27, Fokker 50 & Fokker 60

c/n type registration new registration comment
10121 100 OO-SVM Flanders Airlines. The Belgian registration was eventually cancelled 17 July 2020, although the aircraft had already been reregistered to F-WKPX on 25 March 1993 and was scrapped at Rotterdam in October 1993.
10300 300 FF-2 Finnish Air Force. Seen August 2020 at Porin Tekniikkaopisto technical school, Pori, Finland.
10662 400M FF-3 Finnish Air Force. Seen August 2020 at Porin Tekniikkaopisto technical school, Pori, Finland.
20109 50 OO-VLS Air Antwerp. On 6 November 2020 the aicraft was noted with the name 'Frank' applied on the nose.
20129 50 VH-FND D6-*** JMC Investments Pty Ltd. Cancelled 10 November 2020 as 'exported to Comoros'. Finally this F50 was succesfully sold, after four years of storage at Zanzibar in the full Skywest livery. We are curious to learn the new operator in Comoros.
20208 50 5Y-JWZ Jetways Airlines. Seen in service Nairobi-Wilson to Mombasa 11 Novem,ber 2020. Still all white.
20216 50F SE-LFS Amapola Flyg. Seen 30 October 2020 at Birmingham, coming from Ostrava and departing back to Malmö. It is highly unusual that the Amapola Fokkers fly outside the Nordic countries.

Fokker F28, Fokker 70 & Fokker 100

c/n type registration new registration comment
11153 3000 1250 Philippine Air Force. The active career of the presidential Fellowhip will soon end, now the Air Force has received their new Gulfstream G280 VIP transport and command and control aircraft.
11303 100 VH-FZH Virgin Australia Regional Airlines. Stored at Perth from 7 April to 16 October 2020, taped up. Reactivated 16 October 2020, replacing one of the airline's A320 that was under maintenance. It made its last scheduled flight from Geraldton to Perth on 5 November 2020 as VOZ9248. Six days later it departed Perth heading to Seletar, where Fokker Services will part it out.
11305 100 VH-FZO Virgin Australia Regional Airlines Pty. Cancelled 12 November 2020, 'no longer to be used as an aircraft'; scrapped at Avalon.
11326 100 VH-FNN Virgin Australia Regional Airlines Pty. Cancelled 12 November 2020, 'no longer to be used as an aircraft'. After all useable parts were removed, it was broken op 19 November 2020 at Seletar.
11359 100 OE-IMX Alliance Airlines Slovakia. Registration cancelled in July 2020; see picture in this edition for final fate.
11554 70 VH-NUV Alliance Airlines. Seen at Norwich 24 October 2020 in the scrapping area, missing parts. Registration cancelled 19 November 2020 as 'no longer to be used as an aircraft'.
11560 70 VH-NUY Alliance Airlines. The very last of the ex-Austrian Airlines Fokkers that were at Bratislava was delivered to Australia. It departed Bratislava 5 November 2020 as SXI2014 and arrived at Brisbane 10 November 2020, with stops at Hurgada, Muscat, Nagpur, Penang and Kupang. On 23 November 2020 it made it first revenue service, flying from Brisbane to Emerald as QQ4580.

After months of maintenance and a C-check at Carrollton, VNCE (Stichting Vliegend Nederlands Culureel Erfgoed or Flying Dutch Cultural Heritage Foundation) proudly obtained the unrestricted Standard Airworthiness Certificate issued by the United States FAA on 28 October 2020. Three days later an experienced crew flew Troopship N27FF (11668) to its new Dutch home base at Lelystad. The transatlantic delivery flight took three days and had stops at Montreal, Goose Bay and Keflavik. Due to a technical problem, the F27 had to return to Goose Bay, where the engineers rapidly solved the issue. The aircraft is still in the full livery of the US Army Golden Knights Parachute team, carrying the name ‘Excalibur’. Expectations are that it will get another livery shortly. VNCE plans to offer leisure flights over the Netherlands from next summer. (Henk Wadman; Lelystad, 3 November 2020)

 

For more than one year F50 5Y-JWH is lingering at the maintenance facility of Sturup airport. The owner is still uncertain, but might be Jetways Airlines, like the registration seems to suggest. Also the identity of the airframe is not sure, although we believe it is c/n 20124, ex SE-KTC of Amapola Flyg, which was cancelled from the Swedish register on 20 September 2019. (Andre Alders; Malmö, 16 September 2020) 

 

Peruvian ATSA Airlines has applied a revised livery to one of their F50s, OB-1770P (20280) and the aircraft now also carries a name, Don Reynaldo. (Diego Jara Ibarra; Lima, 4 November 2020)

 

Next to ex-Alpi Eagles F100 I-ALPX, which we showed in the previous Fokkernews, sistership I-ALPZ (11252) is also stored at Dinard, also in deplorable condition. (www.airline.pics; Dinard, 28 August 2020)

 

In the past summer F100 OE-IMX (11359) joined the collection of the Slávnica aircraft museum at Dubnica airport in Slovakia. Major parts like wings and engine cowlings need still to be attached. The aircraft is former Austrian Airlines OE-LVJ and was bought in 2017 by Alliance Airlines, where it became VH-UQP. It never flew for Alliance and stayed in Bratislava until it was transported to the museum (see Fokkernews #31). (Mark Curran; Dubnica, 9 August 2020)

 

Credits

All photographers, Air-Britain News, Aviator.aero, CH-Aviation, Mark Connett, Mervin Crowe, Flickr.com, FlightAware, Flightradar24, Greg Hyde, Scramble, Skyliner Henk Wadman.