Fokkernews April 2022 (issue 52)

General news

Niger Airlines seems to have bought two F50 for replacing the two that were on long-term lease from Palestinian Airlines. One is 5U-NAA (20313) that recently underwent maintenance in Sweden, the other is still not identified. 

Virgin Australia Regional Airlines will retire its entire F100 fleet (still 10 in operation) and replace them with larger and more fuel-efficient Boeing 737-700s. A time schedule was not yet announced.

Fokker F27, Fokker 50 & Fokker 60

c/n type registration new registration
10295 400 5Y-SEP Astral Aviation. Seen at Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta 11 April 2022, stored, all white.
10369 500 5Y-GMC Astral Aviation. Seen at Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta 15 April 2022, stored, all white.
10370 500F 5Y-CCE Cargo2Fly. Seen Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta airport 15 April 2022 in basic Falcon Express colors without titles.
10378 500 5Y-GMD Astral Aviation. Seen at Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta 15 April 2022, stored, all white.
10448 500 5Y-JUU Astral Aviation. Seen at Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta 15 April 2022, stored, all white.
10530 500CRF 5X-FFD Fly540.com. Seen Nairobi-Wilson 10 April 2022, broken up.
10550 500CRF 5Y-SEC Safari Express Cargo. Seen at Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta 15 April 2022, stored, all white.
10625 500 PK-MFV Merpati. Back in November 2020, Merpati Maintenance facility donated an as yet unidentified F27 to the museum of the Indonesian Naval Aviation Service (TNI-AL), their neigbour at Surabaya-Juanda airport. The all-white Friendship is parked on the platform and is visible on Google Earth (-7.383654, 112.781468). Also an F27 fuselage was donated, which is unidentified as well. TNI-AL ordered 3 F27s in 1979, but the order was cancelled for political reasons. One F27 has been in Navy service for 2 months, on lease from the Indonesian Air Force. We have some indications that the donated aircraft involved might be PK-MFV, but need confirmation.
10634 500F 9Q-CNL XL Trading. Noted broken up at Juba airport 11 April 2022.
20103 50E 5Y-DDI Silverstone Air Services. Noted active at Juba 11 April 2022, all white.
20110 50 5Y-SKN Orient Aviation Services. Seen Nairobi-Wilson 10-04-2022 in full c/s.
20114 50 5Y-CHK Skyward International? Seen Nairobi-Wilson 10 April 2022, all white without titles, so apparently the lease to Royal Air has ended.
20116 50 5Y-SVN Rudufu. Seen Nairobi-Wilson airport 10 April 2022, broken up, registration overpainted.
20120 50 5Y-RNG Aerojet Aviation Ltd. Seen in service Juba 12 April 2022, in full livery.
20124 50E 5Y-JJJ As yet unknown South Sudanese operator. Seen parked at Juba airport 11 April 2022 with large 'To Book Dial Or +211 922 247 247' titles on fuselage and a bird logo on the tail.
20129 50 D6-MOH Kush Air. Seen at Juba airport 11 April 2022 in new red and blue livery without titles. Also noted 12 April 2022 at Bentiu airstrip, Northern South Sudan.
20130 50 5Y-CIW Bush Air Safaris. Seen at Juba airport 11 April 2022, all white.
20137 50 5Y-VVG Busy Bee Congo. Made the first revenue flight on 24 March 2022 from Goma to Kindu.
20151 50 5Y-IFL I-Fly. Seen active at Nairobi-Wilson 10 April 2022.
20163 50 HP-1794PST Air Panama. On 19 December 2021 during flight 7P684 from Panama City to Changuinola, smoke was observed in the cabin. The crew diverted to Bocas del Toro and made a safe landing. None of the 48 persons on board was injured. The smoke was caused by a short circuit in a light panel and further investigation is ongoing.
20177 50 5Y-SMT Maandeeq Air. Seen at Nairobi-Wilson 10 April 2022.
20191 50F 5Y-JWG Jetways. Seen 10 April 2022 at Nairobi-Wilson, stored. The tail was overpainted all-red, so the nice former Miniliner aircraft tail has disappeared. The rudder was missing.
20197 50F 5Y-JWB Renegade Air. Seen Juba 11 April 2022 in service with 'Fokker 50 Cargo' titles on green large cargo door left side, right side is all white.
20207 50 5Y-GIG Bush Air Safaris. Seen stored at Nairobi-Wilson 10 April 2022.
20209 50 5Y-JWX Jetways. Seen 10 April 2022 at Nairobi-Wilson, all white and stored.
20249 50 5Y-FAS Freedom Airline Express. Seen 10 April 2022 at Nairobi-Wilson in the new livery.
20282 502 5Y-FAI Freedom Airline Express. Seen at Nairobi-Wilson airport 10 April 2022 in the new livery, but without registration on both sides.
20313 50 5U-NAA Niger Airlines. After two months' maintenance the aircraft eventually made a successful testflight on 30 March 2022 and departed Malmö the day after for returning home; it nightstopped in Djerba, Tunisia.
20333 50 5Y-CGX Kush Air. Seen 10 April 2022 at Nairobi-Wilson airport, stored without engines.

Fokker F28, Fokker 70 & Fokker 100

c/n type registration new registration comment
11229 4000 5Y-EEE FlySAX. Noted 11 April 2022 in the storage area of Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta airport.
11307 100 5Y-SIA Salaam Air Express. Seen 15 April 2022 stored at cargo apron of Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta, in full colors.
11369 100 YR-FKB Carpatair. Since 31 March 2022 this F100 is operating in Sweden between Arvidsjaur, Gallivare and Stockholm on behalf of Nordica, using their NDA designator for flight numbers.
11477 100 EP-FQJ Qeshm Air. After more than two years in storage, the aircraft returned to active service recently.
11493 100 PH-ABW Air Hollandia. The remains of this F100 were transported on 26 April 2022 from Maastricht airport to Fenix Recycling, a dismantling company close to Brustem (Sint Truiden) airport in Belgium, for final disassembly.
11557 70ER KAF308 Kenya Goverment. Seen 11 April 2022 at Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta.
11581 70 5Y-JWF Jetways. Seen at Juba and Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta 13 April 2022, all white and operating for Premier Airlines.

In Fokkernews 44 we reported on former Miniliner F27 I-MLRT (10377), which was being transformed into a luxury hotel suite. This project is now finished and the suite recently opened for guests. The aircraft is externally freshly painted in white with titles and logo; notably the name of the hotel is painted on top of the wings. (Naturooms.com; Brembate di Sopra, February 2022)

 

The world’s oldest F50 still in active service is 5Y-DDI of Silverstone Air Service (20103). It was one of the first F50s converted to freighter and as common in East Africa, it is all white. (André Alders; Juba, 11 April 2022)

 

One of the newest F50 operators is Orient Aviation Services that flies with 5Y-SKN (20110) out of South Sudan since December 2021. This aircraft has titles and a nice tail logo. (DS Aviation on Facebook; Juba, 14 December 2021)

 

A second new airline with home base in Juba is Aerojet Aviation Limited, that is operating 5Y-RNG (20120), which also sports a full livery. (André Alders; Juba, 12 April 2022)

 

Another new operator in South Sudan is still unknown to us. On F50 5Y-JJJ (20124) they have applied large titles with their telephone number and the aircraft also carries a small tail logo. Who has more information on this airline? (André Alders; Juba, 12 April 2022)

 

Kush Airlines has applied a new livery, but no titles, to their F50 D6-MOH (20129), which until recently still had the tail colors of Australian Skywest Airlines. (André Alders; Juba, 12 April 2022)

 

Renegade Air’s cargo F50 5Y-JWB (20197) has a large green cargo door with ‘Fokker 50 Cargo’ titles on the left-hand side (see Fokkernews 48), while the right-hand side is all white. (André Alders; Juba, 13 April 2022).

 

On 27 March an F50 with Karun Air titles was transported from Ahwaz airport to a new location in front of a shopping mall in Ahwaz, Iran. It was towed through the city on its own wheels, but without wings. The aircraft, which sports the unofficial registration EP-YPZ, appears to be former EP-NFD (20234) and was bought from Aria Airlines in 2015, but never actually flew for Naft or Karun Airlines; it was only  used for spares. As there is insufficient space at the shopping mall it is believed that the wings will not be reattached. (MohammadReza Zeinloo; Ahwaz, 28 March 2022)

 

Technical issues delayed the delivery flight of Niger Airlines 5U-NAA (20313) back home after heavy maintenance with Amapola Flyg in Malmö. This provided a welcome opportunity viewing the aircraft in daylight during an engine test. (Carsten Lundsten; Malmö, 29 March 2022)

 

Alliance Airlines has applied decals to VH-UQC (11468) advertising for three hotels located at Brisbane airport. (Gareth Ruhe Aviation Photography on Facebook; Brisbane, 17 April 2022)

 

Credits

All photographers named above, Air-Britain News, AirlineRatings.com, André Alders, ASNAR-RDC, ATDB Newsletter, Aviation Herald, Aviator.aero, FlightAware, Walter de Groot, Greg Hyde, Skyliner, Jacques Vooren, Willem Westerhof.