FOKKERnews
 May 2009

This page contains recent news items related to the Fokker F27 (including Fokker 50 & Fokker 60) and Fokker F28 (including Fokker 70 & Fokker 100). Also the Fairchild models F-27 & FH-227 are part of the news section. The news items are printed in reverse chronological order. News items older than a month are moved to the archive (not yet active). For reactions on the contents or sharing news updates please contact the editor: fransvanzelm[at]airnieuws.nl


Name VLM Airlines will disappear
VLM Airlines will be renamed into CityJet, an other subsidiary of the Air France-KLM group. Air France-KLM has announced the coming name change in London on Thursday 28 May. The name VLM will disappear slowly and in 2010 all aircraft will fly under the name of the Irish operator CityJet. Both companies will continue flying under their own operator certificate (AOC). VLM was taken over by Air France-KLM from Panta Holdings in 2008.
[29 May 2009]

TAM museum "The Wings of a Dream" will display two Fokker aircraft
This famous aviation museum, created by TAM at S'o Carlos, is about to display veteran F27 Mark 600 PT-LAF (10177). VICA Airlines was in 1997 the last operator but suspended its operations after only a few charter flights. This converted Mark 200 was subsequently abandoned at Sao Paulo/Guarulhos and flew never again. On 4 March 2009 the dismantled fuselage and the center wing (with the outerwings still attached) were separately loaded onto two large trailers and transported to the museum. After restoration, to be carried out by TAM, the first Fokker F27 for "Museu Asas De Um Sonho" will be displayed in yet unknown colours. Currently the musem is closed for reorganisation but will re-open in the second part of this year. Also Fokker 100 with msn 11441 will become available for the museum and this all white aircraft was already seen on 26 April at S'o Carlos parked in the open air, unfortunately without its registration
PT-MRL visible. This a/c has made an emergency landing at S'o Carlos - Viracopos in August 2002 and was written off. [17 May 2009]

The wingsection of PT-LAF during its transport to the TAM museum at S'o Carlos.
(Carlos Hilgenberg, 4 March 2009)

Special thanks to Marcelo Bordim for the additonal information. See also bordim.fot.br

Budget airliner Yeongnam Air has stopped already
Yeongnam Air was launched in July 2007 but had to stop its operation in December 2008 due to financial difficulty and went into bankruptcy. Too much competion between the nine low budget operators currently active in relatively small South Korea is believed the main reason of the collapse. The sole Fokker 100 HL7774 (11293) was delivered in October 2007 from Amsterdam after painting and is owned by Mass Holding. The Fokker 100 was last seen parked at Seoul/Gimpo during December 2008. The South Korean registration has been cancelled on 8 April 2009 while Dutch registration PH-MJO was reserved on 7 May by Mass Holding. The South Korean operator was based at Busan in the Yeongnam area (the North and South Gyeongsang Province) and operated the Busan-Incheon and Busan-Jeju routes and to Seoul. Yeongnam Air did have plans to aquire two to three more Fokker 100's. [16 May 2009]

   HL7774 was only for a short period active. (Dongho Kim, Seoul/Gimpo, 17 August 2008)

Air Baltic continues Fokker 50 wet-lease
With the arrival of TF-JMN (20223) at Riga on 13 May 2009 Air Baltic, Corporation A/S has continued to use a Flugf'lag 'slands Fokker 50 to cover the coming summer period. The next day previous wet-leased TF-JMS (20244) departed from Riga on return to Reykjavik ending the lease which had started in August last year. [15 May 2009]

   TF-JMS at Oslo in only white colours. (Hans Hoffmann, 15 April 2009)

Sirte Oil Company merged into Petro Air
Petro Air is a newly formed, fully Libyan owned and operated aviation service provider. The company is the product of merging the assets of four oil company's aviation departments, Sirte, Waha, Zuetina and Veba. The current fleet includes 9 DHC-6-300 Twin Otters, 2 DHC-8-300 series Dash 8's, one Fokker F28 and one Embraer EMB-170. Fokker F28 5A-DSO (11110) arrived 9 May at Fokker Services Woensdrecht for maintenance and departed again 19 May, still in Sirte Oil colours. This Fellowship is the last active Mark 2000 in the world and only ten of these models were produced between 1972 and 1976. The first operator of this stretched Mark 1000 with 79 seats was Nigeria Airways with six orders to replace the F27 on the domestic and regional services. In fact, all produced Mark 2000 Fellowships were ordered by African operators including Ghana Airways and Air Gabon. [12 May 2009] [updated 19 May]

   F28 5A-DSO in its latest Sirte Oil c/s heading for Fokker Services at Woensdrecht.
  (Frank Specker, Friedrichshafen, 9 May 2009)

F27 N19XD finally on the move to Africa
19th Hole Corporation has sold N19XD (10372) to a yet unknown operator at Nairobi/Wilson, Kenya. The Mark 500 in freighter configuration, previously known as N708FE and operated by Empire Airlines, Inc., was ferried 3-6 May Coeur D'Alene-Fargo-Thunder Bay-Moosonee-Kuujjuaq-Iqaluit-Narsarsuaq-Keflavik-Wick and Kemble. On Thursday 7 May the Friendship continued for Verona-Athens-Hurghada en-route to Kenya. Quite a long trip for such an old lady! [8 May 2009] [additional information about the unknown operator is much appreciated, please contact the editor]








Special thanks goes to Graham Wasey of Leading Edge Aviation Photography for supplying various pictures of N19XD. See also grahamwasey.fotopic.net

   N19XD arriving at Kemble for yet another nightstop. (Graham Wasey/LEAP, 6 May 2009)

Aircraft Financing and Trading has sold another Fokker 100 to Iran
The recently returned off lease Fokker 100 F-GLIR (11509) of R'gional, S.A. has been sold to Iranian Air Transport (IAT) on 1 May. After a maintenance period at Fokker Services Woensdrecht and painting done at Norwich the all white Fokker 100 departed from Woensdrecht on 6 May as EP-OPI being the second Fokker 100 for IAT after the delivery of EP-AWZ (11497) in September 2008. [7 May 2009]

19th Hole Corporation to take more Fokker F27's
The broker from Bath, UK has bought on 25 March 2009 the last five active F27's of the FedEx operators Empire Airlines and Mountain Air Cargo. On 15 April 2009 the company reserved the following registrations : N19AQ (10350), N19AU (10420), N19AY (10615), N19NN (10385) & N19QQ (10349). [7 May 2009]