GKN Aerospace announced on Wednesday the sale of Fokker Services and Fokker Techniek to PANTA Holdings for undisclosed amounts. The two companies were divisions of the famous Dutch planemaker, which went bankrupt in 1996.
The investment group, which has been active in aviation for some time, is also the largest shareholder in AvCorp, a supplier of airframe components, and the Netherlands Aircraft Corporation (NAC ), former Rekkof, a start-up created to launch updated versions of the Fokker jets.
According to the statement, the companies will continue to offer maintenance and support services not only for Fokker aircraft but for other manufacturers and “will continue to invest in technology innovations, advanced processes and engineering excellence to play a leading role in the aerospace aftermarket.”
The companies also announced their new executives, Roland van Dijk and Menzo van der Beek.
Fokker jets back?
The merging of several assets of the former Fokker under the same roof reinforces the hypothesis of a relaunch of the production of regional planes, a goal long sought by NAC.
When it went bankrupt 25 years ago, Fokker ended up dismembered and part of it became the Stork Aerospace Group, which took over the aerostructure, landing gear, engineering and maintenance divisions. The company later changed its name to Fokker Technologies and still provides services to the airframer’s aircraft fleet today.
At the same time, a more ambitious initiative was intended to restart production of the Fokker 70 and Fokker 100 models, the Rekkof (Fokker written backwards). Years later, the company changed its name to Netherlands Aircraft Corporation and has since planned to launch the Fokker 130, a larger and updated version of the regional jetliner with a capacity of 130 seats and a range of 2,000 nm (3,700 km).
It is worth mentioning that NAC has all the production tools for Fokker’s planes while the two newly acquired companies share enormous technical knowledge, in addition to several customers in the world such as the Australian Alliance Airlines.
Fokker Services is based where the former manufacturer once operated, currently a logistics park next to Amsterdam’s Schipol airport.
