Regional airline Helvetic Airways has found a buyer for the remaining Fokker 100 of its fleet, the Australian company Alliance Aviation Services, which has closed a deal for five jets and its spare parts.
The Fokker 100 had been withdrawn from operation on the Swiss airline on June 14 after 16 years of service. Helvetic debuted in aviation in 2003 with the Dutch jet, from which it had nine aircraft.
Currently, the company has 11 Embraer E190 with capacity for 112 passengers against 100 seats of the Fokker. Helvetic, however, is expected to receive its first E190-E2, the newest generation of the Embraer jet, by the end of 2019.
In September last year, the Swiss airline signed a contract with Embraer for 12 E190-E2 units plus the right to buy another 12 aircraft, with the possibility of converting them to the more capable E195-E2 variant.
Largest fleet of Fokker aircraft
Alliance Aviation Services has drawn attention to the interest in airplanes manufactured by Fokker. The Australian company provides so-called “Fly-in Fly-out” (FIFO) services to companies that need to move their employees to distant locations. Its main clients are miners and oil companies in Australia.
Since acquiring its first Fokker, Alliance Aviation Services has already accumulated a fleet of five Fokker 50, 10 Fokker 70 and 23 Fokker 100 turboprop fleets, considered to be the largest in the world.
Even after was declared bankrupt in 1996, Fokker still has a respectable amount of its commercial aircraft flying in the world, but even in the Netherlands, its country of origin, KLM had already decided to retire them, in this case, also by the Brazilian airplane.
