Alliance buys more F100s

[Kent Broadhead]

Flightglobal has reported that Alliance has signed a letter of intent to buy 8 more F100s from an unnamed European source.

From what I can see, when delivered, this will make Alliance the largest F100 operator worldwide, and the second largest Fokker operator (25, after KLMCityhopper's 32 F70s)

Kent

[Bruce Bramwell]

Germania aircraft

[Jarden S]

Alliance Airlines mining connections for Cairns Airport
Thursday, March 18, 2010
© The Cairns Post


CHARTER company Alliance Airlines has announced it will open an operations base at Cairns airport from May.

The base will operate two Fokker 100 jets from Cairns and employ 20 people, including 14 flight staff and three engineers.

Alliance Airlines works closely with the mining industry but also does some tourism work and has ferried the North Queensland Cowboys on occasion.

It already has bases in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Townsville and now Cairns.

Alliance general manager commercial, Ken Crawford, said the new base would help tap into the resources boom in northern Australia.

"We saw excellent organic growth from the resources industry, but on top of that there’s very exciting developments in New Guinea and the mining regions of Far North Queensland and the Northern Territory," he said.

"The population base of Cairns, its resources and infrastructure, ideally lends itself to be the next expansion point of Alliance Airlines."

The Fokker 100 aircraft have 100 seats and can fly up to 2500km or for three and a half hours, putting Cairns in range of Western Australia, Adelaide and the Solomon Islands.

Cairns Airport boss Stephen Gregg welcomed the announcement.

"This is great news for the local economy and will bring with it excellent job and business development opportunities," he said.

Meanwhile, the first of a three week trial of daily direct flights from Guam arrived at 12.30am yesterday.

While the exact number of passengers on the Continental Micronesia Boeing 737-800 was unavailable, the jet carries a maximum of 155 passengers and the extra flights are due to seasonal demand

[Bob C]

Hi Bruce

Another report I've read mentioned that the aircraft are coming from US Airways so I don't know which report is correct.

And it appears that two will be leased for short terms in Europe with all to be in Australia by Christmas.

Reports have appeared in "The Australian" and Flight Global.

[lloyd fox]

Bob Hi, they are EX US AIR machines that have been operating in Europe.

They most likely will be Germania

Article below

> From: The Australian
> March 24, 2010 12:00AM
> BRISBANE-BASED resource aviation specialist Alliance Airlines is
> undergoing
> its biggest expansion since 2002 thanks to the return of the mining boom.
> Eight more Fokker-100 jets, acquired from a European vendor, are due to be
> delivered from May.
> This will leave Alliance with a fleet of 19 of the 100-seat workhorse
> twinjets, in addition to its fleet of six Fokker-50 turboprops.
> The ex-US Airways planes will allow the company to expand its nationwide
> fly-in, fly-out contracts as the resource sector hits its stride after
> being
> interrupted by the global financial crisis.
> The airline recently announced it would open a new base in Cairns, in
> addition to existing operations in Brisbane, Townsville, Perth and
> Adelaide.
> It is expected to create more than 60 new jobs for plots and cabin crew as
> well as additional engineering positions.
> The F100s have proved popular with fly-in, fly-out operators because of
> their lower capital costs, reliability and ability to operate in hot
> weather.
> The planes have a range of up to 3167km -- about 3.5 hours flying time --
> and Alliance uses them on what is believed to be the world's longest
> fly-in,
> fly-out route between Brisbane and Telfer in Western Australia.
> Alliance also uses them for adhoc charters for governments and
> organisations
> such as sporting groups, but does not provide scheduled airline services.
> Alliance managing director Scott McMillan said the airline had worked with
> its customers during the downturn to reduce costs and was now looking to
> capitalise on renewed growth in Australia and neighbouring countries.
> He said the investment was a vote of confidence in the future of the
> region's resources sector that demonstrated Alliance's commitment to
> supporting the industry.
> The new planes would give it extra capacity to increase operations for
> existing clients as well as expand into new markets.
> "Basically, through the GFC there was obviously no growth," he said. "But
> every single customer we have is talking about new services and some have
> already committed to them.
> "So there's a fair bit of organic growth now."
> Two of the F100s will go to the new Cairns base while others would cater
> for
> growth in Brisbane and particularly Western Australia, Mr McMillan said.
> He said the airline was looking at short-term leases, possibly in Europe,
> for two or three of the aircraft, but he expected all eight planes to be
> in
> Australia by the end of the year.
>
>

[Damian N]

How many F-100s would that make based in Australia? Network has 2(?). Skywest - 6?

[Raymond Rowe]

Will all of the rego's be in the FK block

[Bob C]

Hi Damian

Twenty three (23) F100s are registered in Australia at present ; 11 to Alliance, 9 to Skywest and 3 to Network, although one of the latter may not have flown since being imported.

[Robert Zweck]

Originally Posted by Damian N

How many F-100s would that make based in Australia? Network has 2(?). Skywest - 6?

http://www.16right.com/GetRego.php?M...&submit=Search

[lloyd fox]

Thanks Robert,

VH-FKL should be out next month and flying.