Alan Dron
Austrian Airlines will sell its entire fleet of Fokker 70 and 100 short-haul airliners to Australian carrier Alliance Aviation Services Ltd (AAS).
AAS is a prominent player in the fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) market, where personnel working at remote sites in enterprises such as mining or construction are transported by air to and from their workplace.
Austrian’s Fokker fleet consists of 15 F100s and six of the smaller F70s. AAS already has a fleet of 15 F100s and eight F70s, and says it is the largest global operator of the type. It operates bases in Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland.
It is paying $15 million for the Austrian aircraft, which it will pay for through a combination of cash and a new share issue in AAS.
The sale of the Fokkers will go hand-in-hand with the arrival at Austrian of a batch of second-hand Embraer E195s from Lufthansa CityLine. Austrian will start delivery of the Fokkers to AAS in December 2015, through to December 2017.
The Embraers were built between 2009-2012 and have an average current age of four years, compared to the average age of about 21 years of the Fokker fleet. The replacement program “will serve to significantly rejuvenate our fleet and offer Austrian Airlines better unit costs,” Austrian Airlines CEO Kay Kratky said.
AAS has had a long-running relationship with Austrian Technik Bratislava, which specializes in the repair and maintenance of Fokker aircraft. A long-term service agreement between AAS and Austrian Technik Bratislava was concluded in spring 2015.
Austrian Airlines' Fokker fleet goes Down Under | Airframes content from ATWOnline
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