Australian Aircraft Sales Expand Fokker Fleet

Meanwhile, AAS has taken over marketing the six TAA F. 27s that are available following the carrier’s gradual withdrawal from turboprop operations. AAS believe they will sell quickly and at a premium price, owing to the high Australian standards of maintenance. Additionally, all six have large cargo doors and reinforced floors which make them ideal candidates for use in the rapidly expanding night small parcel freight system of North America.

Fokkers played a big part in a successful 1983 for AAS. Though the company did not record its biggest-ever sales it did shift a near-record number of aircraft. In fact, at one time during 1983 AAS owned twelve F. 27s which made it the world’s largest owner of the type. These were primarily New Zealand registered aircraft (ZK-NAV, NAF, NAA, NAB, NAN, NAH, BXE & BXF), while they also owned VH-TFW, TFM and TOO. Looking at this impressive inventory it is not difficult to see why AAS is often referred to as the hidden giant of the aviation world.

AAS have dry-leased their fourth DC-9, VH-TJJ, for a two-year period to TAA, and also have two DC-8-50s on dry-lease to International Air Charter, Miami, through their Washington DC Office. AAS now control 100% of the stock in American Airlines Sales Inc. , Washington DC, which has been operating for the past 17 years.

John Conley, managing director of AAS, has appointed James Cunningham Snr, Vice President of American Aircraft Sales Inc. Total sales for the US company exceeded 64 million US dollars for the year ending December 1983.

Fokkers are not the only types sold by AAS though. Readers of our in-depth profile on AAS in the September 1983 edition of Australian Aviation will be aware that they have been selling surplus Ansett and TAA airliners since the heady days of the fifties. More recently AAS have been responsible for selling (as owners) all of the available DC-9s as operated by TAA. AAS, in fact, has the remaining DC-9-30 fleet on its list with available delivery dates slated for the first half of 1986. AAS see the active sellers of the next decade being aircraft in the DC-9, 737 and F. 27 category. Newly formed second-level airlines throughout the world are keen to break into this market and they can usually get several years of operation out of such an aircraft before a heavy maintenance visit is required. In fact all AAS sold aircraft must comply fully with the DofA requirements for Certification and are thus one hundred per cent fully airworthy when they depart our shores.

In the meantime though, if you want a good used Fokker, you know where to go!