The Fokker 50 Enters Australian Service

For the airline the improvements are just as dramatic. Once the type is bedded into service, and the inevitable teething troubles are overcome, it will generally require considerably less maintenance manhours per flight hour over its aged parent, the venerable Friendship. Maintenance itself will also be simpler and more speedily undertaken due to the modular design of much of the avionics, systems and of course the Pratt & Whitney of Canada PW100 series engines.

The Ansett Fokker 50s will also be equipped with the standard Ansett Atlas galley system which will for the first time give them catering commonality with the mainline jet fleet. On the surface, this may not sound that relevant but in an organisation as large and diversified as Ansett this commonality will allow Air NSW to upgrade its in-flight service as and when required to better meet head-on any regional competitor.

From the pilot’s viewpoint, the 50 is also a dream. Small winglets have greatly lightened up the aileron input and overall have given the new Fokker better handling characteristics than its forebear. The highly automated flight deck with 4 CRTs also greatly contributes to a vastly reduced aircrew workload. In the words of one Air NSW left seater, “The aircraft has gone from being probably the most difficult to fly to the easiest in one fell swoop.

Most importantly though, the 50 typically burns around 30% less fuel per sector than does the F27. Combined with an average 30kt cruise speed advantage, this effectively reduces Direct Operating Costs (DOCs) considerably and eventually facilitates a better spread of schedules throughout the day with the potential for the inclusion of a ‘bonus’ sector due to the higher cruise speed and potentially faster turnaround time that the new propjet allows. As an indication of the degree of improvement in fuel burn it is worth noting that the 50 will ferry some 2200nm (min payload) as against a mere 1500nm for the F27 with the same fuel uplift! This of course allows the airline to pioneer new long ranging non stop routes that ordinarily would not have been available to it.

Mr Jon Hutchinson, General Manager for Air NSW has consequently stated that the airline is looking to commence a non stop Melbourne/Coffs Harbour service in addition to a Sydney/Gladstone service. Both the runs would come in at just under three hours flight time and would be speedier and more convenient than using the usual high cost jet services via a city hub. The airline is also looking to link other ports in a similar manner in order to better diversify its base route structure from the purely NSW rural services of a decade ago.

Meanwhile, Ansett’s longest serving F27, the -200 Series VH-MMS, retired on October 19 after logging 69,982 flight hours, 64,393 landings and having carried some 1,854,518 passengers in its 19 year life with the Group. Air NSW were scheduled to have 4 Fokker 50s in service by January 1988. In all, 10 will be imported for Ansett’s national services, 5 will be managed by Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services and an additional 7 are destined for Ansett’s US-based Corsair leasing division. It appears inevitable that eventually some of these aircraft will filter into the newly acquired East-West Airlines fleet where their potential benefits will be just as important to that carrier as they are for Ansett themselves.

The Fokker 50 will usher in a new era of regional project services and is more than an appropriate successor to one of the world’s great airliners – the F27 Friendship.