Austrian Airlines has concluded an agreement with the Australian leading provider of fly-in, fly-out transportation, Alliance Aviation Services Limited, to sell its entire fleet of Fokker aircraft.
The Austrian Airlines Fokker fleet consists of 15 Fokker 100 and six Fokker 70 planes, a total of 21 aircraft. The sale of the Fokker aircraft will rejuvenate the mediumhaul fleet of Austrian Airlines. The Fokker aircraft will be replaced step by step as of January 2016 by nearly-new Embraer 195 jets.
The purchase price for the Fokker aircraft is USD 15 million, and will comprise an issue of new shares in Alliance and a cash component. Austrian Airlines will gradually terminate its use of the Fokker jets and deliver them to Alliance Aviation in the period December 2015 to December 2017. Deployment of the Embraer aircraft will take place simultaneously. The Embraer jets currently have an average age of four years (built 2009-2012), compared to the average age of about 21 years of the Fokker fleet. “The replacement of the Fokker fleet with Embraer aircraft will serve to significantly rejuvenate our fleet and offer Austrian Airlines better unit costs”, explains Austrian Airlines CEO Kay Kratky.
Alliance Aviation has a fleet of 15 Fokker 100 and eight Fokker 70 jet planes, and says it is the largest global operator of these types of aircraft. The company operates bases in Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland. For many years it has been a customer of Austrian Technik Bratislava, which specializes in the repair and maintenance of Fokker aircraft. A long-term service agreement between Alliance Aviation and Austrian Technik Bratislava was just concluded in the spring of 2015.