Originally Posted by
rog747
S19 Chopper Ops canned due low bookings
Skybus would have been better to go for a bigger fixed wing aircraft - ?
The 50 seater Dash 7 of Brymon was earmarked for the ISC route in 1980 when I handled with them at LHR, but was deemed too big back then when the island airport was still fledgling.
Today with the new longer hard runway they would have been real people movers and possibly even served a London direct service
Following on from a discussion on Pprune rotor heads I thought here would be better to share...
I think at the time (1981?) it was thought the DASH 7 could go anywhere
where the Twotter could, but St Mary's then, was found to be out of limits - I think there was one test fight with Brymon. Capt Harry Gee iirc. But they were not happy.
Today I think with it's hard longer runway built in 1991 a DASH 7 would be fine, but they are old and almost out of service, and I guess ISC would need upgraded to add security Etc and other needs to operate a 35 - 50 pax aircraft.
These costs and extra personnel would likely be not cost effective,
unless some sort of exemption could be allowed for ISC?
Not sure is the smaller DASH 8 -100 or a -300 would be permitted for ISC with it's 600m - ?
Edit
re DASH performance
The Dash 8 design has better cruise performance than the Dash 7, is less expensive to operate, and is much less expensive to maintain, due largely to having only two engines. It is a little noisier than the Dash 7 and cannot match the STOL performance of its earlier DHC forebears, although it is still able to operate from small airports with runways less than 3,000 ft long, compared to the 2,000 ft required by a fully laden Dash 7.
Tyrolean Dash 7's and 8's and Olympic Dash 8 did send theirs to tiny Greek island airports - Paros (old airport 720m) and Kastelorizo (800m) but am sure the DASH 8's were payload limited.
Great video here of DASH 7 ops into old Paros around 1985 (New Paros airport built 2015 with 1400m)
Go in at 7m 00s to see the airport and landing and take off etc of a Tyrolean DASH 7 (full flight) in 1985 at Paros OLD airport
I think Tyrolean operated back to Austria via another Greek island to pick up fuel
Just read that last summer Travel Service (SmartWings) Boeing 737-700 flew in and out at Paros via Preveza !!!
The direct charter flights (Tuesday and Friday), from June 2018 . The
Prague-Paros route will be served by a Boeing 737-700 with a capacity for 120 passengers. It will distribute tourists from four Czech travel agencies to the islands of Paros and Naxos.
First flight had 88 pax