Originally Posted by
dr dre
The million dollar question - what could possibly replace them? There’s no new production turboprops in the under 36 seat range anymore. The closest is the ATR-42 with 48 seats. What could possibly replace the Saab?
Weren't many of these ports served, from way back in time, 1960s-70s-80s, by 48-seat Fokker F27s. Running on low frequency, and commonly serving two or three points per flight, but that's the aircraft size traditionally used.
For the trunk routes operation, I seem to recall Reg Ansett saying, again back in the 1960s-70s, that the Australian market was incapable of supporting more than two mainstream domestic carriers. Stanley Brogden described this in his book on the Two-Airline policy. There's a consistent record of a third contender coming along, then by various means it falling back to two again, going right back to ANA, TAA and upstart Ansett in the 1950s.