Sqwak7700
Saab 2000 is absolutely the worst aircraft in its class in terms of pax comfort. Especially you can't get advantage of its speed on the short sectors and have to find routes which are 1) long enough 2) pax don't care.
Engines are most unreliable of whatever you can find on todays turboprops except CT7 which powers Saab 340. Maintenance costs are sky high both airframe and engines.
Operators "preferring" Saab 2000 to ATR72 and q400 simply have no money to get anything better (and btw this is wrong comparison, you should think along fokker 50, atr42 and dash8-300 line which are all 50 seaters). Saabs 2000s are very cheap to lease or buy these days, recently there was a portfolio transaction involving a bunch of them and I can tell you a single q400 would cost you more to buy.
and jackx123, anyone who ever been signing the checks to pay saab 340 or saab 2000 maintenance would never smile about this junk. So did I. what's about you?
I'm not following this but I believe this year there will be no original 1st tier operators remaining for either type. This tells a lot about SF340 if you think that there is no replacement in 33-36 seat category.
Last edited by CargoOne; 26th May 2012 at 18:48.