Eastern Airways ATR72s & back to the future
Looks like oil workers will be flying to/from Scatsta on ATR72-600s shortly.
Reading the Eastern thread, they have two on order, first one (to be registered G-IACY) just arrived in the UK for painting - wonder what sort of livery they will have. Both are slated to be based in ABZ.
These will displace some if not all of the S2000s oil flights, indeed some suggestions that T3 may phase out use of the type altogether. A shame as whilst I am not privy to their reliability, they seem to be well-suited to Shetland flights, as with its smaller brother the S340. Sadly Saab are not in the civilian market anymore, so I guess it becomes increasingly difficult to service airframes that are not getting any younger.
It's a kind of 'back to the future' as I recall British World using
2x ATR70-200s to Shetland in the late 90s (regns G-OILA & G-OILB if anyone is old enough to remember them!). As I recall, these replaced the venerable Viscount 800s, but they themselves didn't last that long, being replaced by ATPs before Brit World themselves succumbed post 9/11 to be replaced by 146s of Flightline.