There must surely also be a question about the sustainability of an E170 operation. They have 50% more seats than a Saab 2000, 124% more than an SF34 and 162% more than a J41. They must surely be flying with lots of empty seats now, and that must also be true even without competition on the route. So they would have to make decisions about reducing frequency, which won't endear them to their customers.

According to ch.aviation Eastern were supposedly accepting delivery today of the first of two leased ATR72-600's.

So they cant take disabled passengers

Flybe apologises to wheelchair user over Glasgow to Stornoway flight - BBC News

As a lot of pax are paid for by the NHS needing treatment on the mainland this is not good

But the S2000's are a similar age if not newer than many a SF340 that are still flying around whilst, I think, the S2000 remains the world's most advanced turboprop.

I did some work with Carpatair when they operated some 15 S2000's, provided they are well maintained with an appropriate spares back up they can be very reliable.

So I heard a few weeks ago that Eastern were getting rid of the Saabs because they were either expensive to operate or on expensive leases, can't remember which, and that they were getting ATR72s instead, and lo and behold today they register the first one. A couple of questions; 1) how do you replace 9x Saabs with 2x ATRs and 2) where did this order even come from? It was never announced in a press release nor does it appear to have been siphoned off Flybe's order for SAS, so what did they do? Phone ATR and ask if they had any kicking about that they could have?! :eek:

They're leased from Nordic Aviation Capital.

But wouldn't such a lease have been arranged months ago and resulted in a press release? I've never known an airline take delivery of a shiny new state-of-the-art fleet and not shout about it from the roof tops

Does this mean the LCY-IOM service operated by Eastern for BA Cityflyer won't be Saab 2000 anymore and will become ATR72 ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_2000

The piece in ch-aviation suggested that they were specifically for oil personnel charter work to Scatsa.

The a/c registered to Eastern is a new frame. Jethro has "to be based Aberdeen"

G-IACY, MSN 1448 was ferried LFBO-LFBF (for painting) on 09SEP17.

For those 'in the know' the 'IAC' part of the regn is a pretty good clue it will be in ABZ for the SCS oil flights, as IAC (integrated Aviation Consortium I think it stands for) is the conglomerate that makes use of the flights, made up of a number of oil cos and Bristow.

Thanks Richard - knew the registration was ringing bells for some reason!

Are they only getting two ATR72's? I thought there was three Saabs allocated on the Scatsta flights?
Either way I guess one should replace the Etihad one on lease

Airbus (yes airbus) owed Bristows a favour and gave them the ATR's, which they owned (airbus). Something to do with helicopters.
I hear Saab will stop supporting the 2000 in 2020. Brilliant aircraft so it will be a sad day when that happens.

How is that "Airbus gave them the ATRs" possible if the aircraft are leased from Nordic Aviation (which is majority owned by a Swedish investment fund)?

I have been told by EA staff.

Airbus owned them, for whatever reason. There was some issues with helicopters in relation to Bristows. As a deal, airbus gave the ATR's to Bristows/Eastern for the Shetland operation. EA needed a replacement for the Saab so I suppose it's a win win for everyone.

The financials, I obviously know nothing about.

The ATRs will be 'ring fenced' for the integrated IAC contract that Bristow lead with Eastern as a contractor to BRS. I would find it highly unlikely they will be bombing around doing anything else as the IAC will expect these aircraft to be available for Scatsta services (with a back up Saab).

You can't underestimate the importance that Bristow place on the IAC contract and rightfully so.

Its a significant part of their revenue and it's the jewel in the crown of all the offshore contracts in the UKCS.

Unfortunately for BRS the make up of the IAC is about to radically change as the bigger companies sell on their assets to companies who are not traditional BRS clients. Babcock and Loganair are being positively encouraged to sniff about and that could be disaterous for BRS and as a consequence EA.

With renewal not being far off it's in both companies interest to pull out all the stops to keep it. With the well documented losses and share price plummet over the last few years, loose the IAC contract and its not worth thinking about for BRS and as a consequence EA.

It's a perfect storm for EA no matter what you think of them they would be getting absolute dogs abuse if they hadn't taken on the FlyBe work, coupled that with the ATR introduction and it's not ideal, but it's vital that priorities don't get skewed.

They are both going to have to be VERY careful that irrevocable damage isn't done as gaps have started appearing in the Scatsta schedule as the program gets stretched and you can't imagine that hasn't gone unnoticed by the IAC.

The negative press around early FlyBe disruption and cancelling scheduled flights with senior oil co execs on board isn't helping either.

I've read a lot of stuff recently that's patently not true about the relationship between the two companies, there are lots of parts of both EA and BRS that are good and other parts not so, but loose the IAC contract and it's serious serious stuff for both companies.

Lets hope they can work through it.

Darwin Airlines
 

I see Eastern Airways web site saying Darwin Airlines now operating IOM-Newcastle via Belfast on a SAAB 2000. Does anybody know why the change?