Ercos
29th Dec 2010, 08:34
I've been working for a while on non-scheduled air service in Oceania and have a bit of a dilemma. The contracts my company would like to fill really requires two aircraft, one with a stage length (range) of 2000 nm or more and the other requiring operations into and out of a 3000 ft field. These are actually two different operations, with the stage length for the short field operations less than 300 nm and the longer legs operating out of major airports. Both must operate multi-engine aircraft, the longer leg must have at least 25 passenger seats while the shorter flight must be able to hold 19, and the shorter flight can't be a Twin Otter.
My past experience has taught me that a fleet consisting of multiple types of aircraft can often lead to logistics problems and I would like both the aircraft to be of the same manufacturer. I've been looking at using the Dornier Do-228 for the shorter leg and the Do-328JET (Envoy 3) for the longer leg. I've never dealt with Dornier aircraft and would like to hear some input on these from the community.
Also, does anyone have reliable operations costs for those aircraft? I've found some numbers but would feel better with some confirmation that I have the correct information. We originally planned on using the Beech 1900D until this longer leg contract came up. If it matters these aircraft will be operated on a US air carrier certificate and initially we will not have an airport analysis program so aircraft numbers must show it will stop in the first 60% of the runway.
My past experience has taught me that a fleet consisting of multiple types of aircraft can often lead to logistics problems and I would like both the aircraft to be of the same manufacturer. I've been looking at using the Dornier Do-228 for the shorter leg and the Do-328JET (Envoy 3) for the longer leg. I've never dealt with Dornier aircraft and would like to hear some input on these from the community.
Also, does anyone have reliable operations costs for those aircraft? I've found some numbers but would feel better with some confirmation that I have the correct information. We originally planned on using the Beech 1900D until this longer leg contract came up. If it matters these aircraft will be operated on a US air carrier certificate and initially we will not have an airport analysis program so aircraft numbers must show it will stop in the first 60% of the runway.