Networks Fokker 100's!!
 

Has anyone out there heard any news when the F100's are arriving for Network that Qantas announced 3 months ago? and any ideas on who will be crewing them???

That'll end well:sad:

From what I've been told very little has changed at network since the hand over, apart from a few inductions here and there. As far as the aircraft go they are somewhere in between being owned and not owned I'm guessing and will be a few months off yet. Most of the infastucture of the company is overcrowed at peak times and would struggle to handle an increase in capacity... And recruitment has yet to happen to support the mass increase in capacity. Business as usual. In so far as crewing goes well apparently crew are going to come from skywest, alliance, dragonair, cathay, Qantas mainline, and europe, if members of management are to be believed. It's going to be like the a team, the best of the best. There has been some talk though internal progression but from what I've been told most staff have no idea how that is going to happen. :ugh:

There will be minimal upgrades from the Braz to the F100 due to the fact that they still need crew to keep the Braz operation going.

Minimums have been increased for command upgrades on to the F100 - this automatically rules out some of the FO's on the jet.

Lastly, an FSO has been released stating: "positions will be advertised internally and if there aren't suitable applicants, there will be external recruiting".

My advise to crew out there at Alliance and Skywest is to stay where you are. Trust me your operation is much better and more professional. This applies even more so to guys/gals that are already flying Braz's and are coming across to fly the braz at Network in the hope of getting onto the F100 quickly. It just wont happen.

GA with jets....

Dragonair??? Well, actually there is a grand total of 1 going that way. Right HKF?? ;)

b.

Maybe they will lease some F100s off Alliance? See the link below-

Alliance Airlines

Is there any talk of putting some on the East Coast to replace Alliance? QF seem to be using Alliance on a daily from BN to RK and MK.

Maybe Qantas are saving their money for:
- another purchase
- saving to try and interrupt the current run virgin is having
- busy paying fines and playing catchup

or one or any combination of the above...

hahahaha idiot
 

warped wings
"GA with jets....

are you kidding yourself? If you work for any australian company your in GA!

:ugh::ugh:

Increasingly booming market for Fokker aircraft in 2011
 

[ASDWire] A grand total of 60 Fokker aircraft have been transferred by their owners to new operators worldwide during 2011. 'The second half of this year has been outstanding with a total of 33 Fokker 50s and Fokker 100s changing hands', according to Fokker Services' Director of Aircraft Remarketing, Peter van Oostrum. 'This is a clear demonstration of the overall attractiveness of the aircraft and our continued support' he adds.

Indonesia continues to be a prime market for Fokker 50s with 5 aircraft moving to start-up Pacific Royale. Additionally, PT SKY Aviation and PT Transnusa are expanding their fleets with 2 Fokker 50s each during the second half of 2011. In nearby Papua New Guinea, Travel Air has been growing its fleet to 7 Fokker 50s. Also Mongolian Airlines has introduced 2 Fokker 50s. These Asian operators demonstrate the type's suitability for cold climates and unpaved strips as well as hot and humid climates. Across the globe, staunch Fokker operator Air Panama recently added 2 Fokker 50s to its fleet of 2 Fokker 70s which were introduced earlier 2011. Various other Fokker 50 transactions in Europe are undisclosed at this time.

Australia has now become a real stronghold for Fokker jets as Network Aviation, which was purchased by Qantas early 2011, has been 5 adding Fokker 100s to its existing fleet. While incumbent operators Alliance Airlines and Skywest Airlines added various Fokker 70s and Fokker 100s during 2011, the total number of Fokker jets now stands at 39. Most of these aircraft are performing fly-in, fly-out services, supporting the booming mining industry in Australia's interior.

Natural resources exploration support is also the core activity of start-up carrier Caspiy in Kazakhstan, which has recently purchased 2 Fokker 100s in addition to the 3 purchased earlier this year. Bek Air, also in Kazakhstan, has recently acquired its own Fokker 100 after initially leasing one from Caspiy.

While Fokker Services does not directly market Fokker aircraft, it facilitates placements by lessors and sellers. 'Good performance, great interior, timely product improvements like LED cabin lighting and iPad EFB, low capital costs and comprehensive support committed until the end of the decade and beyond, are the main reasons why operators have been taking Fokker aircraft and will continue to do so', says Peter van Oostrum.

As levels of available Fokker aircraft have been diminishing and demand remaining high, 2012 is expected to be another healthy trading year, albeit at lower numbers of aircraft than in 2011.

Source : Fokker Services
Published on ASDNews: Jan 9, 2012

Seems Qantas are getting serious now. Does anybody know if any other F100 operaters in the region have lost pilot's to Network? This article was in yesterdays Australian.

Qantas adds 14 more aircraft to its fleet to meet rising demand in fly-in, fly-out market

• by: Steve Creedy
• From:The Australian
• January 09, 201212:00AM

http://resources0.news.com.au/images...9-b-qantas.jpg
QantasLink chief Narendra Kumar says he expects the aviation resources market to grow by 50-70 per cent over the next few years. Picture: Jane Dempster Source: The Australian

http://resources0.news.com.au/images...9-b-qantas.jpg
Source: The Australian





QANTAS is aggressively accelerating its national push into the booming resources market, as regional carrier QantasLink and recently acquired charter unit Network Aviation add 14 aircraft over the next 12 months.

The airline may also consider committing bigger A320 or 737 size aircraft to fly-in, fly-out work if there is sufficient demand and says it expects interstate flying to become increasingly important to resources companies.
The new planes will bring the combined fleet to 80 aircraft, as QantasLink plans for double-digit expansion, fuelled by the combination of its Network expansion and the resources boom.
QantasLink executive manager Narendra Kumar, who also oversees Network, believes the aviation resources market will grow by 50-70 per cent over the next few years and says the timing of the latest addition to the Qantas stable leaves the group well placed to grab a healthy piece of the action.








The acquisition of planes last week introduced the first of 10 newly refurbished Fokker 100 jets into service, as Qantas ramps up efforts to boost its foothold in the burgeoning fly-in, fly-out market.
The planes are in addition to the airline's two existing F100s and six 30-seat Embraer 120 turboprops.
Another nine of the 100-seater twin-jets are due to enter service with Network over the next year, including two expected within the next month, with a fourth due in March-April and a fifth shortly afterwards.
Four of those planes are currently undergoing refits with Fokker Services in The Netherlands and the remaining five are set to change hands in March or April .
"So we can ramp it up or ramp it down as we feel necessary," Mr Kumar told The Australian. "But the key point is we've actually got our hands on 10 aircraft, five already in Holland and the other five with deposits made and contracts signed.
"So all 10 are definitely coming as opposed to speculation it was just a statement."
In the 12 months since Qantas acquired Perth-based Network, after prompting from some of its resource customers, it has spent considerable time looking at governance and management systems to ensure it is ready for the expected growth. This includes manpower, an area in which Mr Kumar said there had so far been no difficulties.
"Lindsay Evans and the team had obviously built a great business and we just wanted to make sure the scaling up of the organisation did not compromise anything from our perspective," he said, adding that this had included a network management framework to handle growth as well as regulatory and other approvals.
The airline and QantasLink both have Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS) accreditation, a safety audit system introduced by the Flight Safety Foundation to assure resources companies that the airlines they contract meet appropriate standards.
Mr Kumar said the F100s could have entered service earlier, but Qantas decided to upgrade cabins and update navigation systems to be ready for new satellite-based technology, ADS-B, which was being introduced in Australia and seen as essential to combating increasing congestion in mining areas. It also made sure all air service bulletins and airworthiness directives in the pipeline had been done in an effort to give the fleet a life of up to 10 years.
"As you can appreciate, the fly-in, fly-out work generally does 800 to 1200 hours a year, so we have a fleet that will come in, giving us a lot of life and capabilities," he said.
Having new planes and crews in place meant Network could bid aggressively for work, and several major contracts and tenders were currently in play, Mr Kumar said.
"Some of them are more advanced than others," he said.
"We have about two or three contracts that we have put in place across QantasLink and Network, large contracts, and there are quite a few RFP (requests for proposals) either at advanced stages or early stages.
"We don't expect to win every one of them, but the main approach was to make sure that we were able to meet the resource sector requirements, as opposed to not being able to bid because we didn't have the aircraft or crew or whatever.
"We are pretty confident that we will have a share of the market that will be available, both in terms of new contracts and new work that is coming in, as well as hopefully being able to bid for contracts as they come up for tender."
However, the QantasLink boss was cautious in estimating how much of the resources market the flying kangaroo will be able to snare.
He noted that a big contract could provide "a sizeable chunk of the market", but this was also possible through a series of small contracts.
Flexibility was the key and the company's offering was not confined to the F100s, although these would be the workhorses of the fly-in, fly-out operations.
The offering also included the smaller Network turboprop aircraft as well as QantasLink's Dash-8 fleet and its 115-seat 717s.
A Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 could also be put on the table if customers wanted a 150-seat aircraft, he said.
There had been no firm decision that all fly in, fly-out work had to go through Network, with QantasLink already doing "a stack" of work from major contracts already in place.
"At this time, it's fair to say it's pretty fluid," Mr Kumar said.
"All we know is that there will be demand, and based on the last few months of discussions and RFPs that have been put out to the market, we believe we'll be well placed to win our fair share of that.
"Whether it's 20, 30, 40 per cent remains to be seen."
While Western Australia would be an initial focus of Network's fly-in, fly-out push, Mr Kumar said the industry was also growing in other parts of Australia and Network could expand to other ports.
But he predicted that fly-in, fly-out destinations would increasingly be a function of where resource companies could source labour.
"As you know, we already have within our Qantas RPT (regular public transport) operations, services from Brisbane and Melbourne to ports such as Karratha," he said.
"Increasingly, I think, the sourcing of labour from states other than WA for WA work will grow as well. So, where we operate our fleet will be a function of where labour is sourced."
He said he would not be surprised if resource companies began sourcing labour from abroad, and the Qantas group was well placed to meet that requirement if it happened.
But the company was not interested at this stage in servicing overseas mines and its focus was primarily on the Australian market, although this could change in future.
Turning to QantasLink, Mr Kumar said the regional carrier would add two Queensland-based Boeing 717s and three Q400s turboprops this year, to bring its fleet to 62 aircraft.
Some of the growth has been underpinned by the resources sector, but the airline has also been establishing new routes and destinations over the past two years in South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia.
It has added turboprops services to Western Australia and recently increased frequencies to Geraldton and Exmouth.
"Our capacity has been growing about 9 per cent per annum on a compound basis," Mr Kumar said.
"I think this year we'll probably go double-digit -- over 10 per cent is our current plan. It's not just putting capacity on existing routes but also developing new markets and new routes as well that, I think, has been important."
Mr Kumar acknowledged that the Virgin Australia-Skywest move into regional aviation would affect QantasLink but said focusing on market requirements and adding capacity to meet demand put his airline in a good position.
Having a high-frequency schedule in regional markets was useful, as was the airline's ability to introduce different size aircraft to match demand and give it the right capacity at times people wanted to travel.
The company's smarter, faster check-in was now available at QantasLink ports, giving customers a similar experience to that in major capital cities, and the airline was expanding its lounge network.
"You can't take your eye off the ball," he said. "And our focus is all about (not losing) sight of where we've come from and making sure the customer remains central to the offering that we promise."

Gotta love the Fokkers, I remember flying down from Kunnunara in the old days with MMA on the first F28'a as a little tacker. Bought a tear to my eye when Fokker stopped making them.

What is the salary for F100 CA/FO at Network? How about for the Emb120?

A real fleet of Fokkers...

http://i521.photobucket.com/albums/w...atPerth600.jpg

Anthill, cx out this salary comparison link--

http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-reporting...mpilation.html

That mother Fokker at the back is a bit larger than the rest.............and look at that airport fence; might keep stray cats off the tarmac, but not much else!

But look, is that grass?......and trees?

A far cry from the mayhem at PER at 0530 these days.

Will be fascinating to see where the work comes from to support the 6 they plan to have delivered by say the 3rd quarter of 2012.

Could be some contracts lost over at Skywest or perhaps Cobham as would there be enough NEW work to support such a rapid expansion?

Just as interestingly, how much will the Network guys and girls get paid to fly the 737s/A320s mentioned as a possibility in the article. Qantas 737 rates - we can only hope!!!!

Perhaps the work/ contracts for some of the Fokker's could be on the East coast. Lots of new mines opening in Qld and there is a big push for FIFO flights from both the Gold and Sunshine Coasts.

the rumour from the cleaning lady at the hangar is,Alliance to be shortly in VA colours!!

Power outs. Imagine the hullaballoo these days. "Sorry sir, can't go within 200m of that aeroplane as it is starting up/taxiing away and your ears might get damaged...". Would take you 2 hours to get the fleet airborne. Sid would NOT have liked that!

VA can't afford or does not want to cough up the price :oh:

Network F100's to head to BNE.

Makes no sense to use Alliance when QF will shortly have their own F100's.

717's aren't due for a few months yet, and once they do arrive, there is still a need for QLink to use a 100 seat jet to allow the Q400 onto more mining/RPT runs.

Try booking a seat to/from Gladstone and Emerald on a Monday, Tuesday and Friday and you'll get my drift. :E

Someone is going to be left without a seat when the music stops in the current FIFO game of musical chairs.

Qantas's newly acquired Network Aviation is starting the delivery of their much expanded F100 fleet. This will greatly increase FIFO competition and ensure continual downwards pressure on the yields of independent FIFO operators, while broadening the offer of Network, which as the recent press release says, will be able to offer QF aligned RPT connections and services.

Skywest Airlines will have an interesting time going forward as two thirds of their $299M revenue last year came from FIFO and the remainder from RPT services. Skywest's substantial expansion into east coast turboprop RPT operations on behalf of Virgin will bring it into direct competition with Qantaslink.

Strategically, Skywest could find themselves caught in a pincer with increasing competition squeezing their west coast revenues, at the same time as Qantaslink commences the inevitable deep discounting of services to existing east coast ports when Skywest commences competitive operations.

The Oracle

oracle really? Skywest ops on east cost are cost plus so will make no difference to them if qlink deep discounts.

Dodge,

It doesn't matter how commercial arrangements are 'spun' to look appealing. Glib phrases such as 'cost plus', 'revenue offsets', damp lease, wet lease, etc. The devil is always in the legal detail of the agreements and someone always is obliged to pay the price and cost differences. That's business!

If Qantaslink act to protect their market share against any competitor by supplementing their offer through FF enhancements, discounts, increased or adjusted frequency, or whatever other means and the new entrant is denied sufficient customers and therefore is unable to cover their operating costs, someone will have to reach into their pocket to cover the shortfall.

Virgin lost $80Mill last year, which is why they have invited a third party to take this risk, rather than doing it themselves.

The Oracle

Oracle

Virgin didn't lose $80 million last year. They just spent a bucket load off money on rebranding, combining all the various airlines they had and are in the process of going business class across the board (ejet excluded).

Also, I have heard a rumor that the ATRs will be operated by Virgin one day in the future, but at the moment they have bigger fish to fry.

Lemel

Pilots have clouded judgement when it comes to predicting the fortunes of airlines due to over optimistic expectations and enthusiasm (nothing wrong with that!) We'd all love to dream that there is room for dozens of airlines in Australia operating a myriad of different jets/turboprops providing lots of job opportunities. As The Oracle is trying to point out, the reality is very different.

Once again The Oracle has provided a realistic assesment and expert comment, always look forward to reading his posts :ok:

So spending $80,000,000 of money they don't have is not a loss, it's a.............?

Rebranding, Business class etc is an attempt to head off further losses before they grow significantly which was starting to happen due to the LCC market becoming saturated.

Have virgin put out a profit guidance for this year??

When is someone going to cut out the middle man and do FIFO from NZ direct to the mine?
$$$$

When someone sets up a FIFO mine near a farm:E

Another F100 arrived on the 20th with the spotters sites saying another one due next month.

Anyone heard anything further regarding the rumours of some heading over to the east? Have the got crews for these new aircraft yet?

BPA, they are advertising again today.
I thought I saw an advert only about 2 mo ago in Dec I think it was and an ad a few mo before that??

I figured they would be swamped with apps from all the many F100 or similar Jet endorsed high time pilots out there the last time or 2 they advertised for people, surely easy to find maybe 2 or 3 crews per aircraft.
I was surprised to see another advert, thought they would have a computer file full of suitable resumes to pick and choose from by now.

A few Skywest F/O's offered DEC at Network but due to the poor T&C's only one has taken up the offer.

Their base salary is not far off the mark but with no RDO callouts, no productivity & hence no chance of earning more than the base salary it seems it's not enough even with the lure of a quick command. They even have this horrible stand down clause that if they lose contracts or aircraft go in for maintenance it allows them to put you on leave without pay.

If they sorted those few items out you'd probably see a few more head over.

Also heard a few Skywest checkies have been approached but due to the same reasons above they have all stayed put.

Incorrect, Skywest will be paid per flight hour regardless if the aircraft flys full or empty remember its a WET lease contract to VA.

Does anyone just see these FK100's just sitting on the ground with very little flying??

Which Fk100's are you talking about??

Speaking to an F100 skipper the other day, they have never activated the stand down clause on the Fokker, even during the GFC ( they all took a pay cut for a while, like a lot of other outfits ).
I guess the 1 effo that defected from XR will be laughing when he's a skipper in 6 months and flying QF biz class for his holidays.

Looks like an OK gig really.........however, sadly too far west (almost Sth Arika :)) for me.