Hello
Hmm you got it right Regi, the focus point is sure not anymore on the airline issue
.
I can honestly say I work for it (or at least the loosing party in the story - VLM) and for sure just as you guys I can only hope for a good ending, with or without CityJet/Air France. The story simply is that right now no-one knows how things will go.
Oh and just for the record , just one thing ... believe me as I say the Fokker 50 will be around for quite some time, that is as long as untill the moment the aviation authorities ground them for reasons of being TOO old, which by this time is far from that. There simply is no reason to that .. ok they are old and yes they require quite some maintenance, but if done properly they are still fine machines (after all, till some years ago .. would you have some luxury in those old busses you drove in to/from work daily? , .. well that's kinda the same story) , as long as it is safe
. And I think I can be honestly and proudly say that our Fokker 50's (for the little amount still in service in EU) sure have to be of the better maintained (overall) around in Europe as we did a lot of new efforts and updates in keeping them as safe and up to date as possible. So wouldn't worry about the aircraft issue as for the moment, not at least for the next couple of years.
New plane would be nice but as mentioned before, AF wouldn't put the money on table anyway, even if we where up to it ... not untill everyone has made up it's business and we know what course we are going to go (and what costs to expect).
Oh and about the runway issue at Antwerp ... well the runway will for sure NOT be extended, it will only legally be restored to it's full useable length of 1510m. Now the runway is just as long as it will be after the works are done, only now the full runway lengt cannot be used, something like -400m. There will be a several hundred (believe something like 300-450m or so) 'safety runway length' that is either in concrete or grass behind every side of the runway (runway 11 side has this already) so that in an event of a aborted take-off you have this lengt extra to roll out, now you have to subract this safety length from the runway length you use ...
. Just to put out a couple of figures ... YES London City has a runway even a couple of metres shorter then ours in Antwerp, and YES it has daily ops of EMB-195 and A318 executive, so yes a lot more is possible in Antwerp even with the short runway, it's just up to the airport to break open possibilities
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Best regards, Yannick