New heights

for Saab 2000

The Saab 2000 Jet Prop has already after its first year of commercial service proved to be an international success with both opera tors and passengers. Lead operator Crossair of Switzerland has been joined by Deutsche BA of Germany, Regional Airline of France, Air Marshall Islands in the Pacific and GMWTS in the US. A total of 18 Saab 2000 s are now in service and have carried 420,000 passengers on nearly 16,000 flights.

Crossair of Switzerland put its first Saab 2000 Jet Prop into service in September 1994 and currently operates a fleet of 11 air craft out of a total firm commitment of 20 air craft and 25 options. The aircraft’s unique combination of jet-like performance and Turboprop economy has permitted Crossair to further build its extensive European net work with new “Market Maker” services soon to include Basel, Switzerland to Manchester, UK.

Andre Dose, Vice President Operations of Crossair says: “Saab 2000 has the same range and almost the same airspeed as a jet.

The Saab 2000 has really become the multi purpose tool in our fleet, serving a mixture of shorter and longer flights, fitting into jet pat terns and providing high frequency on busi ness routes such as Paris to Basel where it replaced the Avro RJ twice daily with five daily services”.

Josef Felder, Vice President Marketing of Crossair said: “We concentrated on the fact that once the passenger is seated he should have the same comfort level as on the (five abreast) Jumbolino. Our fully reclinable leather seats are amongst the widest of the narrowbody jets and with a seat pitch of 32 inches we are on par with that offered on the Airbus A 320, MDBO and Boeing 737, even with a full complement of passengers we have no problems in accommodating hand luggage”.

Deutsche BA of Friedrechshafen, Germany became European’s second Saab 2000 Jet Prop operator and currently oper ates three aircraft and is expecting another two later this year. Scheduled services are flown to major European business centers as well as feeder services into British Airways secondary London hub at Gatwick.

New long, thin routes into eastern Europe have been opened up and charter services of over two-and-a-half hours are routinely operated during weekends.

The third operator, Regional Airlines of Nantes, France, currently operates two Saab 2000 Jet Props. The airline applied the full “Market Maker” potential of the aircraft by introducing international services between a number of secondary cities for the first time.

New services include Lyon to Madrid, Barcelona Toulouse and Nantes to Clermont Ferrand and Milan.

Air Marshall Islands took delivery of its first Saab 2000 in June 1995 and immedi ately introduced it on the Majuro-to-Fiji route, about the same distance as from Stockholm to Casablanca. Sector lengths in this sparse ly populated part of the world are long and services benefit from the Saab 2000’s speed capability. The Saab 2000 cuts three-and-a half hours off the route time versus previous generation turboprops whilst burning one third less fuel. In addition the load carrying capability is increased by two tonnes. The President of the Marshall Islands, Amata Kabua this month briefed 15 heads of gov ernment at the South Pacific Forum on the Saab 2000’s “vital link” and its fundamental contribution to the area’s commercial devel opment. “The aircraft seats 36passengers instead of the usual fifty to 58 seat airliner configuration, now well established in service worldwide.” ■