Saturday, May 24, 2014

Amakusa Airlines chooses ATR42-600.

On May 19th, Amakusa City Government in Kumamoto Prefecture announced that Amakusa Airlines (AHX), the commuter airline of the Amakusa Islands, is preparing to order a single ATR42-600 for delivery in January 2016. As reported earlier (Amakusa Airlines to acquire an ATR42.), the 48-seat French turboprop will replace their sole Bombardier DHC-8-103, JA81MX.
Amakusa Airlines' fleet: Bombardier DHC-8-103 JA81MX. (Photo: Nikkei)

Amakusa City hopes to secure the purchase deposit of 260 million JPY in June's budget proposal. The total cost of the aircraft is estimated at 2.1 billion JPY and will be split among the airline's shareholders of Amakusa City, which owns 22.92%, Kamiamakusa City, owning 2.73%, and Reihoku Town, which owns 1.2%, as well as Kumamoto Prefecture, which controls 53.31%. The remainder is owned by local businesses.

A 300-million-JPY C-check is coming up for its sole 'Dash 8' in 2015, and the company has concluded that that amount plus subsequent maintenance costs of the 14-year-old propliner would outweigh the expenses of replacing it with a newer model. From its base at Amakusa (AXJ/RJDA) with its single DHC-8, Amakusa Airlines operates to Fukuoka (FUK/RJFF) and Kumamoto (KMJ/RJFT), as well as the Kumamoto - Osaka/Itami (ITM/RJOO) route.

Source: Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun, May 20th. (in Japanese)

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