F28 in Saskatoon by Arnold Bejeman

 

If there is one aircraft type that has a long and rich connection with the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, then it must be the Fokker F28 Fellowship. For decades the Saskatoon John G. Diefenbaker International Airport was the home of the largest stored fleet of Fokker F28s in the world.

Back in the mid 1980s Saskatoon’s NorCanAir received a permit from the United States for a scheduled flight service between Saskatchewan and the United States. This permit stated that the flight could only be carried out with an aircraft up to a certain weight. NorCanAir only operated propellor aircraft (like the Convairliners and Fairchild F27s) at the time, but the management wisely decided that the new route to Minneapolis required a jet airliner. The only jet that fell within the weight limits of the permit was the Fokker F28-1000 (and -3000) Fellowship.

  Fokker Aircraft was contacted and together the search started to look for available aircraft on the market. Fokker knew that a couple of F28s that were operated by the private Italian airliner “Itavia” had been stored for some time. Although Itavia operated successfully for over 30 years, it didn’t survive the aftermath of the infamous Itavia Flight 870 crash.

The two Fokker F28s were the C-GTEO (cn 11991, ex I-TIDI) and the C-GTUU (cn 11006, ex I-TIDB). They were ferried to Saskatoon, where both aircraft were prepared for service. The C-GTUU’s interior was quite dated with 1970s flowers and what not, so it quickly was affectionately nicknamed the “Ugly, Ugly”, as a reference to its registration.  

When both F28s entered service, NorCanAir realized that these gems could not only operate it’s international flights to the USA, but also, it’s charter flights to gravel bush strips like Point North and small mining towns like Uranium City more efficiently than the aging propellor driven Convairs and Fairchild F27s. The decision was made to standardize the fleet to F28’s and that in the future the only thing driven by propellors were boats.

A third F28 was found in Australia, where the Department of Aviation had put their VH-ATE (cn 11082) up for sale. But before it was delivered to Canada, NorCanAir had been purchased by Time Air out of Lethbridge. VH-ATE became the C-GTAH, with the letters TA referring to Time Air.

  The Fokker F28 Fellowship also became the first jet powered aircraft in the Time Air Fleet. The versatility of the jet was well appreciated, and the airline went full in on the Fokker F28, buying many F28 from USAir, who replaced them with brand new Fokker 100s.

In 1993 Time Air changed its name to Canadi<n Regional, after it signed a contract with Canadi<n International Airlines to operate as a feeder. The contract stated that the airline could only operate aircraft with a max seating capacity of 69, in order not to compete with the main airline. This means that the 65 seat Fokker F28-1000 was a perfect fit. The F28 fuselage was even wide enough to fit the standard Canadi<n International business class seats so that Time Air (dba Canadi<n Regional) could also offer the profitable business class product.

Canadi<n Regional operated the F28 on its international flights as well as on the charter flights to unpaved airstrips in the North. This is the reason why sometimes the ground crews at Chicago O’Hare could see the old F28 arrive covered in mud!

No other aircraft type could do what the F28 did and more F28-1000 were added to the growing fleet. Soon Canadi<n Regional was the third largest airline in Canada (after Air Canada and Canadi<n International Airlines) and the largest operator of the Fokker F28-1000 in the world.

CRA (Canadi<n Regional) intended to operate the type well into the 2010s, but after the attack on world trade centre 9/11 Canadi<n International ended up in a financial crisis and was forced to merge with Air Canada by the Canadian government.

Although Air Canada did apply a hybrid livery to several F28s, the decision was made to retire the aircraft type from the fleet. The whole fleet was flown to it’s main F28 maintenance base Saskatoon, where once the F28 success story began and put up for sale.

Selling the F28s proved to be difficult, due to the age of the aircraft, the high fuel consumption and noise that didn’t meet new noise regulations in many parts of the world. In the early days of Fokker F28 storage at Saskatoon, a handful of Fellowships did find a buyer and were sold to keep flying for a few more years, but for much of the fleet, the future started to look bleak.

By 2010 most of the “storage maintenance” had stopped and some aircraft received damage from weather, birds or cramped parking. The owners of the F28s were now more focused on selling parts of the F28, enabling F28s in other parts of the world to keep flying.

In meantime, aircraft enthusiasts from Alberta recognised the important role the F28 played in Canada’s aviation history and decided it was time to start a campaign to safe at least one for a museum. The owner of the fleet appreciated the initiative and offered one complete F28 (C-FTAV. cn11106) to the Time Air Historical Society for a friendly price. C-FTAV was once painted in Time Air’s jubilee colour scheme. Two other ones (cn 11050 & 11099) were also moved to Alberta.

In meantime, the rest of the F28s in Saskatoon started to deteriorate to the point that the airport authorities wanted them gone. They were in the way of the airport’s snow removal equipment, the paint jobs were faded to the point that they became eyesores, and they attracted a large quantity of birds, like pigeons, who made nests in them.  

 

In September of 2018 the owners decided to please the airport authorities by scrapping the 6 F28s C-FCRW (cn 11029), the C-FCRP (cn 11037), the C-FCRC (cn 11044), the C-FOCR (cn 11063), the C-FTAS (cn 11098) and the good old C-GTEO (cn 11991). The remaining 12 were pushed tightly on the grass beside the hangar of the owner.

The airport authorities were still not completely satisfied with this solution, because it didn’t solve the problems of the birds and the image of the airport. In the last week of August 2026, action was taken and the remaining F28s were swiftly cleaned up and trucked away as scrap metal. These were the C-FCRB (cn11107, last F28-1000 built), C-GNCR (cn 11034 ex F-BUTI), C-GKCR (cn11101), C-FZCR (cn 11054), C-FCRI (cn 11043), C-FQCR (cn 11036), C-GLCR (cn 11105), C-FCRM (11035), C-FPCR (11096), C-FFCR (cn 11095), C-FXTA (cn 11064) and finally the C-GTAH (cn 11082) was the last F28 to have its wings clipped.  

These F28s were such a permanent feature on the airport for so long, that the new reality of them all gone will take some time to get used to. With the last remains of scrap metal leaving the airport gate ends the last chapter of the rich history of F28s in Saskatoon. A history that started many decades ago with a small Saskatoon based airline with huge ambitions.

 

 

How the Hardware Gets Lost

    In 1994, Aerolíneas Argentinas retired its Fokker F-28 Fellowship fleet, which had been in service since 1975. Most of the reusable components were subsequently removed from the airframes, while the stripped-down remains were left abandoned on the grass at the far end of the hangar apron at Ezeiza. This was where they were found in Nov96. The one that survived the longest was LV-LOA. msn. 11085.
    The aircraft's cockpit section remained within the airport grounds for some time and was even used by a union faction during several demonstrations, the kind of events Argentine society has had to endure on a seemingly daily basis. The last report on the cockpit was that it had been acquired by a private individual, who kept it parked on a trailer in front of her residence in the northern suburbs of Greater Buenos Aires. -"LOA´s Cockpit"-

Read the original article in Spanish in Roll Out.

Another day in the F-28 life

 

 Photo taken by Adrián Gómez on August 7, 2026, during rehearsal for the parade

Believe it or not, the Fokker F-28 Mk.1015C TC-53 (c/n 11020) remains very active these days! Today, August 10, 2026, it took part in the aerial parade commemorating another anniversary of the Argentine Air Force. On August 7 and 8, it carried out logistical flights between bases and practice runs for the aerial parade.

 

 

TAME - Transportes Aéreos Militares Ecuatorianos

 

The history of the Fokker F-28 in Ecuador began in the mid-1980s with the addition of the dual-registration airframe #11220 F-28 Mk.4000 to the fleet of Transportes Aéreos Militares Ecuatorianos (TAME). The airline had been founded in 1962 by the Ecuadorian Air Force with the constitutional mission of integrating the country's most remote regions, promoting social and economic development by transporting passengers and cargo where private enterprise did not consider it profitable to operate. It is worth noting that it operated as a commercial entity competing in the civil market, but its administrative, managerial, and operational structure depended directly on the Air Force. The crews were also composed of Air Force personnel holding civil commercial licenses, which allowed for an immediate transition from airline service to military logistical transport and evacuation missions in the event of a national emergency.

This first F-28 was incorporated into Transport Wing No. 11 (Ala de Transporte Nro. 11), under the Air Operations and Defense Command and the Air Transport Command, bearing the civil registration HC-BMD and, concurrently, the military serial FAE-220, christened “Ciudad de Loja”. The F28 proved ideal for operating at this city's airport, which featured a very short runway surrounded by challenging topography—impossible to operate with the large and heavy Boeing 727s, and complex for the HS-748s, whose performance was often insufficient due to the prevailing hot and high conditions at the airfield. Once again highlighting its short-field capabilities, rough-field tolerance, structural strength, speeds, and overall performance, the Fokker stood out in that hostile environment. From January 1985 to March 1999, this F28 was fundamental for this destination, where it operated solitary amid the absence of other operators in the area. A journey from Quito by land meant a winding and rugged trip of more than fifteen hours, which was reduced to about 50 minutes thanks to TAME's option with its Fellowship.

Another prominent route was Quito – Tulcán – Cali, operated since the signing of the "Border Integration Agreement" between Ecuador and Colombia in 1992. This international route, regularly operated by the F-28, became a key driver for binational trade and passenger flow across the northern border. Tulcán, located at more than 2,900 meters above sea level, presented low air density conditions that severely penalized the takeoff run of most commercial aircraft; however, the F-28-4000, thanks to its optimized thrust-to-weight ratio and extended wingspan, was capable of taking off from this terminal with full passenger loads toward Colombian territory.

Oil exploration in Ecuador's Amazon region demanded the continuous transfer of engineers, geologists, heavy tools, and technical personnel to rustic and humid asphalt runways in the heart of the jungle. TAME operated daily flights with the Fokker F-28 to El Coca, Lago Agrio, and Macas, where the aircraft successfully withstood continuous operations on these deteriorated asphalt runways.

During the armed escalation of the Cenepa border conflict, which pitted the military forces of Ecuador and Peru against each other in the eastern region of the Cordillera del Cóndor in early 1995, the Ecuadorian Air Force executed a massive logistical mobilization. Under the direct control of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, Transport Wing No. 11 mobilized a total of 2,930,006 pounds of military cargo, including ammunition, disassembled artillery pieces, aeronautical spare parts, and essential field supplies. In this critical effort, TAME's Fokker F-28s played a fundamental strategic role in the mobilization of military human resources. While heavy cargo aircraft like the C-130 Hercules or the Lockheed L-100-30 handled the transport of supplies to forward bases and unpaved strips, the F-28s took over a rapid airlift to transfer infantry troops, special battalions, and reserve combat pilots from the main bases in the north and center of the country to the logistical airfields in the south of the Republic. Furthermore, the F28s supported complex logistical schemes for the supply of aviation fuels (Class IIIA), mobilizing maintenance specialists and aeronautical engineers essential to sustain the operational readiness of the Mirage F1 and Kfir C2 supersonic squadrons at Taura Air Base and other tactical deployment points.

 

In March 1999, this solitary F-28 was reinforced with a second aircraft, airframe #11112, coming from Scandinavian Airlines. It was registered as HC-BZU / FAE-112 and christened "Morona Santiago".

The fleet's operability was shaken in January 2003 when, as a result of a runway excursion at Quito Airport, the veteran HC-BMD “Ciudad de Loja” was declared a hull loss (total loss). Consequently, TAME had to urgently acquire a third Fokker F-28 airframe to avoid disrupting air connectivity with Loja and the Amazon region.

In December 2003, they incorporated what would be the third and final Fokker unit, serial #11228, registered as HC-CEH / FAE-228 and christened “Ciudad de Loja”, surely as a form of tribute to its predecessor and its important mission accomplished over all those years in that region of the country.

By the year 2006, TAME began a profound fleet modernization, incorporating Embraer and ATR aircraft and phasing out the long-lived Fokker fleet. The aircraft were left awaiting their fate at the old Quito airport, where they remained until its definitive closure in 2013, before finally being scrapped.

 All F-28 fleet in one picture, HC-CEH (cn.11228) & HC-BZU (cn.11112)

TAME F-28 fleet

* msn 11220 Mk.4000 HC-BMD/ FAE-220 dd 20Dec1985.

* msn 11112 Mk.4000 HC-BZU/ FAE-112 dd 30Mar1999.

* msn 11228 Mk.4000 HC-CEH/ FAE-228 dd 26Feb2004.

A Rare View of the Argentine Naval Aviation F-28 Fleet

    A photograph taken at Ezeiza in Oct2014 offers a glimpse into the condition of the Argentine Naval Aviation’s Fokker F-28 Mk.3000 fleet.
    Of the three aircraft captured in the image, only 0742/5-T-21 msn. 11150, remained in operational service at the time. Meanwhile, 0741/5-T-20 ms. 11145, had already been stripped of part of its components, reflecting the gradual decline of the fleet.
    As for 0740/5-T-10, ms. 11147, entirely devoid of markings and wearing its characteristic “all-white” appearance, it seemed to have regained a measure of dignity whilst sheltered inside the Ezeiza hangar, where the faint titles of “Armada Argentina” could still just be discerned beneath the paintwork.
    The photograph, received quite by chance through an acquaintance connected to the aviation world, ultimately became a small documentary testament to the final years of these historic naval F-28s.

Read the original text in Spanish HERE.

Read in case of emergency

 

 Today, the only safety card currently in use in the world is with LADE.

Safety cards are leaflets that graphically detail, with multilingual instructions, the use of seat belts, oxygen masks, and life vests. Additionally, they describe the rapid evacuation procedure of an aircraft and the exact location of the emergency exits. These safety cards are normally located in the seatback pocket of the seat ahead.

Some cards constitute true works of art crafted with a wealth of detail, while others are simpler. Some of them were carefully designed respecting the airlines' corporate identity—enhancing concepts such as "elegance"—or, in other cases, matching the colorful design of the aircraft interiors or its exterior livery.

The Fokker F-28 Fellowship was no exception, and we can find excellent safety cards, which we will detail below.