Efforts are under way to restart production of the Fokker 70 and 100 airliners. The initiative is being led by Jaap Rozen Jacobson, chairman of Belgian airline VLM. A new Dutch company, Rekkof (Fokker spelled backwards) Restart, is seeking funds and negotiating with potential suppliers.
In a bid to assure potential clients of the company's validity, Rekkof Restart has signed a deal with Swiss re-insurance company Swiss Re New Markets to issue completion bonds, used extensively in the real-estate and shipbuilding industries, under which customers placing deposits on aircraft are insured against losing their money in the event that the programme does not go ahead. Rekkof Restart will not say if any airlines have taken up the offer.
Go-ahead is dependent on agreements from suppliers. Wing builder Shorts, engine supplier Rolls-Royce and Daimler-Benz Aerospace, originally responsible for the fuselage, will not comment on the status of any talks.
Source: Flight International
