Turboprops | 1988

(TOP)
Airline - Royal Airways
Aircraft - Fokker F50 | G-JPIA
Delivered to Royal Airways, 1988
Sold to Midlands Air, 2006
Sold to AirNederland, 2009
Leased to Air Curacao, 2010
Returned to AirNederland, 2014
Sold to Kenyan Jet Express, 2014
Livery - Standard 1988
Country - Great Britain

(BOTTOM)
Airline - Royal Airways
Aircraft - British Aerospace ATP | G-TGYS
Delivered to Royal Airways, 1988
Sold to Simon-Air, 2000
Stored at Belfast, 2008
Sold to Aerolineas Paraguayas, 2009
Stored at Asuncion Silvio Pettirossi International Airport, 2020
Livery - Standard 1988
Country - Great Britain

Amongst all the other new aircraft types taken delivery of in 1988, Royal Airways also acquired its first Fokker F50 and British Aerospace Advanced Turbo Prop (ATP). These filled an important gap in the fleet. In its early days (i.e. the mid-late 1970s), the airline had operated Airspeed Ambassadors, Handley Page Dart Heralds, and Hawker Siddeley HS 748s. Between 1979 and 1981, these were all replaced by twenty Fokker F27s, which - while increasing overall commuter fleet efficiency - somewhat limited capacity. In the late 80s, therefore, Royal Airways decided to undertake a major short-range commuter fleet renewal, ordering fifteen each of the Fokker F50 and the BAe ATP. The new-generation Fokkers replaced the aging F27 (which was retired in 1992), while the ATP - with its 64 seats - supplemented the 50-seat Fokker F50 on slightly more high-demand routes. The overall doubling of the airline's turboprop fleet greatly helped it expand its presence in various smaller UK cities, as well as the Channel Islands, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark, competing with the multitude of smaller air carriers operating around the region at the time. Royal Airways was able to take advantage of intra-EU aviation freedom rules to operate point-to-point flights outside of the UK, such as Rennes to Amsterdam or Dusseldorf to Copenhagen. Overall, however, short-range operations were of course focused on flights to/from and within smaller UK airports.

Note: This F50 template is a mix of AryaYudhistira's F50 and Redrado's F27, with some edits by me and a few small details from Med's other templates for consistency. Hope it works well enough. Also I put the livery on the ATP and planned this post before FlyHigh posted his Air Acores ATP, but I guess now it's part of some kind of ATP-renaissance!