Amapola and the Fokker 50 to Donegal

Hello everyone, you're very welcome to my latest flight review. In this installment, I will be reviewing a small Swedish airline based out of Stockholm by the name of Amapola Flyg and their Fokker 50. The airline primarily operate in Sweden and Finland with a fleet of 16 Fokker 50 aircraft, 8 in passenger configuration and 8 in cargo configuration, and a single BAe Jetstream 32. 

With the demise of Stobart Air earlier in the year, the Donegal to Dublin route was up for tender, and to every Irish avaition geeks amazement, this little known airline and their Fokker 50 were confirmed to recommence the route. I remember the excitment I felt when I first read that the Fokker 50 would be back in Irish skies once more. Aer Lingus did operate the Fokker 50 from 1989 to 2001, however this was before my trip reporting days so I just had to book a round trip here and tick this aircraft type off the list. Now don't get me wrong, I adore the B737 and A320, but it's so rare these days to get on a different aircraft type, you have to take the opportunity when it presents itself. 

The aircraft is based in Donegal and operates a double daily rotation to Dublin, with the aircraft on the gound in Dublin for quite some time after it's first flight from Donegal. The airline website is very easy to use and I was able to book both the outbound and return leg at the same time, which was nice, as with some airlines you need to book two one way tickets if the arrival time of the inbound flight and the departure time of the outbound flight is too close together. With a total price of €110, I was all booked in and excited for the flight. A new airline, a new aircraft type and a new airport, the Holy Trinity for aviation geeks,

The day of departure finally arrived and I made my way to the airport for my 15:10 departure to Donegal. Amapola use Terminal 1 at Dublin and todays flight was departing from the 200 gates, 213 to be exact, and there was our aircraft waiting for us. SE-MFY was the registration, a 31 year old Fokker 50 that made its maiden flight in December 1989. MFY was first delivered to DLT with registration D-AFKH  and hen also served with Air Nostrum, Lufthansa Cityline, VLM and CityJet before ending up with Amapola.  With a passenger capacity of 50 in full economy class layout, and wth only 6 people including myself making the trip up to Donegal this afternoon, boarding commenced on time and was finished very quickly.  With a 2-2 seat configuration, and no allocated seats, the passengers were free to sit wherever they liked. Nice touch Amapola!! 

I chose seat 7A for the flight out, right beside the engine to get a perfect view of the landing gear. The seat offered excellent leg room, as you can see from the picture above, better than on any LCC, and there were even cigarette ashtrays in the arm rest. It's been a long time since I last saw one of those on an aircraft, and you could really feel the history of the aircraft sitting in the seat. I don't know about other people, but I can always get a very distinct "old aircraft" smell when exploring aircraft like this on the ground. I've gotten it a number of times in various aviation museums around the world and it's a smell I just love, the planes are literally reeking with history.. I'm guessing it's the smell of grease! 

​With such a small cabin on the Fokker 50, there is only a need for a single cabin cew member, and our person was today was Isak. He completed the pre-flight safety procedure, walked through the cabin and then we were all set to go. We were pushed back, the engines were started and we made our way out to Dublins runway 28 Left for an immediate takeoff. 

---

Having never been on a properllor aircraft bigger than a Cessna 152, I was extremely surprised with the take off performance of this bird with it's 2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PW125B turboprop engines producing 2,500hp each. Granted the aircraft was quiet light with only 9 souls on board including the crew, it was a very similar take off to that of the Boeing 757, all power and noise and we were airborne very quickly. After departure, we made a gentle left turn and began making our way north towards Donegal.  With a very short flight time of just 36 minutes, and cruising at 16,000 ft, there was not much to see out the window as in typical Irish fashion the country was completly covered in cloud. 

Having been voted as the most scenic airport in the world three years in a row, the approach into Donegal can be quiet spectacular to say the least on a clear day. Today wouldn't be one of those days for us unfortunately, with the odd break in cloud giving those on the left side of the aircraft a view of the Wild Atlantic Way below before making our landing onto a wet runway  03/21.

We vacated the runway and made our way towards the small but quaint terminal building where we disembarked. My connection time for the return leg wasn't as tight as my recent flight with Ryanair, so I was able to relax and enjoy the small departure lounge, which offered great views of the ramp area and our waiting aircraft. 

Boarding commenced for the return to Dubin and it was free seating once again, with 13D being my chosen seat. The sky had cleared up somewhat, and better views were provided as we climbed with views of the beach and sea visible. 

It was a quick flight back down through the centre of Ireland and before long we were lining up for landing onto Dublins runway 27L, a little under two hours after we departed from the same runway. 

It was a quick taxi to the gate upon landing, and once the engines had been switched off and everyone had disembarked, I had the opportunity to visit the cockpit and have a quick chat with the crew before grabbing one last pic with MFY and heading home. 

To sum up my experience with Amapola, I enjoyed every second with them. The crew were very professional, so warm and welcoming and you could tell they loved their job and loved working on the Fokker 50.  Setting foot on the Fokker felt like going back in time to the golden age of aviation, all the smells, sounds and even the cigarette ashtrays in the seats made the flight that little bit better. In todays age of jet powered aircraft, it felt like a privilege to be able to fly on such an old aircraft, and it will be an experience I will never forget. With a price of €110 and a total distance of 450km, this flight worked out at  €0.24 per km. Worth every penny, especially since this price would have included a checked in bag also!  I hope to fly with Amapola again soon, maybe next time in Sweden and try out their BAe Jetstream for  a change! 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this review, I hope you enjoyed it and if you've any comments or recommendations please do email me at [email protected] or visit my Instagram page "TheRegHunter".

Until next time, take care.  Daniel- TheRegHunter.