I’ve flown on PH-KLE but I didn’t know she’d been retired. Any idea what’s due to happen to her?

Sorry, I do not know. They will no doubt be sold to someone. They are after all still fairly economical in operation and KLM always maintains their planes well. Their despatch reliabilty is starting to suffer though.

As LBA-EGNM already mentioned all but the four youngest F100s will be retired over the next few months into 2010ish. The F70s are here to stay for another few years. They really are in a niche of their own. For a regional jet of its size the cargo hold is very large. The Embraer 170’s hold is a lot smaller, and the CRJ and ERJ series are not even close.

The same applies to the F100 when compared with the Embraer 190, but lately the despatch reliability has started to deteriorate leading to many delays and cancellations. The F70s and the four younger F100s do not suffer from that problem as they are younger. I’ve been told they have more advanced electronics making trouble-shooting easier and preventative maintenance more focussed.