Colgan Launches Q400, Lease Rate Recovery Expected

Continental, Colgan and Pinnacle rolled out the Bombardier Q400s to press and local dignitaries on Friday in preparation for today’s launch of service of the 74-seat aircraft. In its invitation, it said it allowed the airline to increase capacity on regional routes without adding more flights...

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Continental, Colgan and Pinnacle rolled out the Bombardier Q400s to press and local dignitaries on Friday in preparation for today’s launch of service of the 74-seat aircraft. In its invitation, it said it allowed the airline to increase capacity on regional routes without adding more flights. “It is the ideal aircraft to operate at Liberty as it allows more extensive use of alternate departure routes and enable flight operations and lower altitudes,” said the airline in its invitation. Related Story

Q400s in Rate Recovery
Last fall’s SAS Q400 problems have done little to challenge the reputation of the aircraft but values have yet to recover from the 10-12 percent discounting imposed as a result of the SAS grounding, according to RAN’s sister publication Aircraft Value News, which reports demand for the 27 aircraft amongst other operators remains strong. Neither current nor future values have undergone further changes since those made late last year.
The news comes on the heels of reports that SAS found fleet-wide problems with some valves which may have bearing on the cause of the third accident involving the Dash8 in late October. It said 63 percent of the solenoid sequence valves on the landing gear showed what it termed technical defects. Preliminary review of the airline’s third Q400 accident last fall showed problems with an O-ring coming loose in the valve and that the component is currently being redesigned.
"SAS cannot be blamed for not discovering these problems, or the undetected error that caused the first two accidents, in the course of its maintenance work,” said the airline in a recently released statement. The airline cited a Danish Accident Investigation Board report blaming the first two landing gear accidents on “a construction error in the actuators.”