Fokker 70

Updated: October 2026 – A small jet with two engines at the rear taxis in, the fuselage looks almost too short for the wings, and on touchdown the tail splits open: that is very likely a Fokker 70. The little sister of the Fokker 100 came about in the early 1990s, was built in tiny numbers and still made history – as a workhorse at KLM Cityhopper, as a Dutch government aircraft and as a jet a king flew as co-pilot. Here you will learn how to identify it, how to tell it from the Fokker 100 and other rear-engine jets, and where you can still find it today.

What is the Fokker 70?

The Fokker 70 is a twin-engine regional jet for around 70 to 85 passengers. It is not an entirely new design but a shortened Fokker 100: Fokker took around 4.6 meters out of the fuselage and left the wing, tail, cockpit and engines largely unchanged. The goal was a modern replacement for the older F28 Fellowship, which many airlines still used on short routes.

The program launched in November 1992. For the first flight on April 4, 1993, Fokker used a pragmatic trick: the second Fokker 100 prototype, PH-MKC, was taken apart, shortened by two fuselage sections and rebuilt as the Fokker 70 prototype. The first production aircraft flew in July 1994, and certification followed in October 1994. Officially, by the way, the type is called the Fokker 28 Mk 0070 in its certification papers – the Fokker 100 is formally a variant of the F28 there as well.

At the 1993 Paris Air Show, Fokker had presented the Indonesian companies Sempati Air and Pelita Air as launch customers. The very first aircraft delivered, however, went to Ford in October 1994 as a corporate jet in an executive configuration. Sempati followed in March 1995 as the first airline. In Europe, bmi British Midland signed a lease as early as the end of 1993, and later KLM, Alitalia, Air France, Malév and Vietnam Airlines, among others, joined.

It did not last long. In March 1996 Fokker had to file for bankruptcy, and the last Fokker 70 was handed over in April 1997. In the end there were 47 production aircraft plus a prototype – one of the smallest production runs among the Western airliners of this generation.

Technology in brief

Because the Fokker 70 is so closely related to the 100, it shares its technology as well. Two Rolls-Royce Tay 620 engines sit at the rear, the cockpit with screen displays matches that of the larger sister, and the cabin offers five seats per row in a 2+3 layout. You will find more about the engine maker on the page about Rolls-Royce.

The cabin was designed for around 80 passengers; typical single-class layouts had 79 seats, with a maximum of 85 possible. For the US market, Fokker offered a version with exactly 70 seats. The background was the so-called scope clauses in US pilot contracts, which allow the regional partners of major airlines only aircraft up to a certain seat count.

One detail makes the Fokker 70 especially interesting: with its tail airbrake it can fly steep approaches with a 5.5-degree glide path. That made it suitable for airports like London City, where a normal three-degree approach is not possible because of the surrounding buildings.

The three features that are enough to identify it

Many types have rear engines and a T-tail. The Fokker 70 gives itself away through a combination that is easy to memorize.

The final confirmation comes from the registration. How registrations are structured and where to look them up is explained in the article Understanding aircraft registrations.

Fokker 70, Fokker 100 or F28?

The three Fokker jets belong to one family. You are most likely to mix up the Fokker 70 with the 100, because apart from the fuselage length they are practically the same. The F28 is an older generation with different engines and a smaller wing.

Feature	Fokker 70	Fokker 100	Fokker F28
ICAO type designator	F70	F100	F28
Length	around 30.9 m	around 35.5 m	shorter, depending on version
First flight	1993	1986	1967
Engines	Rolls-Royce Tay	Rolls-Royce Tay	Rolls-Royce Spey
Cockpit roof windows	no	no	yes
Built	47 plus prototype	283	241

You recognize the F28 by the small extra windows above the windshield and by slimmer engine nacelles. In operation, though, you will hardly encounter it in Europe anymore. The turboprop branch of the family, the Fokker 50, you can rule out immediately anyway: it has propellers under a high-set wing.

Easily confused: other small rear-engine jets

Other candidates come into question in everyday spotting. The finder narrows them down.

The Bombardier CRJ700 is in a similar size class but has a narrower fuselage, winglets and a pointed tail. The Avro RJ70 also has a tail airbrake and a T-tail, but carries four engines under a high-set wing. Which features help most with regional jets in general is summarized in the article How to tell regional jets apart.

KLM Cityhopper: the home of the Fokker 70

No operator shaped the image of the Fokker 70 as strongly as KLM Cityhopper, the regional subsidiary of KLM. Over the years the airline operated one of the largest Fokker 70 fleets of all. From its hub at Amsterdam Schiphol they flew to numerous European destinations, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland. For spotters in the DACH region, the blue-and-white Fokker 70 was thus an everyday sight for a long time.

From the mid-2010s KLM Cityhopper replaced the Fokker jets with Embraer aircraft. On October 28, 2017, the last Fokker 70 flight closed a long chapter of Dutch aviation history – KLM and Fokker had been closely tied for decades. Today KLM belongs to the Air France-KLM group, and the regional fleet consists of Embraer jets such as the Embraer E195-E2.

A special story is attached to the Cityhopper fleet: King Willem-Alexander made public in May 2017 that since the 1990s he has regularly flown as a first officer with KLM Cityhopper, around twice a month on the Fokker 70 – even after his accession to the throne. Passengers generally knew nothing about it. After the end of the Fokker 70 era he moved to the Boeing 737.

Government aircraft and corporate jet

From the start, the Fokker 70 was also an aircraft for VIPs. Even the first delivery went as an executive jet to Ford, and governments too were interested in the compact jet that copes with short runways yet still offers a full-size cabin.

The best-known example is the Dutch government aircraft PH-KBX. The Fokker 70 in executive configuration was presented in March 1996 and operated by KLM crews for the government and the royal family. The letters in the registration alluded to Queen Beatrix. As crown prince, Willem-Alexander regularly sat in the cockpit of the government aircraft himself on royal family trips. In August 2019 a Boeing 737-700 with the registration PH-GOV took over the role – a Boeing Business Jet based on the 737NG. The PH-KBX was retired and, according to available information, taken over for preservation.

Air forces also used the type: the Kenya Air Force and the Myanmar Air Force operated Fokker 70s as transport and VIP aircraft. How to plan for and catch state aircraft is explained in the article Spotting government aircraft.

The Fokker 70 in Austria

In German-speaking countries it was mainly Austria that was Fokker 70 country. Austrian Airlines and the former regional subsidiary Tyrolean Airways operated the Fokker 70 and Fokker 100 together; in early 2010 the Austrian fleet counted around two dozen Fokker 70s. At Vienna Airport the short Fokker jet was part of everyday life for years, as it was at many German destinations in the Austrian network.

From 2015 Austrian replaced the Fokker fleet within around two years with used Embraer 195s. In November 2015 the Australian Alliance Airlines announced it would buy six Fokker 70s and 15 Fokker 100s from Austrian. Some Austrian aircraft therefore keep flying to this day – just at the other end of the world.

One event from the Austrian era is remembered by many: on January 5, 2004, a Fokker 70 on a flight from Vienna to Munich had to make an emergency landing in a snowy field near Munich Airport after engine failures caused by icing during the descent. All 32 people on board survived, and three passengers were slightly injured. The aircraft was later repaired and returned to service.

Where you can still find the Fokker 70 today

The remaining fleet is small and widely scattered. The most important operator is Australia’s Alliance Airlines, which according to available data still had around 13 Fokker 70s in mid-2025 alongside its Fokker 100s and a growing Embraer fleet. The aircraft mainly fly commuter flights to mining sites (fly-in-fly-out) as well as charters and a few scheduled routes in Australia. In Papua New Guinea, Air Niugini most recently also used Fokker 70s, and there are individual smaller airlines in Africa and South America as well as the air forces mentioned above.

Place / occasion	Chance of a hit	Why
Australia	medium to high	Alliance Airlines as the largest remaining operator
Papua New Guinea	medium, declining	Air Niugini is switching its fleet to newer types
Africa and South America	low to medium	individual aircraft with small airlines and air forces
German, Austrian and Swiss airports	very low	at most ferry flights or state flights

One of the former operators has since become history itself: the Curaçao airline Insel Air flew Fokker 70s and MD-80s before ceasing operations in 2019.

How to plan the hunt for a Fokker 70

With a type of which only a few dozen aircraft still fly, preparation is decisive. There is no fixed schedule in Central Europe; you work with tracking data, registration lists and a bit of luck.

How to follow flights live and what data ADS-B provides is explained in the guide to flight tracking with ADS-B. What is behind codes like F70 is covered in IATA and ICAO codes explained. The article Spotting rare aircraft offers general strategies for rarities, and you can estimate the landing direction in advance with Understanding runway direction in use at airports.

Photo tips especially for the Fokker 70

The Fokker 70 is small and has its most interesting details at the rear. Align your pictures accordingly.

Always stay on publicly accessible areas; what is allowed is summarized in Is plane spotting allowed?

Why the Fokker 70 fascinates spotters

The Fokker 70 is an aircraft of missed opportunities. Technically mature, with modern avionics and good short-haul characteristics, it came onto the market at exactly the moment its manufacturer slid into crisis. After just three years of deliveries it was over. Its successors in the segment of around 70 to 80 seats were types like the Embraer E190 and the CRJ family.

It is precisely the small production run that makes every sighting valuable. With fewer than 50 aircraft built, the Fokker 70 can be followed almost without gaps by registration – a type where ambitious collectors can actually reach the end of a list.

Conclusion

Rear engines, T-tail, a tail cone that splits open and a stubby fuselage of around 30.9 meters: that is the Fokker 70. Only the length separates it from the Fokker 100, and the missing cockpit roof windows from the F28. KLM Cityhopper, Austrian and Tyrolean retired the type long ago; today the last aircraft fly mainly in Australia and with a few air forces.