Saab 2000F

The Saab 2000 was born as a fast passenger turboprop and spent its whole commercial career as one, but the same arithmetic that had pushed the Saab 340 into cargo work eventually caught up with it: a small fleet, airframes with little wear and a passenger market that no longer wanted them. Saab had looked at that exit very early. In March 1996, with sales flagging, it announced a passenger/cargo combi version in two basic configurations — 39 seats with 16.4 m³ of freight, or 16 passengers and a 29.6 m³ aft cargo compartment — that required no floor strengthening and used the existing rear cargo door. That combi never left the drawing board, and production closed in 1999 after 63 aircraft.

As airlines began replacing the 2000 with jets, cargo operators took notice: they picked the aircraft up cheaply and paid to have the seats removed, using it as an improvised freighter without a certified conversion behind it.

The formal conversion was undertaken by Swedish maintenance and modification company Täby Air Maintenance (TAM), which already ran the Saab 340 cargo programme — more than 35 aircraft converted — and extended it to the larger sibling. The programme was announced in January 2022 and work on the first aircraft began that same month, with Florida-based lessor Jetstream Aviation Capital as launch customer and development partner; Jetstream is the largest owner of Saab 340s and 2000s in the world. The hold layout is built around six fuselage loading bays divided by nets, plus the original baggage areas: a total volume of 55.4 m³ and a maximum payload of 6,622 kg, spread across six positions of up to 900 kg each and two rear positions limited to 800 and 400 kg, with a floor loading limit of 730 kg. For operations under US Part 135 rules the payload is capped at 3,402 kg. The hold features a strengthened carbon-fibre floor with an integrated roller-ball loading system and LED lighting.

The prototype, a former Saab 2000 of Estonia's NyxAir registered ES-NSJ, flew for the first time as a freighter on 6 March 2023 from TAM's workshop at Örebro, with Petter Lundquist and TAM test pilot Åke Wargh at the controls. It was a 59-minute post-maintenance flight under NyxAir's operator certificate, focused on systems checks: the aircraft had been in the workshop since the previous autumn for the freighter rebuild, regular maintenance and an avionics upgrade. TAM acknowledged delays in the conversion at the time and announced further flight testing. Development stayed open for a good while: in February 2024 it was reported that the 2000(F)'s bleed-air system had to be redesigned.

The EASA Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) came in December 2025, almost four years after work began, with the first approved aircraft still at TAM's facilities at Örebro Airport and deliveries announced for the near future. TAM then submitted the STC to the FAA, which approved it in March 2026 and opened the North American market, where both TAM and Jetstream reported strong operator interest. Compared with the Saab 340 Cargo, the 2000(F) offers more capacity, sector speeds up to 30% faster and longer range, and is aimed at express freight, e-commerce distribution and time-critical logistics networks.

The sources consulted do not publish how many conversions have been completed or who operates the aircraft in regular service; that remains an open gap.