CityJet Signs Agreement With Bombardier

Bombardier Commercial Aircraft has welcomed Dublin-based CityJet (CityJet) to the CRJ Series family of aircraft operators following confirmation that it will operate CRJ900 aircraft in the network of Sweden’s Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). CityJet will acquire the aircraft from a customer that signed a firm purchase agreement for eight CRJ900 aircraft and took options on an additional six. The customer has requested to remain unidentified at this time.

Based on the list price of the CRJ900 aircraft, the firm agreement signed by Bombardier and its customer is valued at approximately $369 million USD. The value could increase to $651 million USD if all options are exercised. 

CRJ700 Order

Bombardier Commercial Aircraft also announced that a long-standing customer, who has requested to remain unidentified at this time, has signed a firm purchase agreement for two CRJ700 aircraft.

Based on the list price for the CRJ700 aircraft, the firm order is valued at approximately $86 million US.

Including both firm agreements, Bombardier has recorded firm orders for 1,873 CRJ Series aircraft. Worldwide, CRJ Series aircraft are in service with more than 60 airlines and over 60 customers operate corporate variants of the aircraft in more than 50 countries on six continents. CRJ Series aircraft have transported more than 1.5 billion passengers and have logged more than 41 million flight hours and over 34 million takeoffs and landings.

CityJet is an Irish airline with its headquarters near Dublin airport in Swords but whose main base is London City airport (LCY).  CityJet currently has a fleet of 18 RJ85 aircraft operating under its own WX code as well as an historic ACMI contract for Air France.

CityJet was owned by Air France (AF) until April 2014 and was operated solely to support passenger feed to AF.  Since then the airline has been very successful in consolidating its position as an independent airline on its own branded route network centred at LCY where it holds 30% of the slots. 

Over the last 9 months, CityJet has put in place the right people and infrastructure such that the management team believes it now has a stable platform on which to roll out its proposed strategy which is to consolidate its position at LCY, to develop other niche markets and extend its ACMI business beyond its AF contract.  The SAS contract represents the first significant step in this regard.

SAS is Scandinavia’s leading airline, with daily flights to destinations in Europe, the USA, and Asia. SAS is a member of Star Alliance™ and through its 26 partners is able to offer over 1,200 destinations in 193 countries around the world.