By Skies Magazine | April 5, 2013 Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 3 seconds.
Six brand-new Bombardier dash-8 Q400s for Jazz Aviation LP of Halifax, N.S. have been delivered in recent weeks. All six were manufactured sequentially in a block (construction numbers 416-421), and delivered from Toronto Downsview Airport to Toronto Lester B. Pearson International Airport, where they entered service.
These deliveries are the first of a series of options from the original Jazz order of 15 Q400 NextGen aircraft from April 30 2010 valued at approximately $454 million US. Deliveries of the 15 original aircraft commenced in June 2011 with C-GGOY c/n 4365 and completed delivery with C-GGMI c/n 4413 in July 2012. Options for 15 had been contingent with the original order, and six options were exercised and announced at Farnborough in July 2012, where a Jazz Q400 was also displayed. They are operated by Jazz under the Air Canada Express brand and are painted as such.
The Q400 in Jazz’s network complements the world’s largest fleet of legacy dash-8s, consisting of early build dash-8-102 and -301/311 series aircraft, of which it currently operates 36 and 28 respectively. Jazz Air’s Q400s accommodate 74 passengers, and are configured in a single cabin. The six optioned Q400s are replacing nine 50-seat CRJ 100 aircraft, which will be removed from the Jazz fleet between December 2012 and May 2013. As a result, the Jazz fleet operated under the Capacity Purchase Agreement (CPA) with Air Canada will be reduced from 125 to 122 aircraft, with the overall seating capacity being held relatively constant (net six-seat reduction incurred with the fleet changes). In February 2013 the annual minimum guaranteed block hours in the CPA of 339,000 was reduced to approximately 331,000 block hours to reflect the new number of 122 aircraft.
The new aircraft will be leased via Chorus Aviation Inc. to Jazz. The purchase is supported by a third-party lender under terms similar to the original order of 15 Q400 aircraft. Chorus Aviation Inc. is a dividend-paying holding company which owns Jazz Aviation LP, Chorus Leasing I Inc., Chorus Leasing II Inc., and Chorus Leasing III Inc. (the leasing companies which own the Q400 aircraft).
Jazz operates the bulk of its fleet as a division on behalf of Air Canada Express in Canada and specific destinations the United States on scheduled service to lower-density markets as well as higher-density markets at off-peak times. This entails with over 790 departures per weekday to 83 destinations (56 Canadian) with a fleet of exclusively Canadian-made Bombardier aircraft. Under the Jazz brand, the airline offers charters throughout North America with a dedicated fleet of five Bombardier aircraft.
