Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 42 seconds.
A Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft in SAS livery. Bombardier Photo
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 US$369 million. The value could increase to US$651 million if all options are exercised.
“The long-term profitability and development of our airline is dependent on the addition of modern, fuel-efficient aircraft to our fleet. The CRJ900 jetliners with their lower operating costs, outstanding operational flexibility and enhanced cabin amenities were key factors in our successful tender for our new SAS contract,” said Pat Byrne, executive chairman, CityJet.
“As a long-time regional operator for some of Europe’s finest airlines, we are pleased to add SAS to our list of distinguished customers.”
“We are looking forward to working with CityJet to further expand our regional route network and thereby strengthen SAS’ offering to frequent travelers. These new Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft from CityJet will provide us with efficient and flexible production of regional flights that will feed our larger traffic flows and will complement nicely the 12 CRJ900 aircraft in SAS’ current network operation,” said Rickard Gustafson, president and CEO at SAS.
“We welcome CityJet as the newest member to the CRJ aircraft family. With its unique operations, CityJet has forged strong business relationships with many of Bombardier’s long-standing customers, such as SAS who now look to CityJet’s expertise for their network growth,” said Ryan DeBrusk, vice president of sales, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft.
“CityJet brings an impressive amount of knowledge and experience in the wet lease market whereby it will now provide airlines with modern aircraft, crews and maintenance for operation.”
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 US$86 million.
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.
