Tag Archives: RJ85

LaMia Avro RJ85 crashes in Colombia

LaMia Airlines (Cochabamba, Bolivia) Avro RJ85 CP-2933 has crashed in Colombia:

From Wikipedia:

On November 28, 2016 an Avro RJ85 aircraft, operating as LaMia Airlines flight 2933 (LMI 2933), crashed while transporting a Brazilian football team Associação Chapecoense de Futebol from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, to José María Córdova International Airport in Medellín, Colombia.

The chartered RJ85 CP-2933 (msn E2348) carried 81 people, comprising 72 passengers—including the team (which was en route to play the 2016 Copa Sudamericana Finals against Colombian team Atlético Nacional) and 21 journalists; and a crew of 9.

Below Copyright Photo: Sister Ship: LAMIA BAe RJ85 P4-GIU (msn E2349) NWI (Ton Jochems). Image: 907171.

CityJet introduces a new brand, new aircraft coming

CityJet (Dublin) on September 4 introduced a new look for the airline on the pictured BAe (Avro) RJ85 EI-RJT (msn E2366). The company is also looking at replacement aircraft that would be capable of flying into London’s City Airport (LCY). Competition is probably between Embraer and Bombardier. Bombardier is working on the certification for its new CS100 at LCY. The company issued this statement:

CityJet, the Irish European regional airline, on September 4 unveiled its new brand and earmarked plans for future expansion, investment and job creation.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe TD, officially unveiled the airline’s new brand at an event in CityJet’s Dublin Airport hangar.

Since becoming independent of Air France ownership in 2014, CityJet has developed significantly in the market and now employs almost 500 staff, with over 300 based at its headquarters in Swords, Co. Dublin, and additional crew bases in London and Paris. The new branding represents a further step forward as an independent airline and comes at an exciting time of change for CityJet.

CityJet Executive Chairman Pat Byrne announced that the airline will open a new call center in Dublin with effect from March next year, initially creating 15 jobs, while in the past three months it has hired almost 60 additional staff, including 24 new pilots and 30 cabin crew and four executive officers.

Mr Byrne said: “This is a new look for a new era as we continue to grow our passenger numbers and invest in our staff and fleet. Today is a special day as we bring CityJet forward with a new dynamic branding, which I would refer to as inside-out branding as it based hugely on what our staff across the airline determined it should be.”

“We are also at an advanced stage in investment in our fleet and hope to be in a position to make an announcement in the coming weeks. We expect to create further employment opportunities in the air and on the ground across our network. The opening of our new call centre in Swords will provide our customers with an enhanced service offering. We are also concurrently investing in developing our technology and customer loyalty services to ensure CityJet continues to provide excellent facilities to all customers.

The Executive Chairman said: “We will carry over two million passengers this year on our own scheduled services network, on our wet lease program for Air France and on our charter services. We are seeing continual growth across our network as awareness of CityJet increases. CityJet is a pan-European airline, with over 70% of our passengers travelling between London and mainland Europe. Our flagship Dublin to London City route has seen a 40% growth in the last six months whilst advance bookings for our new Cork to London City service, which commences on October 1, are strong. We look forward to introducing CityJet – and the ease of travel through London City Airport – to business and leisure passengers in Munster in a few weeks time.”

Top Copyright Photo: Michael Kelly/AirlinersGallery.com. RJ85 EI-RJT (msn E2366) sits outside the Dublin hangar after the unveiling ceremony.

CityJet aircraft slide show:

Below Photo: CityJet.

Summit Air to operate its Avro (BAe) RJ85s on two routes for First Air and to the Rio Tinto Diavik Diamond Mine

Summit Air (Yellowknife) will begin operating its 90-seat Avro (BAe) RJ85s on two routes for First Air (Ottawa). On January 27 the company will begin operating on the Yellowknife – Edmonton route and on February 2 it will begin operating on the Yellowknife – Norman Wells – Inuvik route.

On January 20 Summit Air announced the purchase of a second Avro RJ85 jet to meet market demand for remote destination crew movements and ACMI (aircraft, crew maintenance and insurance) contracts.

Summit Air is part of the Ledcor Group of Companies and operates a fleet of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft throughout Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest and Yukon Territories.

According to the company release, “The Avro RJ85 is a 100-seat high performance, short-haul passenger jet, offering modern, efficient operations on flights up to 1500 nautical miles (2,800 kilometers). Rugged and versatile, its high wing design is capable of operations on both paved and gravel runways and is equipped with self-contained boarding air stair and auxiliary power unit to provide independence at remote airfields.”

“In partnership with the Det’on Cho Logistics, our Avro RJ85 operations will service the Rio Tinto Diavik Diamond Mine from Edmonton,” said Rob Mauracher. “We have also inked a partnership agreement with First Air, flying commercial passenger services for them under a long term ACMI contract from Edmonton and Yellowknife.”

Summit Air’s second AVRO RJ85 is scheduled to be delivered in late April 2015.

Summit’s AVRO RJ85 is a UK-built aircraft equipped with auto throttle, EFIS flight deck, WAAS/LPV capable and is the only next generation jet certified in Canada for operations onto gravel runways. With a long-range cruising speed of 720 km/hr (450 mph), and a maximum operating speed of 763 km/hr (475 mph), the Avro has a 43,000 kg (97,000 lbs.) maximum takeoff weight.

The aircraft is powered by four Honeywell LF507-1F high bypass FADEC engines capable of 7000 lbs of thrust each. The engines feature low noise levels and low emissions, making it one of the quietest and greenest aircraft in its class.

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton/AirlinersGallery.com. The first Summit Air BAe (Avro) RJ85 is pictured as G-CHKP (msn E2302) at Southend which became C-FLRJ on delivery.

First Air aircraft slide show:

Summit Air aircraft slide show:

Routes to be operated by Summit Air:

Brussels Airlines to retire the last BAe RJ85 tomorrow

Brussels Airlines (Brussels) is planning to phase out its last BAe (Avro) RJ85 tomorrow (September 19). The last flight is scheduled to be a roundtrip flight from Brussels to Stockholm (Bromma) and return. The last flight will be flown with the pictured OO-DJP (msn E2287). After the retirement, Brussels will continue to operate 12 BAe (Avro) RJ100s.

In other news, the company is now using a new tagline:

“The new tagline ‘We Go The Extra Smile’ expresses this mission and the airline no longer speaks about passengers, but calls them ‘guests’ instead.”

The airline appears to also be heading towards a new livery with this short statement:

“Brussels Airlines has teamed up with marketing agency TBWA, who have worked out a fresh new style for the airline, with new colors which will be used in all future campaigns.”

Meanwhile the airline is reporting an increase in traffic in August and released this statement:

“Brussels Airlines registered a very strong passenger growth of 19.1% during the month of August. In total, the airline welcomed over 100,000 passengers more compared to the same month last year. The seat load factor rose by 4.4 percentage points to 81.5%.
A total of 622,845 passengers opted for a European or intercontinental Brussels Airlines flight last month. That’s 100,055 more passengers than in August 2013. The strong growth is due to the expansion of the flight offer to Mediterranean summer destinations, the highly competitive ticket fares and the increase in the number of connecting passengers (intra-European and European-intercontinental). With this increase, Brussels Airlines follows the general growth trend registered by Brussels Airport.

Out of the 622,845 passengers, 520,422 flew to short or medium-haul destinations and 102,423 boarded a flight to or from the US or Africa.

The growth trend, which Brussels Airlnes has continuously registered since the beginning of the year, has also led to a higher overall seat load factor. The passenger load factor grew by 4.4 percentage points to 81.5%, a record in the history of the airline.

In addition to its scheduled flight activity, Brussels Airlines operated many holiday flights for tour operators, meeting and incentive agencies and sports clubs. The most important event last month was without a doubt Red Devils flight ‘SN2014’.”

Top Copyright Photo: Karl Cornil/AirlinersGallery.com. OO-DJP arrives back at the Brussels base.

Brussels Airlines:

Bottom Copyright Photo: Brussels Airlines. The airline will soon introduce a new look.

CityJet to be sold to Intro Aviation

CityJet (Dublin) and its subsidiary VLM Airlines will be sold by AirFrance-KLM to Intro Aviation. Air France-KLM on March 28 agreed to accept the offer from Intro Aviation. The new owners are expected to take control in about four weeks. CityJet (Air France by CityJet) will continue to fly for Air France.

Air France-KLM issued this short statement:

On March 28, 2014 Air France accepted the firm offer received in December 2013 from Intro Aviation GmbH to purchase CityJet and its VLM subsidiary. The closing of the transaction for the CityJet shares should take place in April 2014.

Air France and CityJet will pursue their commercial co-operation as part of a new industrial plan which foresees, in particular, the development of flights under the CityJet brand on departure from London City to European destinations, and CityJet continuing to operate flights on behalf of Air France on departure from Paris-CDG.

The announcement of this future sale is important for the staff of CityJet and VLM. One of the aims of the operation is to set the conditions for a new long-term development for the company and its staff.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. CityJet’s BAe RJ85 EI-RJG (msn E2344) lands at EuroAirport in Air France colors.

CityJet:

Air France by CityJet:

Air Annobón to take delivery of its first BAe RJ85

Air Annobón (San Antonio de Pale, Annobón Island, Equatorial Guinea) is getting ready to take delivery of its first BAe (Avro) RJ85. The pictured RJ85 EI-RJS (msn E2365) was painted in Shannon and has repositioned back to Dublin pending delivery as 3C-MAA. The jetliner is named “Mebana”

Annobón Island (named after “ano bom”, Portuguese for “good year”), also known as Pagalu or Pigalu, is an island of the coast of Equatorial Guinea and is part of the Cameroon Line archipelago according to Wikipedia.

The remote airline was established in 2012 and currently wet leases two 99-seat BAe 146-300s (ZS-SBR and ZS-SOR) from Fair Aviation (Lanseria) in order to operate the daily Malabo-Bata route according to The African Aviation Tribune. According to this report the airline started operations on this route on January 25, 2013. The new addition is expected to replace this wet lease agreement.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Air Annobón:

CityJet will be merged with InterSky

CityJet (Dublin and London-City) is currently owned by the Air France-KLM Group and is for sale. As previously reported, last month the group announced Intro Aviation GmbH, of which Hans Rudolf Woehrl is a co-founder, made an offer pending finalization to acquire CityJet as well as its subsidiary VLM Airlines. The deal is expected to close in this quarter.

Now German aviation investor Hans Rudolf Woehrl says he wants to merge CityJet with InterSky Lufthfahrt (Bregenz, Austria and Friedrichshafen, Germany) according to this report by Reuters. Intro Aviation controls 74.9 percent of the InterSky stock.

Woehrl wants the merged new carrier to serve regional routes that will not upset the major carriers.

Read the full article: CLICK HERE

Top Copyright Photo: Pepscl/AirlinersGallery.com. CityJet operates most of its flights for Air France. It is unclear if the Air France relationship will survive the sale and merger. BAe RJ85 EI-RJH (msn E2344) taxies at Charles de Gaulle (CDG) hub near Paris.

CityJet:

Air France by CityJet:

InterSky:

Bottom Copyright Photo: Andi Hiltl/AirlinersGallery.com. InterSky operates three Bombardier DHC-8-300s(Q300) and two ATR 72-600s. InterSky’s ATR 72-212A (ATR 72-600) OE-LIB (msn 1038) lands at Zurich.

InterSky’s seasonal and regular routes from Friedrichshafen:

Air France-KLM to sell CityJet to Intro Aviation

Air France (Paris) and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam) have received a firm offer from Intro Aviation of Germany to acquire CityJet (Dublin) and VLM Airlines for an undisclosed amount. The sale is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014. CityJet is expected to continue to fly for Air France.

The group issued this short statement:

On December 19, 2013, Air France-KLM received a firm offer from Intro Aviation GmbH to purchase CityJet and its subsidiary, VLM.

This offer provides for an ongoing commercial co-operation with Air France as part of a new industrial plan.

Employee representative bodies of the various entities will be informed and consulted.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton/AirlinersGallery.com. CityJet’s BAe RJ85 EI-RJJ (msn E2347) climbs away from the runway at Southend.

CityJet (Ireland):

CityJet’s routes from London City Airport:

Air France to sell CityJet to Intro Aviation of Germany

CityJet (Dublin), a subsidiary of Air France (Paris), has been for sale since September 2012. According to this report by Independent.ie, the feeder airline will be sold to German turnaround specialist Intro Aviation. Intro specializes in buying money losing carriers, turning around the fortunes of the airline and then reselling the carrier when it is on better financial footing.

Today’s CityJet was formed from a merger between the old CityJet and VLM Airlines.

Both airlines were formed in the early 1990s, with a focus on providing high quality, high frequency services to business travellers flying between London and key points in the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe.

Established from a Dublin base in 1993, CityJet commenced services in January 1994, with its first scheduled flights on the Dublin to London City route. In the same year, VLM Airlines began its first scheduled service from Antwerp to London City.

CityJet commenced its alliance with Air France in 1996, operating the Paris Charles de Gaulle to London City route under contract.

In early 2000, Air France-KLM assumed sole ownership of CityJet, marked with the airline operating routes linking Europe to its parent company’s Charles de Gaulle hub.

2007 saw CityJet announce a major expansion of it’s London City network, with the opening of eight new routes, in addition to the existing Dublin and Paris operations (see map below):

CityJet’s senior management team is led by CEO Christine Ourmières.

Read the full story: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: SM Fitzwilliams Collection/AirlinersGallery.com. Formerly operated by Mesaba Airlines for NWA Airlink as N526XJ, BAe RJ85 EI-RJN (msn E2351) arrives back at the Dublin base (click on the photo for the full size view). All other photos by CityJet.

CityJet:

Video:

Lufthansa CityLine retires the last British Aerospace AVRO RJ85

Lufthansa CityLine (Lufthansa Regional) (Cologne/Bonn) today (August 27) said goodbye after 18 years to its AVRO (British Aerospace) fleet with the last revenue flight arriving at the Munich hub.

After 18 years, the last of 18 British Aerospace AVRO RJ85s left the fleet. Operating under flight number LH 1985, RJ85 D-AVRR (msn E2317) flew its last scheduled revenue flight. The last flight arrived at 11.10 hours local time on a flight from Cologne to Munich. Lufthansa CityLine has replaced the type with newer Embraer ERJ 190s and ERJ 195s.

The company operated the the first “Jumbolino” flight in 1994 with the registration of D-AVRO. The operation of the four-engined jet aircraft set the stage for the development of Lufthansa CityLine as an all-jet operator. In the past 18 years, the AVRO fleet has accumulated more than 575,000 flights and flown more than 30 million passengers safely to their destinations.

Lufthansa CityLine is a 100 percent subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. Lufthansa Regional operates around 350 daily flight to 75 destinations in 24 European countries.

Top Copyright Photo: Lufthansa. D-AVRR arrives to the traditional water cannon salute at MUC on its last arrival today.

Lufthansa CityLine Slide Show: