CityJet

CityJet
IATA ICAO Callsign
WX BCY CITY-IRELAND
Founded 1992
Commenced operations 1994
Hubs
Alliance

SkyTeam (affiliate)
(when operating for Air France)

Star Alliance (affiliate)
(when operating for SAS)
Subsidiaries Cimber
Fleet size 36
Destinations 18
Headquarters Swords Business Campus
Swords, Ireland
Key people
  • Pat Byrne, Executive Chairman
  • Eugene Quigley, COO
  • Cathal O Connell, CCO
Website cityjet.com

CityJet is an Irish regional airline with headquarters in Swords, County Dublin.[2] It operates its own scheduled services out of London City Airport and to a lesser extent Dublin Airport, where it has maintenance facilities. The airline also operates wet-lease services on behalf of Air France (until October 2017)[3] and Scandinavian Airlines. Air France sold CityJet to Intro Aviation in May 2014.[4] In March 2016 the airline was bought by founder Pat Byrne and other investors.[5]

History

Early years

A CityJet Saab 2000 in 1998

The airline was established on 28 September 1992 and started scheduled operations on 12 January 1994. It was founded by Pat Byrne and began operations between London City Airport and Dublin under a franchise agreement with Virgin Atlantic Airways. On 4 July 1997, the airline began operations on the route using its own identity, with Saab 2000 aircraft.

Initially, CityJet operated the Paris to London City service on behalf of Air France. In May 1999, in partnership with Air Foyle Ireland, Air France took a 25% equity stake in the airline. In February 2002, Air France assumed complete control.[6] The airline from this time was marketed as CityJet for Air France.

Geoffrey O’Byrne White replaced Jacques Bankir as CEO of CityJet in 2000, and held this position until 2010.

On 24 December 2007, Air France-KLM announced that it had signed an agreement for a full takeover of VLM Airlines NV from Panta Holdings[7] and announced on 28 May 2009 that VLM Airlines would gradually start to operate under the brand name CityJet. As of 1 June 2010, the whole VLM Airlines Fokker 50 fleet wore full CityJet livery, although VLM remained the owner of its own Airline Operators Certificate, and the Fokker 50 fleet is listed on the Belgian registry.

CityJet filed a pretax loss of €51.5 million for the year to the end of March 2010. This compared to a €53.9 million loss in the year to end March 2009. Revenues fell by 8 percent from €282.4 million to €258.9 million over the same period. Passenger numbers grew, climbing by 6.5 percent to 2.1 million, while average fares dropped by 16 percent.[8] Christine Ourmières joined as new chief executive on 1 October 2010. She has previously held a number of senior posts within the Air France-KLM group. In the IATA year ending 31 March 2010, CityJet carried just over 1 million passengers on its London City network.

Latest developments

CityJet's first Sukhoi Superjet 100

In June 2012 it was announced that Air France-KLM was considering selling CityJet to support its own ailing business,[9] with a further statement in April 2013 that the winning bidder would be announced in the summer of 2013.[10]

As of October 2013 the operational agreement with Air France has been replaced by codesharing. CityJet since then operates most routes under its own WX code instead of Air France's.[11] In December 2013 Air France announced it would sell CityJet including VLM Airlines to German investor Intro Aviation. The transfer was completed in May 2014.[4][12] CityJet subsidiary VLM Airlines was bought by its own management and cut itself loose from CityJet. However, they were to remain flying routes as ACMI operator for CityJet until at least Summer 2015.

In 2014, CityJet started a new codeshare with Guernsey based airline Blue Islands, after Blue Islands pulled out of selected European routes. Blue Islands would operate flights from Jersey to London City, and then passengers would get onto a CityJet operated flight to a European destination.[13] This ended in March 2016.[14]

It was announced in November 2014, that CityJet routes from Cardiff to Edinburgh and Paris-Orly were to be operated by Stobart Air from 1 December 2014.[15] However, both routes will cease by June 2015 since Flybe introduced flights the same routes from Cardiff, supported by the airports's operator.[16]

In June 2015, CityJet announced the termination of Dresden, the last of four German destinations, due to low demand.[17] In October 2015, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) announced it would sell its Finnish subsidiary Blue1 to CityJet which however was planned continue to operate the company on behalf of SAS as part of a larger cooperation.[18][19] However, during 2016 Blue1 has been dissolved and merged into its new parent CityJet.[20]

On 28 June 2016, CityJet inaugurated its Sukhoi Superjet 100 revenue services with its first scheduled flight from Cork to Nantes.[21] Early December 2016, CityJet started recruiting Flight & Cabin Crew for a new Sukhoi Superjet 100 base in Brussels, Belgium.[22][23]

In January 2017, CityJet agreed to buy Cimber, which has a fleet of 11 CRJ900s,[24] from Scandinavian Airlines. CityJet will continue to operate flights on behalf of SAS.[25] From November 2017 CityJet will no longer operate Air France flights and the affected destinations will be served by Air France and HOP! from then on.[3] This will result in the closure of their base at Paris–Charles de Gaulle Airport.[3]

In March 2017, CityJet stated that it planned to focus more on its wetlease business while reducing its own scheduled flights. This will lead to the closure of routes from London-City to Nantes and Paris as well as a downgrade of frequencies on other routes. CityJet plans to operate 80 percent of all flights on a wetlease basis in the near future.[26]

On 5 April 2017, it was announced that KLM Cityhopper would wet lease two Avro RJ85s from CityJet in order to operate four additional Amsterdam–London City services per weekday over the Summer 2017 season, starting 15 May 2017.[27]

Destinations

CityJet operates under its own name with a codeshare-agreement with Air France and KLM[28] and additionally also operates several routes for Air France,[28] Scandinavian Airlines and Brussels Airlines[29] on a wetlease contract. One of its main competitors is BA CityFlyer which is also based at London City Airport.

Fleet

CityJet Avro RJ85

As of 30 June 2017, the CityJet fleet consists of the following aircraft:[30]

CityJet Fleet
Aircraft In Service Orders Passengers Notes
Y Total
Avro RJ85 16 — 95 95 To be replaced by Sukhoi Superjet 100 by 2019–2020
Bombardier CRJ900 14 8[31] 90 90 Operated for Scandinavian Airlines[32]
Sukhoi Superjet 100 6 9 98 98 Four operated for Brussels Airlines.
To replace the Avro RJ85 fleet[33][34][35][36]
Total 36 17

The existing entire Bombardier CRJ900 fleet is on wetlease to SAS - operate exclusively on behalf of SAS with crew from CityJet, in SAS livery. CRJ900 on order will replace Cimber aircraft in 2017 and 2018.[24]

Sponsorships

See also

References

Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.cityjet.com/news/cityjet-to-fly-new-aircraft-for-sas.shtml
  2. ↑ "CityJet Archived 2010-12-05 at the Wayback Machine.." Air France. Retrieved on 21 June 2010. "Address: CityJet Ltd. Swords Business Campus Balheary Road Swords, Co. Dublin Ireland"
  3. 1 2 3 "Air France". Air France. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Air France confirms offer from Intro Aviation for CityJet, VLM - ch-aviation.com". Ch-aviation.ch. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  5. ↑ "https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cityjet-sale-idUSKCN0WQ1C4"
  6. ↑ CityJet wins Airline of the Year; CityJet.com Archived 2008-12-18 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ Message on the VLM website announcing the takeover Archived November 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. - access date 24 December 2007
  8. ↑ Irish Times article reporting filing of CityJet's annual accounts
  9. ↑ volaspheric: Air France-KLM considering to sell CityJet
  10. ↑ "Irish regional CityJet CEO impressed with bidders | Wales Air Forum". Walesairforum.wordpress.com. 2013-04-11. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  11. ↑ "Cityjet to terminate Air France franchise agreement from October - ch-aviation.com". Ch-aviation.ch. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  12. ↑ http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/transport-and-tourism/irish-based-airline-cityjet-finalises-sale-to-intro-aviation-1.1780044
  13. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  14. ↑ https://blueislands.com Archived 2016-04-04 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ Stobart Air
  16. ↑ "Cityjet pulls out of Cardiff in protest at Flybe routes". ch-aviation. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  17. ↑ "aero.de - Luftfahrt-Nachrichten und -Community". aero.de. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  18. ↑ businesswire.com - SAS Enters into Agreements with Cityjet for Wet Lease and Sale of Blue1 1 October 2015
  19. ↑ "CityJet to Fly New Aircraft For SAS". www.cityjet.com. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
  20. ↑ http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airline/KF
  21. ↑ ch-aviation.com - CityJet begins scheduled SuperJet operations 1 July 2016
  22. ↑ "Superjet bases available Brussels". www.cityjet.com. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
  23. ↑ "Senior Cabin Crew based in Brussels, Belgium". www.latestpilotjobs.com. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
  24. 1 2 Nelson, Chris (25 Jan 2017). "Bombardier wins CRJ900 jet order from Irish carrier CityJet". The National. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  25. ↑ http://www.independent.ie/business/world/cityjet-to-pay-up-to-434m-for-new-jets-and-buys-denmarks-cimber-35393127.html
  26. ↑ aerotelegraph.com - "More Wetlease - CityJet reduces at London City Airport" (German) 1 March 2017
  27. ↑ "KLM Cityhopper signs agreement with CityJet for the summer season". www.klm.com. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
  28. 1 2 "Cityjet to terminate Air France franchise agreement from October - ch-aviation.com". Ch-aviation.ch. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  29. ↑ http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/53853-brussels-airlines-outlines-initial-superjet-operations
  30. ↑ "Latest Register and Monthly Changes". Irish Aviation Authority. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  31. ↑ http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/54700-cityjet-firms-up-four-more-crj-900-options
  32. ↑ http://www.sasgroup.net/en/sas-enters-into-agreements-with-cityjet-for-wet-lease-and-sale-of-blue1/
  33. ↑ "CityJet to Receive Its First SSJ-100 in May". Russian Aviator Insider. 14 March 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  34. ↑ "CityJet to Take Delivery of 15 Superjet SSJ100". CityJet. 13 October 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  35. ↑ http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/42515-cityjet-eyes-more-euro-white-label-contracts
  36. ↑ "First Superjet SSJ100". www.cityjet.com. Retrieved 2016-06-21.
  37. ↑ "Celebrates The Heineken Cup As Official Airline Of The Leinster Team". CityJet. Retrieved 2014-03-07.

Bibliography

Media related to CityJet at Wikimedia Commons

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