BA Cityflyer

[DutchBird-757]

Found this on a different forum;
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BA's fully owned subsidiary airline BA Cityflyer is expected to announce in the next four to six weeks the findings of there renewal review. In a BACF communication to all his employees the BACF boss Peter Simpson wrote:

"Notwithstanding the current severe economic position, evaluations continue with the potential BAe RJ extension or fleet renewal options available to us. I do understand that rumours on this are abound, but I can tell you that no decision has yet been made. I expect that a decision ans approval will be forthcoming in approximately the next six weeks".

BACF based in EDI currently operate a fleet of 2 x RJ85's,10 x RJ100's and 2 x BAe146 leased from Flightline. They operate services from it's LCY hub to EDI, GLA, DUB, AMS, FRA, ZRH, BCN, MAD, NCE and WAW. They will also in December lauch seasonal ski services to GVA 5 x weekly and LYS 2 x weekly. Which will operate until the 28th March 2009.

They have just taken on a engineering hangar at EDI to help improve the aircraft reliability.

There has been many rumours about this renewal in the past. With the current economic problems BA might not want to splash out on new aircraft. So they may try to source more RJ85 aircraft instead. If the decision is taken to replace the fleet.The front runner to replace the RJ's if it goes ahead is a mix of Embraer 170 and 190 aircraft. In recent weeks and months representatives of Embraer where seen at BA HQ and BA managers where in Brazil visiting Embraer. It is thought BA want to expand the BACF fleet to ideally between 16 to18 aircraft. The order is believed to be likely to be made up of around 10 or 11 70 to 76 seater Embraer 170's and 6 to 7 Embraer 190's that will probably be configured to carry around 100 customers.

The 170 already has it's commercial jet steep approach certification. to enable it to operate into LCY and the 190 is expected to go for the same certification in December of this year. Further info available through link below

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CWU/is_/ai_n27279246

However there has also been many whispers that they might replace the fleet with a fleet of 15 to 16 DH8-400 aircraft.

I guess we will find out soon enough
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