Originally Posted by
Denti
Well, considering the launch customer for the E-Jets back in the days was Crossair, whose RJ100s (after some shenanigans with a bankruptcy and and a german buyout) are now being replaced by the CS100, i guess a big thing in their specification would have been LCY access.
Swiss replaced their BAe/Avro RJ100s at London City some time ago with Embraer 190s operated by Swiss carrier Helvetic. I haven't seen a Swiss RJ in LCY for some months now, so the need seems to have gone. With Cityjet moving on to the Sukhoi, there aren't any other jet carriers at LCY with aircraft to replace.
Regarding showing it as a replacement for the BA service to New York, the A318 currently on this service has 2+2 business class seating. The Bombardier C-series is a whole economy normal seat row narrower than the Airbus (normally 2+3 instead of 3+3), 18" narrower I believe, so I'm not quite sure how you could fit the BA business class seats into it. Anyway, BA are unlikely to want to change their aircraft on the run. The A318 has zero resale potential, there's never been a secondhand sale of one, and some of this type only a couple of years old were broken up for parts, so it's only residuals for something still with plenty of forecast value in the BA accounts (attention Auditors).