Bae
 

BAE signs jet deal with Lufthansa
06/04/2005 14:51


LONDON (Reuters) - BAE Systems says it has signed leases with Lufthansa that will add 11 BAE-built regional jets to the fleets of the German firm’s regional airlines.

Eurowings will lease six BAE 146-300s, raising its fleet to 14, with deliveries beginning this month.

Air Dolomiti will lease five of the same model, BAE said in a statement on Wednesday.

Lufthansa Cityline will also sell and lease back three BAE RJ85s.

BAE did not provide financial details.

The deals will make Lufthansa’s regional airlines the biggest operators of BAE’s 146/Avro RJ aircraft with a fleet of 37, BAE said in a statement.

The company stopped production of the aircraft in 2003

Yes,every one of them is an ex Buzz or Aer Lingus machine,most from storage.

Wow just like the good old days when the UK actually built whole passenger jets, not just bits for others. At least the Whisperjets will fly for a bit longer!

Does anyone know the likely fate of those currently lying forlornly at Essenden - presumably ex-Ansett?

Don't know,but found this pic from last year!

http://www.flugzeugbilder.de/show.php?id=190353

Did a little more research,and found a reference to one which was stored at Essendon ,ZK-NZK(ex VH-EWN),which is now stored at Melbourne with quite a lot of others,some having been already scrapped.
Also came across a report of FIVE of them coming together at Melbourne in 04/03 in high winds,all being stored at the time.
I find this stuff amazingly interesting,just hope some others do too! :D

I am so TERRIBLY sorry! I\'ve just discovered that Essendon IS Melbourne! I\'ve never been to OZ,am I now banned?

There were 12 stored at Essendon and Tullamarine(BOTH Melbourne airports!) on Ansett's closure (in 2002?), now less as mentioned above,some have been scrapped.

That's just under 10% of all BAe 146s/Avro RJs right there. Add in Swiss' 19 Avro RJs (LH is buying Swiss), and we get to nearly 15% of the entire production run in service with the Lufthansa group!

You can find BAe 146/Avro RJ news at the Smiliner website.

Ah! what a Gas!:E

BAE Systems make more money out of leasing these jets out than they ever did from building them.

By the way - has anyone clocked the Antonov 148?

Looks just like a 2 engined 146, I reckon.

Yes,there was a thread running on the Antonov,just a cut down RJX!

Moggiee, I guess you mean they make more money leasing them than they did when they were trading them when they were still building them? They lost a lot of money in the 80s when they did some major deals with recourse to BAe if the airlines defaulted - which many did, hence they set up their Asset Management Organisation which has kept the aircraft in the air and brought in money, but not sure that the billions lost have been recovered.

By the way the joke in Flight this week is:

"What do you get if you take 2 away from 146?"

"148!!"

Anyone remember BAE's NRA which was basically a twin engined 146 development, before they copped out and went for the Avro RJ instead?

Yes, brabazon, I remember the NRA. I was working in sales for BAe at the time, and we all thought it might be the great white hope to put us on competing terms with the F-100. Sadly it was not to be. I think the rot had already set in by that time, and the fact that Fokker went to the wall eventually still didn't help sales of the 146/RJ.
I notice by the way that the newly-formed Rekkof (no prizes for guessing where that name came from!), although unable to build new aircraft, is now re-marketing the F70/100 on lease packages. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Speaking of that, interesting to see that with the AN148 the Russkies continue to copy UK designs, adding to the Harrier/VC10/ Trident/Concorde/IL114 portfolio!