The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017 47Berlin, Stockholm and Zurich.
Only Swiss and CityJet are still
regularly operating Avro RJs into London
City at the beginning of 2017 and Swiss is
replacing them with more modern types.
At one point Dublin-based CityJet had 27
RJ85s and seven of CityJet’s RJ85s are due
to remain in service for the foreseeable
future. The airline focuses on high-
frequency services for business travellers
including vital linkage routes from major
hubs to regional centres in Europe.
Though the predominance of the 146/
RJ has passed at London City Airport, the
significance of each to the other cannot
be under-estimated.
British Aerospace averts
bankruptcy
Throughout the late 1980’s, British
Aerospace needed to generate cash from
sales for its large production operation so
the number of aircraft on lease had
expanded rapidly in the 1980s as the sales
force had sought to place the 146s, ATPs
and Jetstreams with customers. The
manufacturer essentially sold aircraft to
finance companies, which then leased
them back to BAe for it to remarket them
to airlines on short, flexible subleases.
In 1992 the civil market took a
dramatic turn for the worse. Airlines
began returning significant numbers of
their leased aircraft at appreciably
depleted values with little prospect ofThe lasT BriTish airliner – The Bae 146
finding new customers at sustainable
rates, leaving BAe to pay the lease rentals
to the financiers. The impact on profit and
cash was disastrous. BAe came close to
ruin as it was hit by this financial crisis
brought on by the potential financial
exposure to its regional aircraft lease
book.
The BAe Regional Aircraft business had
been driven by the need to fill the
factories, rather than delivering valuable
business. So with any continuing
production there had to be real sales not
leases. The objective was to do business
with blue chip operators, to go for quality
rather than yield - better to take a lower
price but get paid in cash.
British Aerospace decided on a The trio of
development RJs in
September 1992.
G-BUFI RJ70, G-ISEE
RJ85, and G-OIII
RJ100. (BAE Systems) Lufthansa
operated a fleet of
18 RJ85s from 1994
until 2012.
(BAE Systems)G-6-321 which became N509XJ with Northwest, at one time the
largest 146/RJ operator, which received 36 RJ85s between 1997
and 2000. (BAE Systems)