Airliner World — September 2017

CityJet eased the

SSJ100 into service,

using the type on

its ad hoc charter

flights while it built up

crew numbers.

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RUDI BOIGELOT

94 AIRLINER WORLD SEPTEMBER 2017

to make sense for us. Our intention is
to continue our scheduled flying to
act as a ‘shop window’ for our wet-
lease clients.”
This commitment was further
cemented when the airline announced
plans to increase frequency on its
flagship Dublin route, on which
passenger numbers continue to grow,
and the introduction of a range of new
benefits for travellers using its services
at London City Airport.

Enter the Russians

In October 2015 CityJet shocked the

aviation world by becoming the first

European operator to order the Sukhoi

Superjet 100 (SSJ100), intended to

replace its ageing Avro RJ85 fleet,

which has an average age of 18 years.

The deal included 15 firm orders and

options for 16 more, with the first

of the 98-seat aircraft, EI-FWA (c/n

95102), handed over on May 24, 2016.

O’Connell explained: “If you look

at our delivery profile with the first

three jets arriving in the second half

of 2016 and the rest staggered during

2017/2018, we deliberately began using

the SSJ100 in a relatively low utilisa-

tion environment, in that we allocated

our first units to our ad-hoc charter

market. There was a huge learning

curve with the Superjet. It’s not an

aircraft where we can go out and

recruit trained crew because they don’t

exist. So we had to plan the delivery of

Sukhoi has delivered six

SSJ100s to the airline so

fa r. AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/

RUDI BOIGELOT

There was a huge

learning curve with

the Superjet. It’s not

an aircraft where we

can go out and recruit

trained crew because

they don’t exist.