CityJet has successfully
grown its ACMI business
in recent years and
is now one of the
major players in the
European market.
SUPERJET INTERNATIONAL90 AIRLINER WORLD SEPTEMBER 2017F
or many years in the US,
smaller airline operators
have flown sub-100 seat air-
craft on behalf of mainline
carriers. In Europe, this type
of flying has been carried out by the
larger companies themselves, often
to the detriment of their finances.
Recently there has been a shift in strat-
egy and ‘legacy’ airlines are starting to
look to smaller carriers to take on these
thinner routes because they are able to
do so at a much lower operating cost.
CityJet is one such airline keen to
capitalise on this growing market and
recently began moving away from its
own scheduled flying to focus more
on the ‘wet-lease’ operation.“Our intention, is that we will develop
CityJet into the best ACMI [aircraft,
crew, maintenance and insurance]
provider in Europe, but also, we see it
as important that we maintain sched-
uled flying in our own right as well,”
explained Cathal O’Connell, the
airline’s Chief Commercial Officer.
The Dublin-based carrier has longbeen a franchise operator for Air
France and recently joined forces with
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Brussels
Airlines and KLM, providing its ACMI
services.
“We see that within the European
market place, there is a potential
change in the strategy of major car-
riers, where there is a desire to out-
source sub-100 seat capacity to airlines
that can deliver that in a cost-effective
way,” continued O’Connell. “We have
got to a situation where over 75% of
our business is now ACMI flying on
behalf of other airlines. That has been
a change in strategy over the last 18
months and an area where we will now
focus our growth.”CityJet has successfully
reinvented itself as a specialist ACMI
provider, offering its regional expertise to legacy carriers
throughout Europe, as Lee Cross explains.
CityCityJet
Evolves
“Our intention, is that
we will develop CityJet
into the best ACMI
provider in Europe”
CityJet's CCO Cathal O’Connell