CityJet (WX, Dublin International) will keep its fleet of sixteen ARJ-85s in commercial service for longer than previously expected thanks to the recent drop in the price of oil the founder of parent firm Intro Aviation, Hans Rudolf Wöhrl, has said.

In an interview with Switzerland's Aerotelegraph, Wöhrl said pressure to find a suitable replacement for the BAe Systems quadjet had alleviated since oil came down to around USD60 per barrel. Following its acquisition of the airline from Air France (AF, Paris CDG) in April 2014, Intro had intended to finalize its selection of a replacement by October of last year but has since delayed that deadline.

The process, however, has not been easy given that any potential replacement must be able to handle the technicalities of operating into and out of London City.

According to Wöhrl, of the options put forward by Embraer (EMB, Sao Jose dos Campos), Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (Zhukovsky), and Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) the Embraer aircraft were considered too "old", the SSJ 100/95s had not proven themselves capable of City operations, and the C-Series had yet to even enter commercial service.

The carrier's former sibling, VLM (1992) (Antwerp), had also planned to overhaul its fleet of eleven Fokker 50s with two SSJ 100-95s, originally scheduled to have arrived this month. However, delays in the type's EASA certification led to their arrivals being deferred until late 2016.