CityJet (WX, Dublin International) is in talks with two undisclosed European regional carriers over the possible start of "white label” flights for them. Airline founder and executive chairman Pat Byrne told the Irish Independent that he expected to finalize an arrangement with at least one of the prospective carriers during the first half of next year.
The Irish carrier recently secured a regional flying contract with SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) under which it acquired its Blue 1 (Helsinki Vantaa) subsidiary. Beginning next year, CityJet will open bases in Stockholm Arlanda and Helsinki Vantaa with a third currently under consideration, Byrne said.
During the same interview, Byrne also noted that CityJet had firmed up options for six of the ten additional SSJ 100/95s it committed to in October. With the order, CityJet will now operate a total of twenty-one SuperJets, deliveries of which will commence in March 2016. Byrne went on to note that CityJet would likely decide on whether or not to exercise all its options by the third quarter of next year.
Loss-making CityJet is slowly reaping the fruits of a tough restructuring drive implemented shortly after German turnaround specialists INTRO Aviation's took control of the company from Air France (AF, Paris CDG) early last year. But, although it reduced its pretax losses by 21% last year to EUR30.5 million (USD38.5 million), it has since emerged that Intro Aviation has now opened talks with investors keen on acquiring the carrier.
