News Archive 1997

This page contains an archive of news items relating to the BAe 146 and Avro RJ regional jetliners, from June to December 1997.

Index Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

June 1997

Atlantic Southeast Airlines to return BAe 146s
ASA Holdings, the parent of Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which operates as a Delta Connection carrier, announced on 19 June that it plans to standardize its jet aircraft fleet on the 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet. As a result, ASA plans to exercise its option to return the five BAe 146-200s it has on lease from Jet Acceptance Corporation. The 146s will be returned beginning in the fourth quarter of 1997, with the last leaving the fleet in the first quarter of 1998. ASA will write down a one-time charge of approximately $2.6 million for expenses related to the return of the BAe 146s. Ronald V. Sapp, senior vice president of the airline, said that "We have enjoyed financial success with the 88-seat BAe 146 since introducing service with the aircraft in December 1995. However, we believe the combination of 30, 50 and 66-seat aircraft is the ideal fleet-mix for our company, customers and shareholders in the years ahead."

Air Jet ends scheduled services
French airline Air Jet has ended its scheduled BAe 146 services between London City and Paris Charles de Gaulle on 9 June. Service on the route had been launched in October 1995, with two daily flights in each direction. The service used a BAe 146-200QC configured with 68 seats in a business class-only layout. Operations under the Air Jet name ceased on 27 June. Although the service was starting to gain customers and was breaking even with 50 percent load factors, parent Groupe Jet Services decided to use the aircraft to expand its parcel delivery service.

SABENA receives first Avro RJ100
SABENA took delivery of its first Avro RJ100, OO-DWA msn E3308, on 27 June. This is the first of 9 RJ100s the airline ordered on 21 September 1996 by exercising an option to convert part of its order for 23 RJ85s. Like the RJ85s, the RJ100s will be operated by SABENA affiliate Delta Air Transport (DAT). OO-DWA entered service on 29 June, on the Brussels-Amsterdam route.

July 1997

Uzbekistan Airways receives first Avro RJ85
Uzbekistan Airways took delivery of its first Avro RJ85, UK-80002 msn E2309, on 7 July. The aircraft is scheduled to enter service on July 10 on domestic routes serving the historic cities of Bukhara and Samarkand. Uzbekistan Airways has ordered three RJ85s, including one in VIP configuration, to replace its Yak 40s and An-24s.

Northwest increases Avro RJ85 order to 36
Northwest Airlines exercised its 24 options for the Avro RJ85 on 21 July, bringing the total number of aircraft ordered to 36. Northwest placed an initial order for 12 RJ85s, with 24 options, in October 1996, for operation by Mesaba Airlines on Northwest Jet Airlink services. Mesaba began RJ85 service on 6 June 1997. Deliveries of these additional aircraft will begin in May 1998 and continue for up to 48 months.

Arkia selects the Avro RJ115
Israeli domestic airline Arkia has announced that it has selected the Avro RJ115 as a replacement for its Dash 7s. It anticipates ordering four of the type, but negotiations have not yet begun. This would be the first order for the high-density RJ115, which can seat up to 128. The airline may have to lease 146s to meet its requirements until the RJ115s are delivered, since the production line is completely sold out until early 1999.

Ansett New Zealand unveils 10th Anniversary BAe 146
Ansett New Zealand has painted one of its BAe 146-300s, ZK-NZJ, in a special color scheme to commemorate its tenth anniversary. The aircraft was rolled out on 22 July. The scheme, which is composed of children's drawings, also highlights the activities of children's trust established by Ansett NZ in 1991. A portion of every fare will go to the trust.

August 1997

Debonair to increase BAe 146 fleet
Debonair Airways has announced that it will increase the size of its 7-strong BAe 146 fleet by leasing 5 BAe 146-300s. Although the source of the aircraft was not specified, these are likely to be the 5 BAe 146-300s currently operated by Thai. Deliveries are to begin in October and run to June 1998. Debonair is also looking for two more BAe 146s. The aircraft will be used on new routes, probably including Munich-Berlin and Munich-Hamburg. In the longer-term, Debonair is considering ordering the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas MD-95 to replace the 146s as their leases begin expiring in 2000.

September 1997

Hamburg Airlines to dispose of its BAe 146 fleet
Hamburg Airlines has announced that it will return its four BAe 146 jets (2 series 200s and 2 series 300s) to BAe-AMJ in late October and concentrate its operations on its Dash 8 fleet.

Air Malta to dispose of its Avro RJ70s
Air Malta has decided to abandon the hub strategy which had been initiated by the previous management team. As a result, it will dispose of its 4 Avro RJ70s. Three will be transferred to Italian subsidiary Azzurra Air, replacing the latter's RJ85s. The fourth RJ70 and Azzurra's 3 RJ85s will be sold. However, Azzurra had earlier indicated it was seeking to add more RJs to its fleet, and apparently still intends to do so. One possibility is that the RJ70s will be added to, rather than replacing, Azzurra's RJ85s.

Eurowings to lease 4 additional BAe 146s
Eurowings announced on 26 September that it would lease 4 additional BAe 146s from BAe-AMJ (2 series 200s and 2 series 300s). Although the source was not specified, these are likely to be the former Hamburg Airlines fleet. This expansion will enable Eurowings to begin jet services on two of its most important domestic routes: Nuremberg-Berlin (Tempelhof) and Dortmund-Munich. The Nuremberg-Berlin route was selected as the first to receive regular jet service because of the large volume of traffic to the German capital city. Berlin-Tempelhof is especially popular with business travellers because of its proximity to the heart of Berlin and excellent public transport connections. BAe 146s will replace ATR42s on the route on October 26, reducing flight time by 10 minutes. 146 services between the airline's base at Dortmund and Munich will begin on November 24. This will be the first scheduled jet service from Dortmund, and is made possible by the recent extension of the airport's runway. The new 146s will also be used to increase capacity on the Stuttgart-Amsterdam route operated on behalf of KLM. The 146s are also likely to be used between Frankfurt and Berlin-Tempelhof beginning in the spring of 1998, once Eurowings has obtained additional slots at Frankfurt.

October 1997

Azzurra Air to codeshare with Debonair and Alitalia
Italian Avro RJ operator Azzurra Air will codeshare with British BAe 146 operator Debonair on routes between the UK and Italy. Azzurra will introduce a regular service connecting its base at Bergamo to Debonair's base at Luton beginning on 26 October. Debonair will provide ground handling services for Azzurra at Luton. The Italian airline is also scheduled to begin operating some services from Milano Linate on behalf of Alitalia on 26 October, including two daily roundtrips to London City.

Israir to acquire BAe 146-100s?
Israeli airline Israir, which currently operates 3 ATR42s on domestic flights from Tel Aviv to Eilat and short-range charters to destinations such as Cyprus, is reported to be negotiating with BAe-AMJ to aquire 2 BAe 146-100s to undertake longer-range charters. The Israeli Ministry of Transportation is expected to allow all Israeli airlines with suitable equipment to operate international charter flights. Possible destinations for Israir's charters include Bulgaria, Slovakia, Egypt, and Greece. Finding suitable aircraft may be a problem, however, the one-time glut of idle 146s having completely evaporated.

CityFlyer Express orders an additional Avro RJ100
CityFlyer has ordered an additional Avro RJ100 to add to the two it has in service and one on order. Delivery is scheduled for June 1998. Like the rest of CityFlyer's fleet, the RJ100 will be operated on British Airways' behalf. CityFlyer has also decided to drop the "Express" from its name.

November 1997

Lufthansa CityLine considers ordering CRJ 700, may replace Avro RJ85s
Lufthansa CityLine is considering ordering a large number of 70-seat Canadair Regional Jet 700s. If ordered, the CRJ 700s would supplement the airline's fleet of 31 smaller CRJ 100s. They may also replace the airline's fleet of 17 Avro RJ85s (with one more still on order), given the advantages of operating a homogeneous fleet. However, the BAe 146/Avro RJ is the only jet allowed to operate into several of CityLine's destinations, such as Florence and London City, so the airline may need to retain at least some RJs in its fleet.

British Regional Airlines buys BAe 146
British Regional Airlines has purchased an additional BAe 146 from BAe-AMJ and extended the lease on its existing BAe 146 until 2006. The new aircraft is a series 200 formerly operated by Business Air on its London City to Frankfurt route. This route, which had been operated in cooperation with Lufthansa, has now been taken over by a Lufthansa CityLine Avro RJ85. British Regional will use its new 146 on the London Gatwick to Inverness service which BRA is taking over from British Airways. Its current BAe 146 also flies on behalf of British Airways, on routes from Manchester.

December 1997

Crossair reorders Avro RJ100s
Swiss airline Crossair has ordered four additional Avro RJ100s from AI(R). Two aircraft will be delivered in 1998, and the remaining two in 1999, bringing Crossair's Avro RJ fleet to 20 (4 RJ85s and 16 RJ100s). This order brings the total number of RJs ordered in 1997 to 31, and the total orderbook to 140.

Air Wisconsin acquires additional BAe 146s
Air Wisconsin will lease three additional BAe 146-200s from BAe-AMJ for operation on its United Express services. The first aircraft will be delivered immediately, and will be used to increase the frequency of Air Wisconsin's popular winter schedule between Aspen and Denver to 32 weekly roundtrips from December 15. The BAe 146 is the only jet airliner allowed to operate into Aspen. Air Wisconsin serves Aspen year-round from Denver and during the winter ski season from Los Angeles. The second 146 will be delivered in March and the third in April. The three aircraft concerned (E2080, E2084, E2087) are part of the Atlantic Southeast fleet, which is currently being returned to BAe-AMJ as part of a fleet rationalization program. Under the terms of United's scope clause, United Express BAe 146 operations are limited to a specific list of airframes which were in use at the time the scope clause was enacted. These three qualify, since they were operated by WestAir on United Express services in California at the time. The new BAe 146s will bring Air Wisconsin's all-BAe 146 fleet to 18, including 1 series 100, 12 series 200s, and 5 series 300s.

Azzurra to operate former Air Malta Avro RJ70s
Azzurra Air will apparently retain its three Avro RJ85s as well as receiving four RJ70s from parent Air Malta. Originally, Azzurra's RJ85s were to have been replaced by three of Air Malta's RJ70s; the remaining Air Malta RJ70 and Azzurra's three RJ85s were then to have been sold through Fortis Aviation. Azzurra has already received one RJ70 from Air Malta, EI-COQ ex 9H-ACM. It will receive one more in January 1998 and the last two in March.

Continue to January 1998 news.

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