Air Nostrum and CityJet resume negotiations and move forward with their merger

Spanish regional airline Air Nostrum has reapplied to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition for authorisation to merge with Irish airline CityJet, almost four years after the previous approval of the operation.

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According to EFE news agency, the European body received in recent days a new dossier submitted by both companies. Their merger had already been validated in 2019, although now the European Commission has requested that the procedure be formalised. Air Nostrum assures that negotiations are still ongoing.

Talks between the two companies began in 2018. However, the health crisis unleashed by the pandemic forced the negotiations to be postponed. In June last year, Carlos Bertomeu, founder and CEO of the Spanish airline, said the terms of the deal were being renegotiated «intensively».

Initially, the companies had remarked that the alliance would consist of a full merger of their shares. However, both the commercial brands and the operational management of each would remain the responsibility of the Air Nostrum and CityJet teams.

A potential European regional aviation giant

Six months after Bertomeu’s statements, the merger is closer to completion. Should the deal finally go through, Air Nostrum and CityJet would form the largest regional operator in Europe.

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According to PlaneSpotters.net, Air Nostrum currently has a fleet of 39 aircraft. Five of them are ATR 42 and ATR 72 models, which the company has phased out gradually. It also operates seven Bombardier CRJ-200s and 27 CRJ-1000s.

CityJet operates 22 aircraft, all of which are CRJ-900s. Some of its aircraft mantain wet leasing agreements with Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS).

See also: Air Nostrum reaches 100 million passengers transported