Dublin-based CityJet celebrated, this Wednesday (10), the 30th anniversary of its maiden scheduled flight. The Irish airline’s first operation, on January 10, 1994, connected Dublin to London City Airport through a partnership with Virgin Atlantic Airways, in whose colors its first aircraft were painted.
From these services, initially operated by a fleet of BAe 146-100, CityJet developed over time into a regional jet ACMI provider, leasing the aircraft along with crews, maintenance and insurance in what is known as a «wet lease» agreement.
«It is hard to believe that the company we set up thirty years ago would today be a truly pan-European operation providing services to the major airlines across Europe», stated CityJet’s founder and Chairman, Pat Byrne, in a press release.
«Throughout its life, CityJet has been focused, innovative and always ready to adapt to changes in the market, of which there have been many over the years. Through the dedication, enthusiasm and professionalism of everybody in the CityJet team, the airline is now a major force in the European market in the niche we serve and it gives me immense pride to feel that this is something we have created from our humble beginnings so long ago.»
According to the airline, companies that have hired its capacity in recent years included Aer Lingus, Air France, Brussels Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa and SAS.
Currently, the majority of CityJet’s operations is concentrated in Scandinavia, where the airline has an important agreement to operate on behalf of SAS, for which it flies since 2016. Of «over 600 staff» employed by the company, the press release says, 80% are located in Copenhagen and Stockholm.
According to Cirium’s Fleets Analyzer, CityJet currently has a fleet of 18 CRJ-900 and four CRJ-1000.
Cover photo by Markus Eigenheer, licensed under the CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license. No changes were made to the image.
