British Airways is looking at exercising options for Embraer E-190s to meet growing demand for services at London City Airport.
BA director of strategy Robert Boyle says the last of 11 E-Jets it ordered in late 2008 for its CityFlyer unit will be delivered in November and BA has an imminent deadline in exercising options. The original deal with Embraer included six E-170s and five E-190s plus options for three E-190s.
Currently CityFlyer operates six 76-seat E-170s and four 98-seat E-190s. All of the E-190s have been received this year.
"We got one more [delivery] in November and then after that we have some options," Boyle says. "We're looking at the question now. We haven't quite finalised it yet."
He says the CityFlyer E-Jet operation is "going well" and a fleet of more than 11 aircraft may be required given current market conditions. "It's a market that is very focused on the financial market so it took a big hit in the credit crunch but it's really bouncing back now," Boyle says.
BA's London City operation consists of CityFlyer E-Jets on European routes and two mainline A318s which are used on the all-business class service to New York. CityFlyer previously operated BAE Systems Avro RJs but retired the last of the type in July.
Boyle says while the New York service which was launched last year is doing well there is currently no consideration of expanding the A318 London City operation to include more routes. "I don't see anything imminent there," he says.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
