Eastern Airways is positioning itself to be a major force in the UK's regional airline sector following a major shake-up of the British Airways CitiExpress network, which will involve the elimination of the latter's entire turboprop operations.
Humberside-based Eastern Airways will take over the leases of CitiExpress's 12 29-seat BAe J41s by March, doubling its fleet to 24 aircraft. CitiExpress, which is axeing 21 routes and dropping its regional hubs in Cardiff and Leeds-Bradford airports, is the wholly owned UK regional arm of BA and has launched the reorganisation following BA's "Future Size and Shape" review. It says the decision comes as part of "an accelerated strategy to move to an all-jet fleet by 2005".
CitiExpress's turboprop fleet includes 13 BAe ATPs and 10 Bombardier Dash 8s, and BA says it is "talking to other parties to facilitate the transfer of Dash 8s out of the fleet before 2005". CitiExpress's jet fleet comprises 19 BAe 146/Avro RJ100s and 28 Embraer ERJ-145s. As part of the reorganisation, the airline is introducing flights from London City in 2003, with services to Frankfurt, Glasgow and Paris.
Five-year-old Eastern Airways will use the J41s on UK services from Leeds-Bradford and Southampton independently of BA. However, some CitiExpress J41 pilots are expected to be seconded to Eastern on a voluntary basis.
Terry Liddiard, the former chief executive of carriers British Regional Airlines and Manx, which were merged with Brymon Airways to form CitiExpress in 2002, is a non-executive director of Eastern and is providing considerable input into the airline's strategy. Sources say that Eastern is seriously evaluating the acquisition of BAe 146 jets from mid-2003.
Source: Flight International
