Max Kingsley-Jones/WOODFORD
British Airways franchise partner CityFlyer Express expects to be an all-jet operator within five years, with its growing fleet of 105-seat Avro RJ100s set to be the smallest aircraft it operates. The airline, however, denies suggestions that it is set for an imminent change of ownership.
CityFlyer has just taken its fifth 105-seat Avro RJ100 and placed orders and options for four more, for delivery in 1999 and 2000. The aircraft will be introduced alongside the existing fleet of 11 ATR 42 and ATR 72 turboprops, operating BA franchise flights from London Gatwick. The airline carried 1.25 million passengers in fiscal year 1997 and is expecting a 20% increase this year.
"Our long term aim is to be an all-jet operator, with the Avros the smallest aircraft in the fleet," says CityFlyer managing director Brad Burgess, who envisages that the last of the ATRs will be phased out within five years.
Burgess says CityFlyer is already "casting around the market" for larger aircraft, with the acquisition of secondhand Boeing 737-300s or -400s on operating lease seen as the most likely route "probably in 2000," says Burgess.
Although BA pilot unions remain wary of the franchise carriers adding larger aircraft, Burgess is confident that this will not be an issue, citing other franchise operators like Gatwick-based GB Airways which already fly 737-300s for BA. CityFlyer's latest route, to Zurich, was taken over from BA, and the airline would like to take more routes from its partner if it is willing to make them available.
The airline became the first BA franchisee in July 1993 and Burgess says that the original five-year contract recently expired without the airlines agreeing a new long-term deal. "We have a temporary extension which takes us to the end of 1999," says Burgress, but he is confident that a new deal will soon be thrashed out.
There has been much speculation that CityFlyer's owners, the majority of which are institutional investors, are preparing for some type of sell-off, with BA as the most likely suitor. Burgess acknowledges the investors will eventually wish to realise their investment, but discounts any talk of an imminent sale.
Source: Flight International
