Regional carriers affiliated to the SkyTeam alliance, led by Air France and Delta Air Lines, have poured cold water on the idea that they were looking into the possibility of joint aircraft purchasing. Senior regional airline executives said the idea is popular in the fleet planning departments of the major carriers, and admit there have been talks on this subject, but say it would be extremely difficult to put this idea into practice, given the lack of fleet commonality.
For instance, Air France's Regional is largely an Embraer operator, while sister airline Brit Air flies Bombardier CRJ regional jets and Cityjet, Air France's Irish operator, has a fleet of BAe 146s.
Four Star Alliance carriers, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Austrian and SAS Scandinavian Airlines are looking to jointly purchase around 100 regional jets.
Source: Airline Business
