Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
NORTHWEST AIRLINES has placed a $300 million order with Aero International (Regional) (AI(R) for 12 Avro RJ85 regional airliners, for operation by its feeder partner Mesaba Airlines. The deal, which includes options for 24 more RJ85s, is the first order for the aircraft from a major North American carrier.
The RJ85s will be sub-leased to Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Mesaba, which will fly the aircraft on a new operation, "Northwest JetLink", which replaces Northwest trunk-airliner services. The aircraft will be operated from the Northwest hubs at Minneapolis and Detroit, replacing McDonnell Douglas DC-9-10s.
The RJ85s are due for delivery from April 1997 at a rate of one a month, and will be configured to seat 69 passengers in a two-class layout. "The RJ85 will allow us to more efficiently and effectively serve certain types of short-haul markets," says Northwest chairman and president John Dasburg.
"It will allow Mesaba to expand our role of providing valuable feed to Northwest," says Bryan Bedford, who is Dasburg's counterpart at the regional airline. "The economic structure of the JetLink agreement guarantees Northwest regional-jet costs be-low those of alternative aircraft," Bedford adds.
As part of the deal, Northwest is to raise its shareholding in Mesaba to 34.4%. Northwest originally took a 29.7% stake in the regional-airline group in August 1995 as the price for its assent to allow Mesaba to launch low-cost jet-powered carrier AirTran Airways. AirTran has since been floated off under the separate Airways grouping.
The order is only the second for Avro in North America. Delta Connection carrier Business Express had previously ordered 20 RJ70s, but the carrier took only three aircraft before the order was cancelled.
The Northwest contract brings the number of firm Avro RJ orders to 105, of which 60 are for the RJ85. The production back-log for the family stands at 33.
Source: Flight International
