JSX CAPITAL HAS LEASED 13 Jetstream Super 31s to California-based start-up carrier Sierra Expressway, which has options for ten additional aircraft. Five of the 19-seat aircraft will be delivered in June and the low-cost carrier plans to begin operations on 1 July, linking Oakland International Airport with destinations in California and Oregon.
JSX is the turboprop-leasing arm of British Aerospace and has 417 aircraft in its lease fleet, says new president Bernard Bradpiece. The fleet also includes, 34 of the 29-seat Jetstream 41s, which come under JSX as sales are financed by BAe and this number is expected to increase, he says. JSX says that it placed 78 aircraft in 1994, mainly in the USA.
In addition to the Sierra deal, JSX has leased two Jetstream 31s to Native American Air Ambulance, based in Phoenix, Arizona, which planned to begin operations in mid-May with the specially equipped aircraft. Two of JSX's declining fleet of BAe 748s have been leased to Awood Air, of Victoria, British Columbia, for charter use.
Bradpiece, previously a business consultant, says that JSX intends to become the leading lessor and remarketer of BAe and other turboprops and plans to "selectively acquire" other aircraft types, such as the 30-seat Embraer EMB-120, of which it already has eight. JSX will remain independent of the BAe/ATR regional-aircraft joint venture, which will combine Jetstream, Avro and ATR marketing and support by the end of 1995, he says.
Source: Flight International
