How have Bombardier's CRJ700 and CRJ900 fared in service? Six operators outline their experiences, while the manufacturer explains how it is tackling early niggles
When aviation historians wrote up the key developments of the 20th century, the introduction of the Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) in 1992 was acknowledged as one of the most significant events of the first 100 years of aviation.
The revolution created by the original 50-seat CRJ100/200 has been felt across the globe, as its success prompted the creation of a rival family by Embraer and quickly rendered even relatively modern turboprops virtually obsolete in many markets.
In the 12 years since that first CRJ entered service, 1,800 regional jets with 50 seats or fewer have been delivered, and the turboprop market has become a shadow of its former self. Canadair, a part of Bombardier since 1986, can rightfully take the credit for creating the "regional jet" phenomenon.
The original 50-seat CRJ100/200 was a simple development of the Bombardier - née Canadair - Challenger business jet. At the time of the original CRJ go-ahead in 1989, plans already existed for a 70-seat "CRJ-X", but eight long years would pass before the larger model would be launched.
Skin-deep commonality
The go-ahead came in January 1997, when the designation CRJ700 was formally adopted. But the commonality between the earlier model and the CRJ700 is only skin deep. The 20-seat increase in capacity required a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) increase of over 40% and resulted in some major changes, as follows:
Larger wing (see below); two fuselage plugs - 3.96m (13ft) forward/0.76m aft; rear pressure bulkhead moved 1.3m aft; longitudinal floor beams redesigned lowering the cabin floor by 30mm (1.2in) - this raised cabin ceiling clearance to 1.91m and corrected the CRJ100/200's low passenger window line; larger tailplane (scaled up by 70%); reinforced fin; new General Electric CF34-8C1 engines rated at 13,800lb thrust (61.4kN) featuring full authority digital engine control; new engine pylon mounting and nacelle housing; new Honeywell RE220 auxiliary power-unit (APU) relocated from rear fuselage to tailcone; enhanced electrical power system new Menasco landing gear - main gear's trailing-arm configuration replaced by a cantilever main gear; nose gear incorporating geometrically locked drag brace; new tyres and a digital anti-skid control system; Rockwell Collins Pro Line 4 avionics suite retained, but with improvements. With an area of 68.7m2 (740ft2), the re-configured wing is 32% bigger than the CRJ100/200. It comprises: 910mm root plug leading-edge slats; longer span inboard flaps; larger winglets; flap actuation changed from a flexible shaft-driven system to torque tubes and ball-screw actuatorsBombardier says the improved wing and increased thrust reduces take-off field length by 180m compared with a CRJ200. The CRJ700 also cruises faster than its predecessor.
The first CRJ700 flew in May 1999, and deliveries began to launch customer Brit Air in January 2001. Bombardier says the aircraft was originally seen as an upgrade for CRJ200 routes where capacity demanded, but in practice it has seen a shift to longer sectors than the CRJ200. In the USA the average CRJ700 sector is 940km (510nm), whereas in Europe the average sector is 750km.
The 86-seat "simple stretch" of the CRJ700, logically designated the CRJ900, was launched at the Farnborough air show in July 2000. Incorporating a 2.29m plug forward of the wing and a 1.57m plug aft, the 86-seater also has a strengthened wing and landing gear, two additional over-wing emergency exits and more powerful GE CF34-8C5 engines. Its baseline seating is for 86 passengers. Deliveries of the CRJ900 to launch operator Freedom Airlines - the Mesa Air Group division which operates as America West Express - began in January 2003. The manufacturer claims that the CRJ700 has 11-13% lower unit operating costs that CRJ200, while the CRJ900 is 20-21% lower.
The final member of the CRJ700/900 trio was created last year. Designated the CRJ700 Series 705, this aircraft uses the CRJ900 platform to create a spacious, two-class 75-seater. The baseline CRJ700 has now been redesignated the CRJ700 Series 701.
Launch airlines
The CRJ700 Series 705 was launched by US Airways, although the airline subsequently switched its order to the Series 701 after failing to reach agreement with unions to operate the larger aircraft. Air Canada has since placed a memorandum of understanding for the new aircraft and is due to take the first delivery next year.
There are 133 CRJ700s in service, the bulk of which (96) are operating in the USA. In Europe 35 are operating, with two more in Asia. Fourteen CRJ900s have been delivered - all to Freedom Airlines.
Although the CRJ700 has met all its performance promises, operators have been disappointed that the aircraft is still struggling to achieve maturity in reliability terms, three years after entering service. They are awaiting the implementation of additional modifications to reach a satisfactory level.
The CRJ700 made its US debut in May 2001 with Horizon Air, and American Eagle Airlines followed in October that year. The aircraft is also in service with two Delta Connection carriers - Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) and Comair - Mesa Airlines, PSA Airlines (US Airways Express), and SkyWest Airlines (United Express). Five US airlines - ASA, Comair, Horizon, Mesa and American Eagle were invited to participate in this report, and all but the latter carrier agreed to take part.
Horizon Air, which currently operates 18 CRJ700s, is an affiliate of Alaska Airlines and is the largest regional carrier in the north-west USA. It has used the 70-seater principally to replace ageing Fokker F28s and to supplement Alaska Airlines routes at off-peak times.
On 1 January Horizon added a Denver-based hub operation under a new codeshare agreement with Frontier Airlines, and eight of its CRJ700s are now fully painted in Frontier JetExpress livery.
"The aircraft performs well economically, and we've had good acceptance from the customer base," says Horizon flight operations manager Gene Hahn.
Horizon also has 17 Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 70-seat turboprops and holds options on additional aircraft that can be exchanged one-for-one for CRJ700 orders. The airline also has firm orders for a further 10 CRJ700s and 25 options. The aircraft on firm order will be delivered in pairs between now and 2009, with the next two due in the second quarter of 2005. Horizon will have to start firming up options on the remaining aircraft around mid-2005.
Fleet transition
Mesa received its first CRJ700 in July 2002 and has 15 aircraft in service. It was also launch operator for the CRJ900, receiving its first in January 2003. It has 14 in service.
After initially deploying its CRJ700s with its Freedom Airlines division to serve America West Express at Phoenix, Mesa is now completing the transition of the fleet to Denver, where all 15 will be flying dedicated United Express services by mid-2004. Mesa president and chief operating officer Mike Lotz says the transfer is "nothing to do with temperature", but reflects United's requirement for additional growth to replace the current CRJ200 fleet and America West Express's preference for the larger CRJ900. All Mesa's CRJ900s are operated for America West by Freedom at Phoenix.
As part of the United deal, Mesa will also replace the 15 CRJ200s operating from Denver alongside the former America West Express CRJ700s over the next three years. This means Mesa's overall CRJ700 fleet is expected to grow to 30 by early 2008, says Lotz. He adds: "US Airways is also talking to us about the CRJ700, so it may be another opportunity."
In service for United Express, Mesa's CRJ700s will be operated "all over the country...with these aircraft there's really no limit to the sort of stage lengths that are needed", says Lotz.
Despatch reliability levels "have been a little low", but Lotz adds that Mesa's provisioning of spare aircraft has helped maintain higher numbers than would otherwise have been achieved.
The 18 CRJ700s delivered to ASA, which serves Delta at Atlanta and Dallas Fort Worth, have fitted into its route network in four ways, says the carrier's vice-president of marketing, Sam Watts. Most commonly, the CRJ700s have been introduced in markets to meet rising demand, allowing ASA to phase out some Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprops and to reassign 50-seat CRJ200s to smaller markets. Some 70-seaters are used to maintain a market presence in areas where Delta has reduced mainline services. The CRJ700's better take-off performance over the 50-seater also allows ASA to enter airports with smaller runways, such as a 1,460m landing strip at Key West, Florida.
Delta's Cincinnati-based Connection operator Comair, which has received 21 of 27 CRJ700s on order, began flying the aircraft in September 2002. It needed the 70-seater to jumpstart demand in existing markets and to dramatically improve operating efficiencies. After an 18-month introduction period, the airline acknowledges some operating issues have emerged, but says that only scope-clause restrictions have stopped the carrier from buying more CRJ700s.
Openings
The aircraft's range and high speed capabilities have allowed operators to open up several new routes well beyond a regional carrier's traditional stomping grounds.
For ASA, the new fleet's extended range has enabled the airline to launch four new long-haul routes from its Dallas-Fort Worth Hub, the longest being a 2,340km flight to Oakland, California - the longest of any CRJ700 operator.
All four US airlines that Flight International spoke to have suffered teething problems with the aircraft, some to a greater extent than others. In January, Bombardier said only one CRJ700 operator was achieving on-time despatch rates greater than 99% - believed to be ASA.
Reliability has been an evolving story for ASA, which Bombardier acknowledges is the best-performing CRJ700 operator. A year ago, ASA's fleet availability levels plunged into the low-60% range, and improved slowly over its summer period. By September, reliability had improved to 99% and, as of February, was nearing the airline's benchmark standard of 99.5%, says Watts.
ASA's vice-president engineering, Anthony DiNota says that the CRJ700 fleet is on the cusp of showing sustained reliability performance above the standard level, and Watts notes that the type is now the most reliable of all ASA's aircraft, including the CRJ200.
ASA credits several factors for the airline's rare level of reliability. Unlike Horizon and Mesa, ASA can draw on its experience of having introduced the CRJ200 into service several years earlier. Both aircraft types shared many of the same glitches, such as unreliable engine indication and crew alerting system (EICAS) messages, says Watts. ASA used the solution developed for CRJ200, which was to simply power down the cockpit and restart after 15min. Although many of the glitches disappeared, some problems never went away and many are still being addressed by ASA and Bombardier.
"We expect to have teething pains, and we've certainly had them. Neither us or Bombardier are satisfied with where we are reliability wise, but I am confident that the fixes Bombardier has come up with will get us there," says Hahn.
A key complaint has been the flow of spare parts and the lack of alternate vendors based in North America, says DiNota. "Bombardier is very loyal to its suppliers - too loyal," he says. "Some parts are so unreliable we have to keep dozens of these things in parts inventory."
The reliability problem was compounded by turnaround delays. Early on, all providers of parts on ASA's warranty agreement were located outside the USA and mostly in Europe, says DiNota, leading to long shipping delays. Bombardier was slow to act on ASA's requests to qualify alternative sources in the USA, but the manufacturer has, in recent months, been moving faster to rectify the problems.
Horizon Air was heavily involved with Bombardier in helping to develop the reliability improvement modification programme (RIMP) packages. Although RIMP-1 has been completed, Hahn says reliability is still lower than required and has "plateaued" at around the "mid-90%". This is not expected to rise towards the 99%-plus target "until we get these final issues into the RIMP".
Comair declines to provide details of the CRJ700's operating performance, but says that it is satisfied with the aircraft's record and continuing progress. The airline has disclosed that the on-time dispatch rate is "around 96%".
Mesa has not yet implemented the first RIMP package, as it plans to roll both into a single modification programme to be implemented as part of scheduled C-checks due to take place throughout its 15-strong fleet beginning by August. "Bombardier came up with it by themselves, and have agreed to pay for it," says Lotz.
Mesa has had "issues with the avionics equipment, which is more to do with it being operated in the desert", says Lotz, who adds that failure rates have been "much higher than we would have expected". The problem is related to overheating in the aft equipment bay. "Bombardier is working on some improvements, but they haven't fixed it yet," he adds.
As with most other CRJ users, Horizon has been affected by nuisance and faulty EICAS messages, electrical system problems (manifested, in particular, by faulty bleed leak-detection system warnings), issues with the primary fuel injector and hydraulic system and problems with the main landing gear doors. What Hahn hopes will be final fixes to these issues are due to be introduced to the fleet from November when the first CRJ700 undergoes RIMP-2.
Horizon has also completed upgrades of its CF34-8C1 engines to cure a high-pressure turbine (HPT) wear and loss issue that affected blades on the first stage. Horizon "experienced this more than most", says GE's CF34 Bombardier programmes manager, Gordon Fraser. Hahn adds: "GE has been very supportive through the issue," and says that even after an engine had suffered a blade failure "there was often no detectable change in performance and we had to borescope them to confirm the problem. More often than not they just kept chugging along."
Referring to the CF34 issues, Lotz confirms that Mesa has "had some unscheduled engine removals, but GE has been quite responsive to it. We are going to continue to monitor the situation closely."
European scene
Europe represents the second largest market for the CRJ700 after North America, with 35 aircraft in service with three customers - Air France-owned regional airline Brit Air, based in Brittany; Lufthansa CityLine; and UK regional carrier Duo Airways. Although all three airlines were invited to participate in this report, Duo declined to be interviewed. The Birmingham-based airline flies the longest sector of all European CRJ700 carriers: the 1,845km route from Birmingham to Helsinki.
Both Brit Air and Lufthansa CityLine were early users of the CRJ700 - the former was the original launch customer in 1998 and the first airline to take delivery (in January 2001), while the latter received its first aircraft in May 2001. Both airlines were long-serving operators of the 50-seater and ordered the larger model for capacity growth, with the flightdeck commonality seen as being the biggest benefit of operating the two models - both share a 75% commonality in avionics.
Neither airline is satisfied with the reliability of the aircraft and are frustrated that in spite of the two modification programmes - the EICAS 5 upgrade and RIMP-1 - there are a number of outstanding issues remaining, which will have to be addressed by the second RIMP package.
Cologne-based Lufthansa CityLine has received all 20 CRJ700s it had ordered, and is pushing Bombardier to help it improve reliability, which is currently "around 98%". Daily utilisation is also 2h short of its target of 10h. "We and Bombardier agree that its products need to have the same reliability as Airbus and Boeing models: 99.5-99.8%," says CityLine managing director Karl-Heinz Köpfle.
CityLine's 43-strong CRJ100/200 fleet "has been at 99.5% in 2003, and this is our target for the CRJ700", says Köpfle. He adds that, in an effort to boost reliability, CityLine approached Bombardier "at the top level" regarding a "quality initiative" to resolve various reliability issues. "Not all the problems have been solved, but Bombardier agrees that we must achieve 99.5% - only with a technically stable aircraft can you achieve a high productivity."
Brit Air has 10 CRJ700s in service but, has delayed delivery of its remaining two orders pending an improvement in reliability, which is running at 97.5% (using a measuring system that only takes account of the initial failure). The reliability of the airline's CRJ700 fleet is such that two aircraft, rather than one, have to be held on back-up duty each day.
Neither airline can fault Bombardier's effort to support the aircraft at service entry, supplying a start-up team: "Bombardier was keen to deliver the best possible support to overcome issues we had," says Köpfle.
CityLine saw reliability gradually improving from 98% at introduction, but has now dropped back to that level. It was among the first to implement the EICAS 5 update, in mid-2002, and carried out the RIMP-1 modifications last year. "We came to an agreement with Bombardier on how to cover the loss of capacity," says Köpfle.
"We'd had a lot of problems with EICAS nuisance warnings requiring circuit breaker resets," says project pilot Capt Werner Laatz. "Over-sensitive sensors wouldn't reset, so you had to follow a procedure to reset them…EICAS 5 cured the main part of the problem."
Lufthansa CityLine says that only 18% of the parts are common by part number and so "for mechanics it is a new 'type rating'", says Köpfle, who adds that the lack of trained CRJ mechanics in Europe, due to the relatively small fleet in operation, can be a problem. "It can make the difference between a flight being delayed or cancelled, as there often isn't a CRJ700 licensed mechanic available [at destination airports]."
Engine performance
The airline has been generally pleased with the performance of the CF34 engines and suffered no in-flight shutdowns, although there have been some "durability issues" and "quite a lot of service bulletins". During the pre-delivery inspection of one CRJ700, CityLine raised a concern over the vibration levels of an engine. "GE took the engine back and ran tests to cure problem," says Reiner Woldeck, CityLine's project manager new aircraft.
From an overall performance point of view, CityLine is extremely pleased with the CRJ700. "Crews like flying the aircraft due to its tremendous performance," says Laatz. "The aircraft operates up to FL410 [41,000ft] at Mach 0.77 and it is much more economical per passenger than the CRJ100/200."
Laatz adds that all the manufacturer's performance targets were met or bettered: "For example it has 2-3% more range than expected."
Brit Air was the original launch customer for the CRJ700 in 1998, and the first operator of the new model in January 2001. An existing 50-seat CRJ operator, the airline chose the CRJ700 as it needed an aircraft "to cope with increasing traffic levels, and it offered cockpit commonality with our existing fleet", says Brit Air managing director Alain Huberdeau.
"To support us at the beginning, Bombardier gave us a start-up team for the first six months comprising five mechanics who were located at our bases in Brest and Lyon. We also had a technical representitive in Morlaix," says Brit Air technical manager Alain Laboue. As part of the support, the airline held daily phone calls with Bombardier to look at every snag and provision for spares.
Brit Air suffered the early EICAS nuisance warnings and a unique problem related to the thrust reversers. "We had two major FOD [foreign object damage] incidents when using reverse thrust with full flap caused by reverse flow ingested debris," says deputy chief pilot Jöel Moreau.
Bombardier carried out tests to understand the problem, which resulted in changes to the aircraft flight manual: "Bombardier listened to us and fixed the problem. We are now restricted to use reverse thrust at lower speeds, but this has had not impact on performance except on contaminated runways," says Moreau. Bombardier says the problem has not recurred.
The aircraft suffered hydraulic leakages when vibration caused pipes to fracture, which were addressed by RIMP-1 in summer 2003. "This package was supposed to fix all the problems, but we now have another update in 2004," says Huberdeau. Having operated the aircraft now for three years, and still suffering unsatisfactory reliability, the airline is running out of patience.
Huberdeau warns that plans to replace the airline's 19 50-seat CRJ100s with CRJ700s could be dropped if improvements are not seen soon: "We could cancel our remaining orders and acquire more secondhand Fokker 100s for growth," he says, but adds that the "preferred choice" is to stay with the CRJ700.
Deteriorating performance
"In the early months of operation, reliability was not too bad so we decided not to keep the start-up team. But then performance deteriorated so we decided last year to have a new team," says Huberdeau. This involves eight Bombardier technicians being based at Brit Air's main out-stations.
"We have weekly telephone meetings with Bombardier to discuss snags and issues," says Huberdeau, adding that a technical steering committee has been created to identify and focus on the top 25 issues. "We are already getting better performance - it has improved in last two months," says Huberdeau.
The manufacturer says it had identified last year that Brit Air had "particular difficulties with extended out-of-service times", and suggested a joint programme to reduce this. "Within four to five weeks we had a 50% improvement," says Bombardier vice-president and general manager customer services Jeff Mihalic. "Clearly there is more we can do," he adds.
Brit Air's CRJ700s are averaging 2,700h a year, and operating seven flights a day. Huberdeau says that the operational pattern of its CRJ700 deployment, with aircraft "spread out across Europe each night away from base makes our life very difficult". This pattern hinders Brit Air in implementing reliability modifications, as Bombardier has designed some to be installed during night-stops. Bombardier says that this is part of the reason that Brit Air has struggled more than other operators with reliability.
Huberdeau is also disappointed with the level of spares support that Bombardier provides in Europe. "They don't have enough spares located in Europe. This is a real issue. We can wait one, two, or three days for spares or special tooling, to fix a problem."
Bombardier says its European spares holding is below the planned level, but should be on target by mid-2004.
Like other CRJ operators, Brit Air's flightcrews fly both the 50- and 70-seater, but the airline requires pilots to gain experience on the smaller variant before being dual rated. "Pilots have to accumulate a minimum of 200h on the CRJ100 before moving to the 700. They then undertake 4h on the simulator and operate two legs on line before being dual rated," says Moreau.
Fewer checks
Pilots like the improved systems on the CRJ700 flightdeck over the earlier model: "There are fewer checks and preparation is simpler and faster," says Moreau.
The size and performance capabilities of the CRJ700 make it an extremely useful addition to regional airlines' fleets, but this usefulness has been undermined to a certain extent by the prolonged introductory problems. However, operators and manufacturer alike are confident that the tools are in place for the aircraft to achieve maturity this year.
| Bombardier CRJ700/900 orderbook | ||||
|
| In service | On Order | Total | First delivery |
| CRJ700 Series 701 |
|
|
|
|
| American Eagle Airlines | 20 | 5 | 25 | Oct 2001 |
| Atlantic Southeast Airlines * | 18 | 13 | 31 | Jan 2002 |
| Brit Air | 10 | 2 | 12 | Jan 2001 |
| Comair | 21 | 6 | 27 | Sep 2002 |
| Duo Airways | 5 | 0 | 5 | Oct 2001 |
| Freedom Airlines** | 9 | 0 | 9 | Oct 2002 |
| Horizon Air*** | 18 | 10 | 28 | May 2001 |
| Indycar Aviation | 1 | 0 | 1 | April 2003 |
| Lufthansa CityLine | 20 | 0 | 20 | May 2001 |
| Mesa Air Group | 0 | 6 | 6 | July 2002 |
| Mesa Airlines **** | 6 | 0 | 6 | July 2002 |
| PSA Airlines***** | 1 | 24 | 25 | Mar2004 |
| Shandong Airlines | 2 | 0 | 2 | Oct 2003 |
| SkyWest Airlines**** | 2 | 30 | 32 | Jan 2004 |
| TOTAL | 133 | 96 | 229 |
|
| CRJ700 Series 705 |
|
|
|
|
| Air Canada****** | 0 | 30 | 30 | Due mid-2005 |
| CRJ900 |
|
|
|
|
| Freedom Airlines** | 14 | 11 | 25 | Jan 2003 |
| Mesa Air Group | 0 | 14 | 14 | Due Oct 2004 |
| Total | 14 | 25 | 39 |
|
| Grand Total | 147 | 151 | 298 |
|
| Notes: * - Operates as Delta Connection ** - Mesa Air Group division which operates as America West Express *** - Eight for Frontier JetExpress **** - Operated for United Express ***** - Operated for US Airways Express ****** - Air Canada order is memorandum of understanding. Source: Airclaims CASE database | ||||
GUY NORRIS / LOS ANGELES. MAX KINGSLEY-JONES / COLOGNE & MORLAIX, BRITTANY, STEPHEN TRIMBLE / ATLANTA
Source: Flight International
