Braathens Regional Airline (BRA) to freeze C series order as Sweden introduces new tax

Braathens Regional Airlines (BRA), former Malmö Aviation has frozen the order for 10 C Series aircraft, Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported yesterday.

From 2018 the Swedish government is introducing an environment tax for aviation, each passenger has to pay an additional 80 SEK (8,30 €) for each flight to and from Sweden (and domestic flights), a return flight will cost 160 SEK (16,60 €). Long-haul flights will cost the passenger 280 SEK (29 €).

The tax will have a major effect on Swedish domestic flights, specialists expect 4% less air travel. Because these domestic flights are an important market for BRA, the airline has decided to freeze the 3,5 billion order for 5 CS100 and 5 CS300 jets from the Canadian manufacturer Bombardier.

The environmental tax has been fiercely criticized as the new C Series aircraft have a 35-40 percent lower emission per passenger kilometer than the older Avro RJ’s. The board of directors will extend the lease of the much noisier Avro RJ’s, and that will affect the people living near Stockholm Bromma airport.

The decision is a serious blow for Bombardier, which had huge costs to bring out the new C Series.

Last summer Swiss, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, began flying with the CS100. Just before Christmas, Air Baltic became the first in the world to operate the slightly larger CS300.