An end has come to all the rumours. As Brussels Airlines is phasing out its Avro RJ100 fleet to focus on the Airbus A320 family for short- and medium-haul and on Airbus A330 aircraft for long-haul, it will start wet-leasing three Sukhoi SSJ100 Superjets from Irish airline CityJet from April 2017 in a two-year contract.
Brussels Airlines still operates 8 Avro RJ100s, which will gradually leave the fleet until November 2017. Some of them will be replaced by A320 family aircraft, but on thinner routes, Brussels Airlines needed a 100-seater, which will thus be the SSJ100.
CityJet will fly the services with its own crews, but to Brussels Airlines’ standards.
The Irish airline is the only Western European operator of the Superjet SSJ100, of which it has 15 aircraft on order. They will be used to replace its own Avro Regional Jets and for wet-lease to other airlines.
Brussels Airlines already wet-leases two Bombardier Q400s from Flybe and three Embraer ERJ45s from bmi Regional.
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