CityJet gets its sixth Superjet

The aircraft will be wet-leased to Brussels Airlines (SuperJet International)

Irish carrier CityJet has taken delivery of its sixth Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100) regional jet. The aircraft, registered asEI-FWF, is being wet-leased to Brussels Airlines and has already entered commercial service with the operator, a CityJet spokesperson told Russian Aviation Insider.

The aircraft was ferried from Venice to the Brussels Airlines base on June 1, and performed its first revenue flight on June 2. The airline confirmed that the Russian-made jet is already operating regular passenger flights along with its two siblings, EI-FWE and EI-FWD. All three are based at Brussels airport and mostly serve routes within Europe.

Brussels Airlines says that in addition to the three jetliners, it sometimes uses another of the CityJet SSJ100s on some of its routes “for operational reasons”.

“We are satisfied with the aircraft’s efficiency within our route network, and we get positive response from passengers regarding in-flight comfort,” the Brussels Airlines spokesperson told Russian Aviation Insider. “We currently have no plans for expanding our fleet with more aircraft of the type, because the fleet size depends on how the route network develops.”

The SSJ100s replace the aging Avro RJ100s in the Belgian carrier’s fleet. The operator, which is now a 100% subsidiary of Lufthansa Group, is changing its strategy as applied to regional aircraft. It is shifting away from having such airliners in its fleet, opting for wet-lease schemes instead. Brussels will continue to operate its own Airbus A320s though.

CityJet started using SSJ100s in June 2016. At the end of last summer, one of these aircraft was leased out to Finnair’s regional subsidiary Norra.

Another of CityJet’s SSJ100s had been flying for BMI Regional since February this year.

CityJet placed an order for a total of 15 SSJ100s, and has an option for 16 more.