CityJet is to lease five Bombardier CRJ1000s to Lufthansa for the summer season. The former Air France-KLM subsidiary, headed by Pat Byrne, will operate the aircraft from Frankfurt from late March to late October.
This marks an expansion of the partnership compared to last year when CityJet leased two CRJs to Lufthansa and two others to Brussels Airlines, which also belongs to the Lufthansa Group. Brussels Airlines will not use wet leases this coming summer.
CityJet currently has four CRJ1000s but expects a fifth one shortly. The aircraft have 100 seats on board. This summer, the Irish airline will also operate twelve smaller CRJ900s for SAS. The collaboration has been ongoing for years, leading the airline to have predominantly Scandinavian staff.
Until 2018, CityJet operated scheduled flights, but since then, the company has focused on wet leases—leasing out aircraft with crew to airlines facing capacity shortages or seeking flexible capacity.
