Nov 20 2012

Historical CRJ Operators – Lauda Air Italy

This is one in an ongoing series of articles on Winglets that will summarize past airlines and other operators of CRJ aircraft that are no longer in existence.

Lauda Air Italy – Lauda Air S.p.A.

  • IATA Code: L4
  • ICAO Code: LDI
  • Callsign: LAUDA ITALY
  • Italian subsidiary of Lauda Air
  • Operated 1996-2007
  • Operated CRJs 1999-2001
  • Number of CRJs Operated: 2 CRJ-100LR

Lauda Air Italy was an airline based in Milan, Italy which was a subsidiary of Lauda Air of Austria. It operated long haul charter services to the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Maldives and Thailand as well as a small number of short haul routes within Italy. Its main base was Malpensa International Airport, Milan.

The airline operated within the Lauda Air group of airlines, but was eventually sold to other operators within Italy. When this occurred, the short haul routes were discontinued and the CRJs that had been leased from Lauda Air were returned. Following the merger of the airline into the Livingston Aviation Group, the airline ceased to exist. The airline operated two CRJs from 1999 through 2001.

 

CRJ Fleet

Lauda Air Italy operated a pair of CRJ-100LRs that were on sub-lease from the parent company Lauda Air in June 1999. The only change made to the aircraft was that their colour scheme was altered slightly. A green shade was added to part of the tail colours to differentiate the CRJs from the other aircraft in Lauda Air’s fleet. OE-LRC left the fleet in November 2000 and OE-LRH followed in June 2001, both returning to Lauda’s main fleet at the time.

The following CRJ aircraft were operated by Lauda Air Italy:

OE-LRC (To: D-ANIM)           MSN 7036           CRJ-100LR

OE-LRH                                     MSN 7125          CRJ-100LR

Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7036 OE-LRC in service with Lauda Air Italy (Photo by: Fabian Zimmerli / Source: PlanePictures.Net)

Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7036
OE-LRC in service with Lauda Air Italy
(Photo by: Fabian Zimmerli / Source: PlanePictures.Net)

Nov 15 2012

The History of Canadair Regional Jet MSN 7010

This is one in a series of articles on Winglets which track the histories of Canadair Regional Jets.

Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7010 D-ACLE in service with Lufthansa Cityline (Photo By: Greg Gayden)

Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7010
D-ACLE in service with Lufthansa Cityline
(Photo By: Greg Gayden)

  • MSN 7010
  • C-GRJW, D-ACLE, SE-DUX
  • Tenth Canadair Regional Jet Built
  • Operated for Lufthansa Cityline and West Atlantic Sweden.
  • Originally a RJ100ER, converted to RJ100LR configuration, then converted to RJ200LR(PF) Freighter configuration.

Aircraft History

C-GRJW, 7010, was the tenth Canadair Regional Jet built and began its service life with Lufthansa Cityline. 7010 was delivered as D-ACLE and was configured as a RJ100ER aircraft.  Originally to be operated as D-ARJE, all further CRJs in Cityline’s first order were to be registered in the D-ACL series. Like other members of the CityLine CRJ fleet, 7010 underwent an update to the RJ100LR configuration, but did not have the configuration change to an RJ200LR while operated by Cityline.

The aircraft flew in various Lufthansa titles as did all of the CityLine CRJ fleet during their service. 7010 was withdrawn from service in May 2006 and then ownership was transferred to West Atlantic Sweden who contracted with Cascade Aerospace to convert 7010 to a freighter configuration. This was completed in May 2007 and 7010 was also given the configuration changes to bring it to the RJ200LR service level. After all changes were complete, 7010 was designated as a CRJ-200LR (PF) aircraft, the PF referring to the aircraft’s Package Freighter configuration.

As of October 2012, 7010 still operates for West Atlantic Sweden on daily services.

 

Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7010 D-ACLE in service with Lufthansa Cityline with Lufthansa Cityline Titles (Photo By: Ken Meegan)

Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7010
D-ACLE in service with Lufthansa Cityline
with Lufthansa Cityline Titles
(Photo By: Ken Meegan)

 

Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7010 D-ACLE in Partial Lufthansa Cityline Colours and No Titles (Photo By: Wolfgang Zilske)

Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7010
D-ACLE in Partial Lufthansa Cityline
Colours and No Titles
(Photo By: Wolfgang Zilske)

 

Canadair Regional Jet RJ200LR(PF) MSN 7010 SE-DUX in service with West Atlantic Sweden (Photo By: Hans Olav Nyborg)

Canadair Regional Jet RJ200LR(PF) MSN 7010
SE-DUX in service with West Atlantic Sweden
(Photo By: Hans Olav Nyborg)

Nov 14 2012

Azerbaijan Airlines orders 4 new Embraer 190s and 2 used Embraer 170s

AZAL Azerbaijan Airlines LogoEmbraer announced a firm order from Azerbaijan Airlines for four new Embraer 190s and two used Embraer 170s on November 14th, 2012. This announcement assists Embraer in maintaining the production line for its Embraer E-Jet series aircraft.

Azerbaijan Airlines ordered the two used Embraer 170s through  Embraer ECC Leasing. Azerbaijan Airlines will receive two used Embraer 170 jets in the second quarter of 2013 and the four new Embraer 190 jets in the following quarter. All of the aircraft will be in service by the end of 2013.

Embraer booked one new E-Jet order for every three it delivered in the first nine months of 2012 as its backlog has dropped to its lowest level since 2006.

Nov 10 2012

Historical CRJ Operators – Estonian Airlines

This is one in an ongoing series of articles on Winglets that will summarize past airlines and other operators of CRJ aircraft that are no longer in existence, or are no longer operating the type.

Estonian Air LogoEstonian Air – AB Estonian Air

  • IATA Code: OV
  • ICAO Code: ELL
  • Callsign: ESTONIAN
  •  Flag carrier airline of Estonia
  • Operated CRJs from 2010-2013
  • Number of CRJs Operated: 3 CRJ-900LR NextGens
  • Order for 4 CRJ-900LRs cancelled before delivery
  • Order for 2 CRJ-900LR NextGens cancelled
  • Lease of 4 CRJ-200LRs from Maersk cancelled
Estonian Air CRJ Routes

Estonian Air CRJ Routes

Estonian Air was an airline based in Tallinn, Estonia. It operated as a regional airline feeding into the Scandinavian Airlines System via Stockholm, Oslo, Trondheim and Copenhagen from Estonia. The airline was established by the Estonian government with aircraft acquired from the defunct local Aeroflot Division and started operations in December 1991 with service to Frankfurt.

The airline operated a varied fleet of Eastern and Western aircraft, and only in recent years the airline moved towards a completely Western manufacturer supply chain for their aircraft as part of a fleet rationalization program. The airline operates in both a regional form with turboprops and small regional jet and with larger Boeing 737 aircraft.

As part of a modernization of the fleet, the airline placed orders for CRJ-900LR aircraft, but that order was deferred and converted to the CRJ-900LR NextGen series when it was announced and available. Deliveries of the NextGens occurred in late 2010 and the airline began operation with the type in early 2011. However, in the summer of 2012, the airline announced that it would not be accepting delivery of the final two aircraft on order due to financial concerns. Shortly thereafter, the airline also announced that it would be selling the new NextGens it operated and switching to a fleet of Embraer 170 aircraft due to being able to obtain certain financial agreements. By the end of Match 2013, all of the NextGens were to be phased out and put up for sale.

Airports served By CRJs

The following list is all of the airports Estonian Air served with CRJs:

  • TLL – Tallinn
  • AMS – Amsterdam
  • BRU – Brussels
  • CPH – Copenhagen
  • KBP – Kiev
  • LON – London-Gatwick
  • OSL – Oslo
  • CDG – Paris
  • LED – St. Petersburg
  • ARN – Stockholm
  • TBS – Tbilisi
  • TRD – Trondheim
  • VIE – Vienna
  • VNO – Vilnius

CRJ Fleet

Estonian Air operated a total of three CRJ-900LR NextGens. The airline had ordered threeCRJ-900LR aircraft from a previous agreement, but they were deferred and changed to the NextGen version of the CRJ-900. Because of a funding issue, an additional two CRJ-900LR NextGens were never delivered. As part of that issue, the airline decided to remove the three newly built aircraft it did operate in the summer of 2012. The plan was to remove all of the aircraft from service by the end of March 2013 and replace them with an equal number of Embraer 170s. The CRJ-900s were stored before being leased out or sold to another carrier and thus would leave the airline’s fleet. The airline also considered leasing four CRJ-200LRs from Maersk Air, but these plans were cancelled and did not occur nor were specific aircraft earmarked for operation by the airline.

The following CRJ aircraft were operated by Estonian Air:

ES-ACB         MSN 15261          CRJ-900LR NextGen

ES-ACC         MSN 15262          CRJ-900LR NextGen

ES-ACD        MSN 15276          CRJ-900LR NextGen

The following aircraft were originally ordered by the airline, but never delivered, the order being deferred until the newer and more capable CRJ-900LR NextGens were available:

ES-ACA (To: CX-CRH)         MSN 15233          CRJ-900LR

ES-ACB (To: CX-CRI)         MSN 15234          CRJ-900LR

ES-ACC (To: CX-CRK)         MSN 15239          CRJ-900LR

The following aircraft was intended to be delivered, but the airline cancelled its agreement with Bombardier, another airframe was on order, but an MSN was not allocated.

ES-??? (To: C-GIAZ)         MSN 15277          CRJ-900LR NextGen

 

Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-900 NextGen MSN 15261 ES-ACB in service with Estonian Air (Photo By: Ole Simon)

Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-900LR NextGen MSN 15261
ES-ACB in service with Estonian Air
(Photo By: Ole Simon)