Sep 30 2012
The FAA received a request from California Pacific Airlines to reregister their first Embraer 170 from its current identification of N176EC to the proposed N760CP.
As well, the airline has reserved the registration N619CP for the second planned aircraft for their fleet. The two registrations reflect the local area codes of the San Diego County area where the airline is based.
The airline expects to be operating a total of four Embraer 170s by the end of 2013.
Sep 29 2012
On this date, September 29th, 2012, a milestone in the history of worldwide regional jet operations will be reached when Comair operates it’s final flight today.
Comair was formed in 1977 and pioneered the regional jet era by introducing Bombardier CRJ regional jets to North America in 1993 and operated for more than thirty-five years.
At one point the largest regional jet operator in the world, the airline had been downsized by its owner, Delta Air Lines, over the preceding years until an announcement was made on July 27th, 2012 when it was announced that Comair was no longer a viable operation for Delta and would be closing as of September 29th, 2012.
At one time, operating under the Delta Connection banner, Comair operated passenger services across the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas.
Comair was established in 1977, and was founded by Patrick J. Sowers, Robert T. Tranter, David Mueller and Raymond Mueller. It began scheduled services from Cincinnati with two Piper Navajo aircraft. Over time the airline grew until in 1984, an agreement was reached with Delta Air Lines to operate as The Delta Connection. In 1986, Delta Air Lines acquired 20% of Comair stock. Delta Air Lines acquired full ownership on October 22, 1999 at a cost of over 2 billion dollars.
Comair transitioned to an all-jet operation on September 1, 2002. Over its lifetime, Comair operated all versions of the Canadair Regional Jet with the exception of the CRJ-1000 aircraft.
The airline suffered three major accidents in its history:
Comair’s final flight into Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport will land at 7:30 PM local time after departing from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. The final Comair flight will land in Minneapolis on the evening of September 29th, bringing Comair’s history to an end.
The closure of Comair will mean the loss of over 1,700 jobs in the airline industry.
Sep 28 2012
This is one in a series of articles on Winglets which track the histories of Canadair Regional Jets.
Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7005
D-ACLB in service with Lufthansa Cityline
(Photo By: TT – AirTeamImages / Source: PlanePictures.Net)
Aircraft History
C-GRJN, 7005, was the fifth Canadair Regional Jet built and flew exclusively for Lufthansa Cityline. 7005 was delivered on November 27th, 1992 as D-ACLB and was configured as a RJ100ER aircraft. 7005’s intended registration was to be D-ARJB, but was not used. All further CRJs in Cityline’s first order were to be registered as D-ARJA and upwards, but did not and followed the D-ACL series instead. Like other members of the CityLine CRJ fleet, 7005 underwent an update to the RJ100LR configuration, but did not undergo any other updates.
7005 operated with Cityline and suffered only one accident event in its history. On September 14th, 2002, the aircraft suffered a nose gear failure at Munich and an emergency landing was made which resulted in minor damage to the aircraft.
The aircraft flew in various Lufthansa titles as did all of the CityLine CRJ fleet during their service. 7005 was withdrawn from service during November 2005 and then returned to Canada, passing through Toronto. No other information exists about the fate of 7005, but it can be assumed that the aircraft was scrapped, possibly at North Bay Ontario.
Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7005
D-ACLB in service with Lufthansa Cityline
(Photo By: Ronny Busch)
Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7005
D-ACLB in service with Lufthansa Cityline
Accident Scene at MUC September 14, 2002
(Photo By: Werner Früchtl / Source: PlanePictures.Net)
Canadair Regional Jet RJ100LR MSN 7005
D-ACLB in partial Lufthansa Cityline colours and no titles
at Toronto International Airport before being scrapped.
(Photo From: Mr. CRJ Collection)
Sep 26 2012
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.
ALMA de Mexico – Aerolíneas Mesoamericanas, S.A. de C.V.
ALMA de México was a low cost Mexican airline that operated from June 12, 2006 until its closure on November 7, 2008. The airline operated a fleet of CRJ-200ER and 200LR aircraft exclusively with plans to operate a total fleet of 30 of the type. The airline also placed an order for two CRJ-900 NextGen aircraft, but these were never delivered. The airline’s hub was at Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla International Airport in Guadalajara, Mexico operating domestic flights. By the end of 2007, ALMA a fleet of 18 CRJ aircraft and had announced plans to expand to 30 aircraft within the coming year, including two new CRJ900 aircraft on order directly from Bombardier. The airline also codeshared with Mexicana Airlines on some routes in 2007. The airline soon faced economic difficulties and on November 7, 2008, ALMA announced on its website that it was ceasing all operations. The announcement cited the global economic crisis, the increase in fuel prices and the devaluation of the Mexican peso. All CRJs were returned to their owners and the airline closed.
Airports Served By CRJs
The following list is all of the airports served by ALMA.
CRJ Fleet
ALMA operated a total of nineteen Canadair Regional Jets in its fleet, all being CRJ-200LR or 200ER series aircraft. One additional aircraft was in the process of being transferred to the airline from China Express but was cancelled when the airline stopped operations. As the airline suffered losses, CRJs left the fleet at various intervals leaving 12 CRJs operating at the time of ALMA’s closure. All aircraft were leased and previously with other airlines. When the airline ceased operations, the fleet was scattered to various lessors including Bombardier, GECAS and Wells Fargo. Avmax also retrieved their CRJs and some other aircraft were leased on to Jetlink Air:
MSN 7379 XA-UIE (To C-FYLF) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7467 XA-UGS (To C-FYKZ) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7470 XA-UGU (To C-FYKX) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7652 XA-PPG (To N679SA) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7653 XA-DLP (To N681SA) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7662 XA-ECD (To N682SA) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7690 XA-UIN (To C-FYKT) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7704 XA-UIO (To C-FYJV) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7739 XA-GHC (To N677SA) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7004 XA-UHM (To C-FYFS) CRJ-200LR
MSN 7006 XA-UHB (To 5Y-JLB) CRJ-200LR
MSN 7016 XA-UIE (To 5Y-JLE) CRJ-200LR
MSN 7025 XA-UHF (To C-FZQN) CRJ-200LR
MSN 7113 XA-JPM (To C-FZGN) CRJ-200LR
MSN 7144 XA-UFX (ToN7143) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7164 XA-UFD (ToN7164) CRJ-200ER
MSN 7299 XA-UHU (To N299BS) CRJ-200LR
MSN 7329 XA-UHN (To N329BS) CRJ-200LR
MSN 7363 XA-UID (To C-FYKN) CRJ-200ER
The following aircraft was to be leased, but this was not completed:
MSN 7565 XA-??? (Ex: B-3001) CRJ-200ER
Before the airline ceased operations, ALMA held orders for two CRJ-900s which were never delivered. It also intended to have a full fleet of at least 30 CRJ-200s before it shut down.
Canadair Regional Jet RJ200ER MSN 7470 XA-UGU
In Service with ALMA de México
(Photo By: Augusto Gomez Rojas)
Before ALMA ceased operations, the airline had placed an order for two new CRJ-900 NextGens for delivery in late 2008. As part of that announcement, an artist’s concept of a CRJ-900 in ALMA colours was released by Bombardier. No deliveries of any CRJ-900s to ALMA ever occurred.
Artist’s Conception Artwork of a CRJ-900 NextGen in ALMA de México colours