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http://atwonline.com/airframes/brussels ... i-aircraftBrussels Airlines looks at wet-lease options for Sukhoi aircraft
Sep 17, 2018
Brussels Airlines is considering whether to move its wet-lease arrangement from Ireland’s CityJet,
following longer-than-anticipated delays in solving technical problems with its Russian-built Sukhoi Superjet 100s (SSJ100s).
The Belgian airline has used four of Dublin-based regional CityJet’s SSJ100s on some services since April 2017.
That contract is scheduled to expire in March 2019
and the carrier is at the request-for-proposals (RFP) stage
of determining who will be capacity provider.
Brussels Airlines said an aircraft of the SSJ100’s size
is ideal for some of its destinations that are unsuitable for larger aircraft,
or where it wishes to offer more flights per day
than would be possible with a larger aircraft,
such as the Airbus A320.
“We have had very positive reactions from our passengers with the SSJ100,”
a Brussels Airlines spokeswoman told ATW,
“but it is still a very young aircraft and it has had some ‘childhood diseases.’”
Every time such teething problems cropped up,
it took longer to get the aircraft back into service
than it would have been with other types.
This has affected reliability figures, she said.
She added that the Sukhoi was a good aircraft,
but one whose youth had not been in its favor.
The news comes days after Mexico’s Interjet,
the other Western airline using the Russian type,
said it would be retiring some of its Sukhoi fleet,
while leaving open the door for taking on newer examples of the aircraft.
The Belgian airline’s spokeswoman stressed
that no decision had yet made on
which company would become the capacity provider.
“I can’t say who is in the RFP, but we are looking at different options.”
CityJet COO Cathal O’Connell said
that to talk about his company’s plans
for its SSJ100s would be “commercially sensitive.”
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