Irish airline Cityjet is in financial difficulty as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to RTE.
RTE reports that the carrier “sought the protection of the courts from its creditors due to financial difficulties, which were exacerbated after its fleet was grounded by the Covid-19 outbreak”.
Cityjet specialises in wet-lease operations. It employs 1,175 people of whom many are based in Dublin.
Those of us in the UK will remember Cityjet as previously operating routes out of London’s City Airport on behalf of carriers such as Air France, KLM and Aer Lingus.
Cityjet also flew on behalf of Air France between Paris CDG, the UK regions and Dublin.
In recent times Cityjet scaled back its London City operation as Air France decided to axe its Paris route from LCY, and KLM brought its London City to Amsterdam operation in-house.
At one time Cityjet was deploying a fleet of BAE146s. These were not liked by some passengers because of their age.
One Forum contributor commented that “Cityjet gained a very poor reputation with unclean and ageing aircraft, uncomfortable to fly in, Avro [BAE146] jets, many over 25 years old.”
Later Cityjet made the decision too invest in a small fleet of brand new Sukhoi Superjet 100s which operated a selection of flights (but not to LCY as their operation there had not been certified) but these Russian planes were later withdrawn service.
It is reported by Luchtvaart news of The Netherlands that Cityjet holds 75 per cent of Air Antwerp’s shares.
Air Antwerp, readers may remember, took over the Antwerp to London City route last year following the collapse of VLM.
Air Antwerp has currently suspended operations because of the current crisis. Readers will be hoping it will eventually return to the skies.
