CityJet Limited is an Irish airline based in Swords, Fingal, County Dublin, Ireland. It is an Irish subsidiary of Air France, operating franchise services in Europe & high frequency services from Dublin to London & Paris. Its main base is Dublin Airport, with hubs at Charles de Gaulle Airport and London City Airport.
[edit] Early operations
The airline was established on 28 September 1992 and started scheduled operations on 12 January 1994. It was founded by Pat Byrne and began operations between London City Airport and Dublin under a franchise agreement with Virgin Atlantic Airways. On 4 July 1997 the airline began operations on the route using its own identity, with Saab 2000 aircraft.
[edit] Link with Air France
Initially CityJet operated the Paris to London City service on behalf of Air France. In May 1999, Air France in partnership with Air Foyle Ireland took a 25% equity stake in the airline. In February 2002, Air France assumed complete control. CityJet is wholly owned by Air France and has 720 employees.[1]
In fiscal year 2006/07, CityJet had a turnover of €289 million.[2] In 2007/08, CityJet carried over 1.8 million passengers and received the “Airline of the Year 2008/9 Silver Award” from the European Regions Airline Association.[1]
[edit] Merger of VLM into Cityjet
On 24 December 2007, Air France-KLM announced that they had signed an agreement for a full takeover of the company from Panta Holdings [3].
Air France-KLM announced on 28 May 2009 that VLM Airlines will gradually start to operate under the brand name CityJet. The name CityJet is already in use by the Irish regional partner of Air France-KLM. The name VLM Airlines will be replaced altogether by CityJet although both companies would continue to operate independently.[citation needed] As a result, VLM Airlines will convert its frequent flyer program VLM Encore into Air France-KLM's Flying Blue.
VLM website will be merged into a new CityJet website. Aircraft will receive full CityJet livery.[4]
[edit] Destinations
CityJet names each RJ85 aircraft after an Irish island.
Scotairways operate 4 Dornier 328-110 aircraft on behalf of Cityjet. All aircraft in full cityjet livery
As of 08 Sep 2009 the CityJet fleet consisted of the following aircraft:
VLM fleet that is being progressively rebranded Cityjet consists of:
| Aircraft | Total Fleet | CityJet Branded | VLM Branded | Passengers | Notes |
| Fokker 50 | 18 | 1 | 17 | 50 | OO-VLQ rebranded CityJet[6] |
[edit] See also
[edit] Gallery
| | Saab 2000 at Dublin on a schedule to London City airport (1998) | Avro RJ85 in current livery (2009) |
[edit] References
- Fuelled by Belief: The CityJet Story by Pat Byrne, first printed September 2004 - ISBN 1-904148-57-3
[edit] External links
| Members of the International Air Transport Association | | | | | | Asia-Pacific regional office | | | | | | | China and North Asia regional office | | | | | | | | | | Latin America and the Caribbean regional office | | | | | | | Middle East and North Africa regional office | | | | | | | North America regional office | | | | | | | Russia and the CIS regional office | | | | | |
