BA CityFlyer, the British Airways wholly owned subsidiary airline, is updating its fleet of regional jets with the acquisition of two Avro RJ85s from spring next year.

The airline has signed leases for the two aircraft with BAE Systems Regional Aircraft, to replace the two oldest RJ100s in the BA CityFlyer fleet of 10 aircraft.

The new, lighter aircraft means the airline will be able to carry more passengers on longer routes from London City Airport.

At present runway length and weight restrictions at London City means BA CityFlyer can only carry a maximum of 60 passengers on longer routes such as Madrid and Milan in high temperatures. The new aircraft will be able to carry a maximum of 84 passengers on each flight.

Peter Simpson, managing director BA CityFlyer said: “This is part of our planned fleet improvement programme, designed to improve our performance on key business routes from London City Airport. These new lighter aircraft give us the ability to provide much needed extra capacity on busy European services.”

Steve Doughty, vice president sales & marketing for BAE Systems Regional Aircraft said:
“We are particularly pleased to have secured this new business with BA CityFlyer, especially as it reinforces the dominant role that the BAe 146/Avro RJ family enjoys at London City Airport where our aircraft accounts for 44 percent of daily scheduled departures and 62 percent of daily scheduled seats.”