Regional Carriers Air Nostrum and Cityjet To Merge

Spanish regional airline Air Nostrum and Ireland-based airline Cityjet announced plans for a new joint venture on Tuesday at the Farnborough Airshow. The companies plan to essentially merge their operations by year-end into a new holding company, for which they are now seeking regulatory approval. 

Still to be determined are the new operation’s name and how the shareholding structure will be finalized. The partners will retain their respective multiple air operator’s certificates, which they use for various wet-lease and franchised operations. Air Nostrum managing director Miguel Falcon said that he and his new partners share a common vision for Europe’s air transport market—one in which they expect mainline operators to increasingly outsource regional services to smaller operators.

With around 2,600 employees, the new joint venture will have a combined fleet of almost 100 aircraft, mainly consisting of Air Nostrum’s 42 Bombardier CRJ twinjets and 28 of the same type operated by Cityjet. The Irish carrier is in the process of adding more CRJs and also operates a growing number of the larger, Russian-made Superjet SSJ100 narrowbodies, as well as some BAE Avro RJs.

“We’re both around 25 years old, have similar fleets, and a common vision, so we’re going to start working together under one umbrella for the benefit of the regional airline market in Europe,” said Falcon.