Bombardier CSeries and London City

Following a series of test flights at its Wichita facility, Bombardier plans to bring one of its CS100 development aircraft to London City Airport (LCY) in the first quarter of 2017. A requirement of operations at LCY is a steep (5deg) approach in order to meet noise regulations specific to the airport with its short 1,199m runway.

Speaking at Bombardier’s annual end-of-year press reception at London’s Royal Aeronautical Society Hyde Park Corner headquarters, senior VP commercial Colin Bole confirmed that lead customer SWISS would have taken delivery of five aircraft by the year-end.

With a maximum of 135 seats (SWISS offers 124 in a two-class layout), the aircraft has a much larger capacity (about 25%) than the alternative Embraer, Mitsubishi or Sukhoi offerings.

The aircraft is claimed to make New York non-stop in a Business-Class configuration similar to the Airbus A318 that British Airways uses on its transatlantic service outbound via Shannon, where it clears US customs and immigration and changes flight deck crew.

Previously a twice daily flight, this is now a single Monday-to-Friday service from LCY, and does not operate on a Saturday and Sunday from JFK.

By the end of the year, Baltic Airlines expects to have two of the larger CS300s delivered.

www.bombardier.com

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