Aviation Gazette

Bringing the aviation news to you!

  • About me
  • Extra
    • In Loving Memory of Laurent Sorelli
    • Airport Webcams
  • iflyA380
  • Daily Email Information
  • Contact Me
AviationGazette © 2022 ______________________________ Log in
VLM cancels Superjet order

VLM cancels Superjet order

March 1, 2016 By bernard.montrel@gmail.com

Belgian carrier VLM Airlines has canceled its order for Sukhoi SSJ100s.
In October 2014, VLM announced it planned to acquire up to 14 long-range versions of the Sukhoi SSJ100. Under a letter of intent with Ilyushin Finance, VLM took the option to lease up to four SSJ100LRs plus purchase rights on 10 more aircraft.
The first two aircraft were due to arrive on 12-year operating leases from April 2015. However, in March 2015 a delay in the initial deliveries until 3Q 2016 was announced, due to the need to certificate the long-range version by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
The deal has now been scrapped and VLM will look anew at finding a new aircraft to supplement or replace its existing fleet of 11 Fokker 50 turboprops.
“The SSJ will not go ahead,” VLM’s managing director Hamish Davidson told ATW. “I know a lot of work went into that [deal], but it doesn’t rule out continuing to look at how we re-fleet the business looking forward.”
The decision to drop the Russian regional jet was made primarily because of VLM’s exposure to potential risks from an aircraft whose long-range version had not yet achieved EASA certification.
Additionally, over the course of 2015 geopolitical factors—the rising tension between Russia and the West over the conflict in Ukraine—“became an ongoing concern,” Davidson said, although that was not the driving factor behind the decision to halt the deal.
VLM was the subject of a management buy-out from its parent company, Dublin-based CityJet, in fall 2014, just six months after CityJet was itself spun out of Air France-KLM, for which it had operated regional services.
Davidson, who took on the CEO role at Antwerp-based VLM in January, said decisions would be taken over the next six months on the future direction in which the company would grow. He hoped a defined plan would be in place by 4Q 2016.
“We most certainly won’t turn away from evaluating the potential of the new jets coming into the marketplace,” he said.
ATW – Air Transport World

Filed Under: News

Search

Recents Articles

  • Norwegian Air Shuttle launches two flights from Bergen to the US
  • Mickey Mouse delays flight to London Heathrow by 4 hours…
  • King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia brings 417Tonnes (metric tonne) and a gold escalator
  • McDonellsDouaglas MD-88 retire from the LaGuardia Sky
  • Forbes #1 US airline is: Alaska Airlines

Tags cloud

737 737-800 737NG 767 777 777-200 787 787-8 A320 A321 A330 A350XWB A380 Airbus Air Canada Air France Alaska Airlines American Airlines Boeing Bombardier British Airways California Canada China Cuba Delta Air Lines Dreamliner Egypt Embraer Florida France Ireland Israel jetBlue London Los Angeles New York Paris Peoples Republic of China Russia Southwest Airlines United-Kingdom United Airlines US USA