Bahrain Defense Force doubles its ARJ-100 fleet

The Bahrain Defence Force (BFW, Bahrain Int’l) has bought a second ARJ-100 via a transaction facilitated by Skyworld Aviation. SE-DSZ (msn E3380), a 20.1-year-old quadjet, was retired by Swedish airline BRA – Braathens Regional Aviation (TF, Malmö) on March 16, 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 18, the aircraft was ferried to Norwich for storage and has remained at the British airport ever since. It will now undergo maintenance and is scheduled to deliver to Bahrain in the second quarter of 2021. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, the Bahrain Defence Force operates two ARJ-85s and one ARJ-100, all in a VIP configuration and on behalf of Bahrain Royal Flight. While one of the ARJ-85s was delivered directly to Bahrain, the other two units are second-hand stock formerly operated by Azzurra Air (ZS, Milan Malpensa) (the other ARJ-85) and Blue 1 (KF, Helsinki Vantaa) (the ARJ-100). BRA – Braathens Regional Aviation was a production carrier for its parent, BRA – Braathens Regional Airlines. It ended operations in March 2020, following the COVID-accelerated retirement of all BAe Systems quadjets. BRA – Braathens Regional Airlines remains a virtual carrier but all of its ATR72-600s are now operated by another technical subsidiary, BRA – Braathens Regional Airways. According to the ch-aviation fleets history module, BRA operated a total of twenty-nine BAe 146/ARJ quadjets throughout its history, although never more than 18 at a time. It began the retirement of the last 12 aircraft, at that time including two ARJ-85s and ten ARJ-100s, in 2018. Skyworld Aviation still has two ex-BRA ARJ-85s (SE-DJO (msn E2226) and SE-DJN (msn E2231)) and one ARJ-100 (SE-RJI (msn E3357)) available for sale.