Ireland’s CityJet retires last ARJ-85

CityJet (WX, Dublin Int’l) has retired its last ARJ-85 and will exclusively operate CRJ900LRs going forward. EI-RJF (msn E2337) was retired from revenue service – the Dublin Int’l-London City route operated on behalf of Aer Lingus – on March 7, 2020. It has since remained in storage first at Norwich and then at Dublin airport. It was ferried from the Irish capital to Reykjavik Keflavik on November 2, 2020, headed towards the United States where it will be converted into a firefighting aircraft for Aero Flite (Kingman). The Arizonan firefighting specialist already operates or has under conversion fourteen ARJ85s, including ten ex-CityJet units. Having returned eight CRJ900s leased from third-party lessors (TrueNoord, Chorus Aviation Capital, and Nordic Aviation Capital), the Irish ACMI specialist now operates twenty CRJ900LRs owned either directly by the airline or by its parent Falko Regional Aircraft, 11 of which are currently operational under its long-term wet-lease agreement with SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup). CityJet has operated numerous BAe Systems Family quadjets, including BAe 146-100s, BAe 146-200s, BAe 146-300s, and ARJ85s, over the past 27 years. In 2007, it acquired twenty-seven ARJ-85s from Mesaba Airlines (XJ, Minneapolis/St. Paul).