CityJet (WX, Dublin International) has acquired Danish production company Cimber (Sønderborg) from parent SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) as part of the Scandinavian carrier's push to reduce costs by simplifying its fleet operations.
SAS said in a statement that the transaction, whose value was not disclosed, is set to close on January 31.
"The divestment of Cimber is in line with our strategy to simplify and focus on SAS's own production platform," Rickard Gustafson, SAS's President and CEO, said. "Thanks to synergies between CityJet and Cimber, the production cost for Cimber production will be further reduced, creating the conditions to maintain and develop regional routes for the benefit of SAS customers."
A wholly-owned Danish passenger charter carrier, SAS acquired Cimber in February 2015 with the aim of achieving more focused and flexible regional production. Cimber has operated regional European and Scandinavian flights for and on behalf of SAS from its Copenhagen Kastrup base using a fleet of twelve SAS-owned CRJ900s.
In tandem with this announcement, CityJet has signed a conditional purchase agreement with Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) for six CRJ900s with options for an additional four aircraft.
These aircraft, whose deliveries run from the second half of 2017 through to the beginning of 2018, will be used to replace the SAS-owned CRJ900s. The latter, in fact, will be sold during the period February 2017 to the middle of 2017.
CityJet currently operates eight CRJ900s under its own white label/ACMI contract with SAS with a further four, ordered in April last year, to be delivered later this year. Once all deliveries are completed, SAS will have contracted twenty-two CRJ900 aircraft from CityJet
