Cityjet has confirmed it will cut staff and routes as it restructures operations at London City airport.
Executive chairman Pat Byrne said the airline will reduce the size of its crew at City as it looks to develop its wet lease strategy.
The carrier will take delivery of four Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft and three Superjet SSJ100s in the first half of this year, as well as “up to ten new CRJ900s” from June.
All of these aircraft will be used to operate services on behalf of wet lease customers, crewed by Cityjet staff.
Byrne said the airline is on course to achieve its aim of having around 80 per cent of its aircraft on wet lease and charter services in 2017.
A wet lease is when an airline provides aircraft as well as crew members to the lessee. The owner also promises to conduct adequate maintenance and procure the insurance necessary to operate.
It will drop services to Paris Orly and Nantes from end of March as well as cutting frequency on its City-Amsterdam route.
Byrne said: “Since mid-2015, we have been actively repositioning ourselves as an aviation business with a mix of wet lease operations on behalf of other airlines, own-brand scheduled flying and ad hoc charter services”.
“With the ongoing changes to our network, it is important that we continually assess the efficiency of our infrastructure to support these services.
“In this context, we have reviewed the business justification for the retention of our crew base in its current size at London City airport. Consequently, we are announcing that we will be reducing the size of our London City crew base and we are entering into a consultation process with the staff affected,” he said.
However, Cityjet will increase frequency on its Dublin route as demand grows.
Byrne added: “Cityjet remains fully committed to London City airport and will continue to offer unrivalled service to our customers on our routes.”
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