CityJet Ltd., Ireland

2014: INTRO takes over the Irish regional airline CityJet Ltd. from Air France. With a fleet 20 Avro RJ85 jets CityJet serves a network mainly out of London City Airport and Dublin connecting destinations in continental Europe, UK and Ireland. Until takeover CityJet was merely an ACMI operator for Air France.

Following the takeover CityJet was immediately transformed to be a commercial airline flying under its own commercial code. The following measures were taken:

• implementation of a reservation system (Amadeus) and inventory (Altea)
• set-up of a sales organization
• immediate cost-cutting process by optimizing network, schedule and fleet utilization
• re-negotiation of all supplier contracts
• optimization of organizational structure including adjustment of staff and management
• implementation of a business intelligence tool allowing transparency of the business
• re-negotiation of ACMI-agreement with VLM
• separation of affiliate Belgian regional airline VLM and subsequent management buy-out
• acquisition of Finish airline Blue 1
• securing long-term ACMI contract for SAS operated by Blue 1 utilizing 8 Bombardier CRJ900
• decision to change the CityJet fleet to SuperJet SSJ100 starting with re-fleeting in spring 2016

With the restructuring process well under way INTRO Aviation successfully sold CityJet in a MBO backed by a Pivate Equity Fund in March 2016.