Brit Air orders six more Bombardier CRJ1000 NextGen airliners

Bombardier Aerospace announced that Brit Air (Morlaix, France) has signed a contract to acquire six additional Bombardier CRJ1000 NextGen jetliners. The transaction involves the conversion of six options taken with Brit Air's original order for eight CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft. That order was announced on February 19, 2007.  

Based on the list price for the CRJ1000 NextGen jetliner, the order announced today is valued at approximately $299 million US.  

Brit Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air France, is one of three launch customers for the CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft program. The airline's fleet currently includes 15 Bombardier CRJ100 and 15 Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets.  

"Bombardier's CRJ aircraft provide an excellent combination of performance, operating economics and passenger comfort to meet our needs," said Marc Lamidey, President and Chief Executive Officer, Brit Air. We are therefore confident in increasing our CRJ fleet and will use our 98-seat CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft for both domestic and medium-haul regional European service. 

As a customer for our CRJ100 jets, launch customer for our CRJ700 regional jet, and now again for our CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft, Brit Air has been partnering with Bombardier for almost 14 years, and we are proud to continue this outstanding relationship, said Gary R. Scott, President, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. Our CRJ NextGen aircraft are optimized for medium-haul applications, and since they will offer reduced emissions compared to earlier models, are ideally suited to help achieve today's environmental expectations.  

The CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft program passed an important milestone when the prototype of the jetliner successfully made its inaugural flight from the Bombardier Aerospace facility at Mirabel, Quebec on September 3, 2008.