Irish regional airline CityJet sold to private investors

DUBLIN, March 24 (Reuters) - Founder Pat Byrne and private
equity backers have repurchased Irish regional airline CityJet
from German owners Intro Aviation for an undisclosed sum, the
company said on Thursday.
The regional airline, which carried around 2 million
passengers last year, was bought from Air France-KLM AIRF.PA
in 2014 by Intro Aviation.
CityJet operates eight routes into the small London City
Airport and a service linking to Air France's hub at Paris
Charles de Gaulle airport.
"Pat Byrne, the airline's founder with the support of a
private equity consortium owned and controlled by European
private individuals with considerable experience in the aviation
sector, have acquired the airline," CityJet said in a statement.
Byrne told the Irish Independent newspaper on Thursday that
the airline saw an initial public offering within two to three
years as "the ideal way to go."
The airline expects to make a modest profit this year and
revenue will increase to 300 million euros ($335 million)within
two years from the 177 million euros earned in 2014 when it
posted an operating loss of 22.7 million euros, he told the
newspaper.
A spokesman for CityJet declined to comment on the company's
profit forecast or the possibility of an IPO.
CityJet is expecting delivery of the first of eight new
CRJ900 jet aircraft from Bombardier BBDb.TO this week with
subsequent deliveries to continue until June, it said in the
statement.
CityJet was the first European carrier to order the new
generation SSJ 100 Superjet from Russia's Sukhoi UNAC.MM and
will take delivery of three aircraft this year with an
additional five by July 2017, it said.
CityJet has a further firm order for an additional seven
Superjets and options on 16 more and said the Russian airliners
would ultimately replace its existing Avro 85 fleet.
($1 = 0.8955 euros)