Air Nostrum forges new aviation group with Cityjet

Irish airline Cityjet is joining forces with Spanish-based Air Nostrum to create a new regional aviation group, the pair confirmed on Tuesday.

Valencia-headquartered Air Nostrum is creating a new business, Strategic Alliance of Regional Airlines (SARA), with Cityjet, that will include three airlines, maintenance, training and other activities.

Under the terms of a deal announced on Tuesday, Air Nostrum will hold 80 per cent of the shares in SARA through a subsidiary, Air Investment Valencia, while Cityjet investors will take the remaining 20 per cent.

The companies are based in Spain, the Republic and Denmark, where Cityjet employs about 500 people, but intend growing their businesses across Europe.

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Miguel Ángel Falcón, SARA general manager and Air Nostrum vice-president, explained that the businesses spent five years working on the deal, which Covid travel curbs stalled.

“A total of 74 aircraft are operated by SARA which represents the largest European regional aviation platform,” he said.

Air Nostrum owns 46 of those planes while Cityjet has 24 and the third carrier, Hibernian, has three.

Carlos Bartomeu, Air Nostrum president, will chair SARA, which will act as a holding company with its subsidiaries continuing to operate independently.

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“Each of the companies linked to SARA will remain based in its own country and with its own employees, as in the past,” he stressed.

Pat Byrne, Cityjet chief executive and SARA’s head of strategy, predicted that the deal would benefit all companies in the new group.

Cathal O’Connell, chief commercial officer of SARA and Cityjet, said the combination of the three airlines would allow the new group offer regional aviation services to any carrier across Europe.

Cityjet provides other airlines with aircraft and crew to operate regional routes, a service dubbed “wet leasing” in aviation jargon.