BAE Systems Regional Aircraft reports a “major service expansion” this year at London City Airport, where 44 percent of daily departures involve its BAe 146 or Avro RJ regional jets, which also account for 62 percent of each day’s seats. A new operator there is to be Transwede, which will begin flights in August with twice-daily service to Norwegian capital Oslo on behalf of Scandinavian flag carrier SAS with an Avro RJ70 leased from the manufacturer.

Other carriers operating BAe146/ Avro RJ equipment at the airport include Belgian airline VLM, which has flown a BAe 146-300 to and from Rotterdam since April.

The company is to upgrade two Royal Air Force 146-100s with Collins FPI-920 electronic flight-instrument systems, one next year and the other in early 2009. The modification already has been incorporated on nine Lufthansa Regional aircraft, accumulating some 68,000 instrument-flying hours by April 1 this year. It is said to be a “simpler, more cost-effective” liquid-crystal display than an earlier Phase 2 cathode-ray tube version fitted on later BAe 146s and is being offered to other operators.

The former airliner manufacturer also reports increased market interest in leases of its Jetstream 41 regional turboprop, with British operator Eastern Airways renewing contracts for 11 of its 25 examples and Colombian start-up carrier EasyFly taking four machines from this month.

A number of Jetstream 32 operators plus new customers are included in transactions covering 19 aircraft in the first half of this year: Africair has bought two J32s for its Briko Air Services operation in the West Indies; Argentina’s Macair is buying six examples, of which three have been delivered; Aerolineas de Antioquia of Colombia has taken two more J32s; Venezuela’s Proflight has acquired a fourth machine; Servicios Aereos Professionales of the Dominican Republic has bought its previously leased aircraft; Tennessee-based Corporate Flight Management has bought three more J32s; Canadian dealer Thomas Aircraft Sales has brokered one example; Alberta Citylink is buying its leased J32; Australia’s International Air Parts is to buy another J32; and Air National of New Zealand is contracted to buy its leased example.