tuppaware
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2010
- Posts
- 868
DJ were not the first operators of the E Jets on RPT services in Australia, Air North were.
They were the first operator of E190s by two weeks over SkyAirWorld and the first to receive a factory certified ETOPs aircraft, they had been Australian ETOPS certified since 2003 so there was no real cost involved that was any different to another type being introduced.
In short there were no additional costs of certification in Australia for the e jets experienced by DJ, Air North, SkyAirWorld/PG who have/had run them in their fleet. This is borne out by the fact DJ ordered more after their introduction, indicating they had great faith in the product. Most of the E Jets problems have been attributed to airlines that have not run a DC9 sized aircraft before, and the issues faced with loads etc, look how much QF moved their 717s about before they found a niche - same story.
I stand corrected - I got told by a friend who worked for them, that the cost to DJ was quite high.