Bombardier Aerospace announced today that China Express Airlines has converted previously announced conditional purchase agreements for three CRJ900 NextGen regional jets into a firm order. The conditional purchase agreements for five CRJ900 NextGen aircraft, with options on an additional eight CRJ900 NextGen aircraft, were announced on December 2, 2013, along with a firm order for three CRJ900 NextGen airliners.

Based on list price, the firm order for the three CRJ900 NextGen aircraft is valued at approximately
$136 million US.

“China Express’ CRJ900 NextGen regional jets have proven to be highly reliable and efficient following their introduction to our fleet in 2012 and our company has entered a rapid expansion period. With its outstanding 99.67 per cent dispatch reliability and unmatched fuel efficiency, the CRJ900 NextGen airliner has surpassed our expectations,” said Wu Longjiang, President, China Express. “According to our business plan, we intend to be flying an all-Bombardier fleet of 29 aircraft by 2016. That’s just 10 years after we started operations and is an indication of the high productivity of the CRJ900 NextGen aircraft.”

China Express, based in Chongqing, provides regional passenger services to 44 cities throughout China with its fleet of five CRJ200 aircraft and nine 84-seat CRJ900 NextGen aircraft. The airline was the first to operate the CRJ900 aircraft in the country.

“We are thrilled to actively support China Express’ bold and well-planned expansion strategy. The excellent reliability of China Express’ operations demonstrates the suitability and robustness of the CRJ900 NextGen airliner for the Chinese market,” said Andy Solem, Vice President, Sales, China and Asia-Pacific, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. “Bombardier Commercial Aircraft’s Sales and Customer Services teams have been making significant strides in China lately, and this latest order is adding to this very exciting momentum.”

In total, Bombardier has recorded firm orders for 1,817 CRJ Series aircraft, including 344 CRJ900 and CRJ900 NextGen aircraft. Worldwide, CRJ Series aircraft are in service with more than 60 airlines and more than 30 customers operate corporate variants of the aircraft. The aircraft are operating in over
50 countries on six continents and, on average, a CRJ aircraft takes off every 10 seconds somewhere in the world. CRJ Series aircraft have transported more than 1.4 billion passengers, and have logged more than 38 million flight hours and over 32 million takeoffs and landings.