Regional airlines are holding on to their 50-seat regional jets (RJs) and are gobbling up new aircraft as they become available, according to the latest jet transaction data from Back Aviation Solutions.

Most of the transactions during the second quarter of 2003 revolved around staple aircraft - the Bombardier [Toronto: BBDb.TO] CRJ 100/200/440 family and the Embraer [NYSE: ERJ] ERJ 145 (see table below).

There were a notable amount of orders and options for Embraer 170s and 190s, but US Airways [OTC BB: USALA.OB] and JetBlue [Nasdaq: JBLU] accounted for the lion's share of them, Brian Bostick, fleet data manager at Back Aviation, told CRAN. During the period, there were 62 firm orders and 61 options for the Embraer 170, while there were 85 firm orders and 100 options for the 190.

Most regional airlines stuck to the smaller CRJ 100/200/440 and ERJ 145s, although Comair did take delivery on three CRJ 700s, as did Freedom Airlines, part of the Mesa Air Group [Nasdaq: MESA], which also took delivery on three CRJ 900s.

Meanwhile, Chautauqua Airlines sold two ERJ 135s, but took delivery on four others. It sold one ERJ 145, while placing an order for one new ERJ 145 during the quarter.

Notably, there were two orders for the Fairchild Dornier 328JET. AvCraft Aviation purchased the 328JET program from the defunct Fairchild Dornier, and AvCraft CEO Ben Bartel told CRAN the company had 18 aircraft ready for delivery (CRAN, April 7, 2003).

Information on new orders is less precise than the data on deliveries and leases, Bostick told CRAN. That is because information on new orders and options is often provided by companies, whereas information on sales, deliveries and leases can be confirmed by a third party, such as a regulator. "To the best of our knowledge, that's what's going on," he said. "But what stage those orders are at, we're not entirely sure. The best we can make out is that those are firm orders."

The Back Aviation statistics are based on all jet transactions worldwide and are published monthly in JetMart.

>>Contact: Brian Bostick, Back Aviation, 800-656-7898; Web: http://www.BACKaviation.com.<<