Spanish regional operator Air Nostrum has kicked off this year's show order tally, announcing it will take a further 15 Bombardier CRJ1000s and convert five remaining CRJ900s that it has on order to the larger type.

The original deal dates to more than two years ago, when Air Nostrum placed a firm order for 15 CRJ1000s, as an unidentified customer, plus a conditional order for 15 more.

This latest order, which firms up the 15 conditional aircraft and converts five backlogged CRJ900s, formally identifies Air Nostrum as one of three CRJ1000 launch customers.

The other two are Air France regional subsidiary Brit Air and Italian budget carrier MyAir. Air Nostrum ordered 16 CRJ900s in 2004. The other 11 have already been delivered.

It brings the Spanish carrier's total CRJ1000 commitment to 35, and boosts the total number of firm orders for the CRJ1000 programme to 64 aircraft.

Bombardier values the order for the extra 15 aircraft at $793 million at catalogue prices. Delivery of these additional jets to the Valencia-based airline is set to begin in 2014 and continue to 2016.

Source: Flight Daily News