British Aerospace Snags Sabena From Fairchild Dornier By Rebecca Rayko, Associate Editor Farnborough, England - Embraer and Bombardier took their respective jabs at each other earlier in the show. Today British Aerospace and Fairchild Dornier took their turn. The two regional aircraft manufacturers at their press conferences today were at odds over development costs and other competitive issues, but only one could boast an addition to the order books. British Aerospace announced a three aircraft reorder from SAir Group (parent company of Swissair, Crossair and Sabena) for three Avro RJ100s. The $80 million order was placed by the SAir Group company Flightlease, and the aircraft and will be leased to Sabena. Deliveries are scheduled for July, September and October 1999. The order is significant in more than one way. The SAir Group was seriously looking at rival Fairchild Dornier for more aircraft, said BAe SVP Sales and Marketing Jeff Marsh, and fellow SAir Group member Crossair is a launch customer of Fairchild Dornier's 728JET program. This is also the first order of an Avro RJ by a leasing company. "Leasing companies have traditionally shunned the regional end of the market, and this deal therefore represents an important shift in approach," Marsh said. It opens a new market for the aircraft, he adds. BAe will deliver a total of 111 Avro RJs this year. Between the Avro RJ and the BAe 146, Marsh says they have 37% of the 70-100 seat market. Boeing's 737-500/600 has 54% and 717-200 has 5%, while the CRJ-700 has 4%. "The 717 is not nearly the threat I thought since they arrived on the scene," Marsh said. The Avro RJ has a strong niche in the European regional market. He recounted an anecdote describing Boeing's approach to one of BAe's European customers trying to sell them the 717-200. The Boeing salesperson was unaware that the 717, with its two engine configuraiton, is unable to land at London City Airport, a major hub of the approached customer. BAe's answer to the "new" competition on the regional jet front is the Avro RJX - the more efficient, re-engined Avro RJ which it intends to launch by the end of the year. The RJX will be powered by either the Pratt & Whitney PW308 or the newly launched Allied Signal AS900 series. The engine is the key to the low-cost launch of the RJX. BAe says it wants the engine to be able to be retrofitted so that no changes will be needed on the airframe. "We don't want to make it faster, just reduce the block times by allowing the plane to climb and descend faster," said BAe. "We want to develop a program that's cost neutral for us." Although BAe said it didn't know the total cost of the RJX program, it did say it would be less expensive than the nonrecurring costs associated with the Fairchild Dornier regional jet family, which BAe estimates to be $1.2 billion with 200 aircraft needed before reaching the breakeven point. FD countered at its conference later in the day that its nonrecurring costs were in the range of $850 million to $1 billion, which includes the entire line of regional jets. "The issue is timing," said Fairchild Dornier president Jim Robinson. "We're not building three aircraft at the same time." "Incrementally we're buiding a smaller and larger model of the same design whose costs are quite small compared to the cost of the first," Fairchild Dornier COO Joe Wolf added.