CityJet has confirmed plans to reduce the size of its operation and staffing levels at London City airport.
Executive chairman Pat Byrne said it would be entering into a consultation process with the employees affected.
The airline, which was bought out by Byrne and a group of investors last March, wants to develop its wet lease business where it operates aircraft on behalf of its customer airlines, alongside scheduled services.
At London City Airport it is looking to move the overall business towards a ‘stronger mix of high quality scheduled services’ and developing its growing portfolio of customer airlines.
It will drop services to Paris Orly and Nantes from the end this month and will reduce frequency on its London City-Amsterdam route.
The airline will take delivery of four Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft and three Superjet SSJ100s in the first half of this year, plus up to 10 new CRJ900s from June.
"Since mid-2015, we have been actively repositioning ourselves as an aviation business with a mix of wet lease operations on behalf of other airlines, own-brand scheduled flying and ad hoc charter services," said Byrne.
"We are on course to achieve our strategic aim of having at least 80% of our aircraft operating on wet lease and charter services this year whilst also retaining a robust and high quality scheduled operation into London City Airport."
Talking about the staff cuts, he said: "We will be able to offer some opportunities for employment elsewhere within CityJet but regrettably we expect that there will be redundancies among some of our workforce in London."
But he insisted CityJet was ‘fully committed’ to London City Airport.
