EI-CFB "St. Aoife" - Saab 340 - Aer Lingus Commuter

First Flight: May 1991
S/N: 251
Current Status: Stored

Operations:

EI-CFB began its life as an Aer Lingus Commuter aircraft doing short domestic hops across Ireland and to regional airports in the UK.

It spent about 4 years in Ireland before being sold to Detroit based Northwest Airlink in 1995 to join one of the largest Saab 340 fleets in the world at that time. It took on the new US registration N251PX.

Then after just a year in Northwest, the aircraft was once again sold. This time to Aerotaca Colombia in September 1996 and became HK-4088X.

In December 1999 however, the aircraft was on the move again. This time to Mexico to Aerolitoral (later to become Aeromexico Connect). It spent 5 years in Mexico as XA-TQO doing domestic hops around Mexico while making the odd trip to the border cities of Texas and Arizona. 

After its stint in Mexico it was time for S/N 251 to head back stateside and it was bought by American Commuter airline Colgan Air which operated as Continental Express and later as United Express post-merger. The aircraft was registered N251CJ in its time at Colgan Air and was primarily based in Washington Dulles and Houston where it once flew in as XA-TQO. The aircraft remained at Colgan Air until its operations were shut down in 2012 and all its assets were transferred to other United Express subsidiaries. Unfortunately for our aircraft, the end was nigh, and the aircraft was placed into storage where it has remained for the past 3 years.

Below is a photo of the aircraft in its last operational scheme.