Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA) (NASDAQ/NM: ACAI) today announced it has agreed with Bombardier Aerospace and United Airlines to add 25 additional Canadair Regional Jet aircraft (CRJ200s) to the airline’s United Express fleet—with deliveries starting in April 2003 and ending in April 2004.  This will bring the total number of regional jets planned for ACA’s United Express fleet to 121. 

ACA announced that the new CRJs will be used in place of 32 previously-ordered Fairchild Dornier 328JETs and that ACA will discontinue its plan to operate the 328JET in the United Express program.  ACA had taken delivery of two 328JETs for United Express that will be transitioned to the ACA Private Shuttle program before year-end.  The total number of regional jets needed for the United Express program operated by ACA has been revised from 128 aircraft to 121, reflecting the larger capacity of the 50-seat CRJ.  The company anticipates that its order with Fairchild will be formally terminated following the opening of Fairchild’s insolvency proceedings under German law.

In addition to the 62 CRJs now operated by ACA for United Express and the 25 ordered as part of today’s announcement, ACA also has 34 previously-ordered CRJs that are scheduled to be delivered by year-end 2003.  Following the completion of the retirement of its remaining Jetstream-41 turboprops—which will be phased out under a revised schedule to coincide with the delivery of the new CRJ aircraft—this will create an all-CRJ United Express/ACA fleet by April 2004.

ACA’s Delta Connection program, and its operation of a fleet of 30 328JETs is not affected by this announcement. 

Senior executives of the company will conduct a live webcast at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, June 5, 2002 to discuss this announcement and to provide an update of the company’s Outlook in light of these and other recent developments.  The live webcast can be heard directly through the ACA website at www.atlanticcoast.com (go to the “For Investors” section).  Replays of the webcast will be available for the remainder of the business day.

——-