British European (BE) plans to sell its four Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets and acquire four more Dash 8 Q400 turboprops. This move, which will bring its total fleet of Dash 8 Q400s to eight, comes as a result of a major boardroom re-shuffle and aircraft fleet review. The company remains committed to larger RJs, however, and said it finalized negotiations with BAE Systems/Avro for 12 RJXs in late June, with options for eight more. The RJXs will replace the airline's BAe 146s one-for-one as the new aircraft come online from spring 2002.

Business aircraft movements at England's Farnborough Airport were up 20 percent in the first three months of this year and total corporate movements are forecast to hit 17,000 by year-end. That accounting comes from Len Rayment, vice president operations at TAG Aviation, Farnborough, who added ``We are seeing new names every week. I haven't checked if we have lost other regulars but our market share in the U.K. is definitely going up, with TAG Farnborough taking business away from Heathrow and Luton.''

Photograph: Bell 430 Helicentre Expands Into Coventry U.K. helicopter operator Helicentre has started operations from Coventry Airport in the West Midlands. The company gained some television exposure in 2000 when it flew in medical specialists and rail engineers to the scenes of the Shelby and Hatfield railroad disasters. Helicentre now is looking for a site near London, where it can provide ``rapid response charters'' for corporate customers in central London.