Bombardier CRJ100/CRJ200

Updated: October 2026 – A tiny jet taxis to the runway, the fuselage sits so low that the door is almost at ground level, the engines hang at the rear and the horizontal stabilizer is perched on top of the fin: that is the Bombardier CRJ100 or CRJ200, the regional jet that started the whole CRJ family. Here you’ll learn how the type came about, why Lufthansa CityLine played a key role, how to tell the 50-seater from its bigger sisters and from Embraer – and where you can still see it today.

What is the Bombardier CRJ100/CRJ200?

The abbreviation CRJ stands for Canadair Regional Jet. The roots lie with the Canadian manufacturer Canadair, which in the early 1980s was already considering stretching its Challenger business jet into a small airliner. The first attempt failed for lack of interest. Only when Lufthansa asked in the late 1980s for a jet with about 50 seats for its regional traffic did the project pick up speed – based on the Challenger 601, but with a much longer fuselage, a reworked wing and General Electric CF34 engines. By then, Canadair already belonged to Bombardier.

The official program launch came on March 31, 1989, and the first prototype took off on May 10, 1991. Certification followed on July 31, 1992, and in October 1992 the first production aircraft went to the launch customer – Lufthansa’s regional subsidiary DLT, which was renamed Lufthansa CityLine the same year.

Officially, all variants carry the type designation CL-600-2B19. “CRJ100” and “CRJ200” are marketing names:

• CRJ100: the original version with CF34-3A1 engines.
• CRJ200: nearly identical in construction, but with the further developed CF34-3B1, which improve fuel consumption and power and allow more range. The launch customer was SkyWest Airlines, which operated the first scheduled flight on February 15, 1994.
• CRJ440: a CRJ200 with reduced weight and a maximum of 44 seats. The background was the so-called scope clauses in US pilot contracts, which allow regional partners only aircraft up to a certain size. 86 were built, used mainly in the feeder network of Northwest Airlines.
• CRJ200PF: a package freighter conversion, developed with Cascade Aerospace at the request of West Air Sweden.
• Challenger 800/850: a business jet version based on the CRJ200 – it looks largely like a CRJ200 on the outside but flies with a private or charter registration.

By the end of production in early 2006, 1,021 aircraft had been built: 226 CRJ100s, 709 CRJ200s and 86 CRJ440s. After that, Bombardier only built the larger CRJ700, CRJ900 and CRJ1000 before the entire CRJ program went to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2020.

The three features that are enough to identify it

The CRJ200 is an aircraft you stop mixing up after a few sightings. Its design with rear engines is rare among today’s airliners, and its proportions are very distinctive.

If you need more practice with the basic principle, the article How to identify regional jets has an overview of all common types in this class.

CRJ200, CRJ700 or CRJ900?

All CRJs share the fuselage cross-section of about 2.69 meters, the basic cockpit layout, the T-tail and the rear engines. Still, the differences between the first and second generation are more pronounced than you might first think.

Feature	CRJ100/200	CRJ700	CRJ900
ICAO type designator	CRJ1 / CRJ2	CRJ7	CRJ9
Length	about 26.8 m	about 32.3 m	about 36.2 m
Wingspan	about 21.2 m	about 23.2 m	about 24.9 m
Typical seats	50	about 70 to 78	up to 90
Slats	no	yes	yes
First flight	1991	1999	2001

On the CRJ700, Bombardier didn’t just lengthen the fuselage but also enlarged the wing, gave it slats, raised the landing gear and lowered the cabin floor. That is why the CRJ700 looks not only longer in direct comparison but also “taller built.” The CRJ200, by contrast, almost ducks down onto the asphalt.

Between the CRJ100 and CRJ200, however, there is no difference you can reliably see from the outside. Only the registration or the type code in the tracker helps here. What lies behind codes like CRJ1 and CRJ2 is explained in the article on ICAO type designators.

CRJ200, Embraer ERJ 145 or Fokker 70?

More interesting than identifying within the CRJ family is telling it from the competitors that use the same basic principle.

The Embraer ERJ 145 was the CRJ200’s direct rival for decades – same seat count, same customers, often the same hubs. Its fuselage is even narrower, though, with just three seats per row, and the nose is longer and more pointed. The shorter sisters ERJ 135 and ERJ 140 follow the same design principle. The Fokker 70 is also a rear-engine jet, but looks noticeably bulkier. And the Fairchild Dornier 328JET is ruled out immediately: it has a high wing with engines beneath it.

A special case are the business jets: a Challenger 604/605 recalls a shrunken CRJ in silhouette, but is much shorter and has only a few oval windows. The Challenger 850, based on the CRJ200, on the other hand, is hard to tell from the airliner on the outside – the registration and the operator’s paint scheme decide here.

The CRJ in Germany: Lufthansa CityLine as launch customer

For German spotters, the small CRJ is a piece of home history. Lufthansa’s regional subsidiary, then still operating as DLT, was the first airline in the world to order the Canadair Regional Jet. From October 1992 the first CRJ100s arrived, and after just a few years dozens of the little jets shaped the scene at the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt. By the end of the 1990s, the CRJ100 fleet had grown to about 30 aircraft, and in March 2000 the airline additionally bought CRJ200s.

Later the small CRJs were replaced by the larger CRJ700 and CRJ900, because 50 seats no longer paid off on many routes. In April 2026, Lufthansa then shut down CityLine itself; a large part of the regional traffic is now taken over by Lufthansa City Airlines.

Other European airlines also relied on the CRJ100/200. Brit Air flew CRJ100s for Air France, Tyrolean Airways CRJ200s in the Austrian network. Neither airline exists today. A whole chapter of European regional aviation can now only be found in archive photos.

How to log such archive sightings properly is explained in the guide Documenting sightings and keeping a logbook.

The CRJ200 in North America

In North America, the 50-seater was a true mass product. Comair was among the early large customers and made the CRJ known in the network of Delta Air Lines, while Northwest Airlines ordered 54 CRJ200LRs in early 1999 and additionally had the 44-seat CRJ440 built. From about 2013, high fuel costs made the 50-seaters uneconomical on many US routes, and accordingly even relatively young aircraft were retired early.

Today SkyWest Airlines is by far the most important operator. According to the fleet overview from December 2025, SkyWest flew just under 60 CRJ200s for United Express plus about a dozen aircraft with only 30 seats for its own charter division (figures from secondary sources, fleet numbers change constantly). So if you spot at a hub of United Airlines, you have a good chance of a CRJ200.

Air Wisconsin, for a long time one of the largest CRJ200 operators, most recently flew for American Eagle in the network of American Airlines. That contract ended in April 2025; since then the airline has concentrated on charter and subsidized flights. In Canada, you know the type from the network of Air Canada, whose regional partner Jazz Aviation operated CRJs for a long time.

New life as the CRJ450

An exciting chapter was added in 2026: United and SkyWest announced a conversion program for existing CRJ200s. The converted aircraft are called CRJ450 and get a cabin with 41 seats, seven of them in a dedicated first class. According to the announcement, they enter service gradually from fall 2026, with more than 50 aircraft planned by 2028. For spotters, that means: the CRJ200 stays visible in the US longer than expected. How the conversions are listed in trackers is best checked via the registration.

Where you can still see the CRJ100/200 today

Region	Chance of a hit (as of October 2026)	Why
USA	high at United hubs	Large SkyWest fleet for United Express, plus charter operations
Canada	low to uncertain	Fleet has shrunk sharply, check in the tracker beforehand
Germany, Austria, Switzerland	very low	No known regular scheduled service, at most ferry flights or business jet spin-offs
Rest of Europe	low	A few smaller operators and charter, changing quickly

For a spotting trip to the US, hubs with lots of United Express traffic are worthwhile. On the West Coast, Bayfront Park in Millbrae at San Francisco Airport offers many regional jets at photo distance (more in the San Francisco guide), in Los Angeles Imperial Hill and the In-N-Out Burger spot are the classics, with details in the Los Angeles guide. In the Midwest, the United hub Chicago O’Hare offers good chances – you’ll find tips in the article Plane spotting at Chicago O’Hare. What to keep in mind before a trip in general is covered in the tips for a plane spotting trip to the US.

In Europe, the small CRJ clearly belongs in the category spotting rare aircraft. How to follow individual aircraft live is explained in the guide on flight tracking with ADS-B.

Spotting tips for the CRJ200

The CRJ200 is one of the smallest jet-powered airliners. That has consequences for your gear and your composition.

If a CRJ200 does turn up in Germany – say on a ferry or charter flight – the Munich visitors’ hill is a good starting point, since Munich was CRJ territory for decades. More about the location is in the Munich guide.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The CRJ100/200 kicked off the regional jet boom of the 1990s – and did so with major German involvement, because without Lufthansa’s wish for a 50-seat jet, the program probably wouldn’t have existed in this form. In Europe, the small CRJ has now almost completely vanished; in the US it keeps flying with SkyWest and, with the CRJ450 conversion, even gets a second life.