Bombardier CRJ700

Updated: October 2026 – Engines at the rear, the horizontal stabilizer on top of the fin, a slender fuselage that almost scrapes the asphalt: you quickly recognize the basic look of the CRJ family. It gets harder when the question is which CRJ is rolling in front of you. The CRJ700 is the shortest member of the stretched 700 series and is often confused with the CRJ900 in the field. Here you’ll learn how to recognize it, what is behind the CRJ701, CRJ702 and CRJ550, and where you can still get the roughly 70-seater in front of your lens today.

What is the Bombardier CRJ700?

The CRJ700 is the starting point of the CRJ700 series from Bombardier. The abbreviation CRJ stands for Canadair Regional Jet – the roots lie with the Canadian manufacturer Canadair, whose Challenger business jet formed the basis of the first CRJ. In the late 1990s, airlines wanted more room than the 50 seats of the CRJ100/200. So from the mid-1990s Bombardier worked on a stretched version, then still under the project name CRJ-X. The program was officially launched in January 1997.

The CRJ700 is far more than a lengthened CRJ200. Bombardier stretched and slightly widened the fuselage, lowered the cabin floor, developed a new wing with slats on the leading edge and enlarged the horizontal stabilizer. Only a small part of the CRJ200 structure remained. The prototype took off for its first flight on May 27, 1999.

The first operator was the French Brit Air, a regional company in the orbit of Air France, which brought the type into scheduled service in 2001. The CRJ700 is powered by two CF34-8C1 engines from General Electric, and later aircraft received the higher-thrust variant CF34-8C5. The service ceiling is 41,000 feet, and the typical cruise speed is about Mach 0.77.

The whole family builds on the CRJ700: the CRJ900 with up to 90 seats (first flight 2001), the CRJ1000 with just over 100 seats (first flight 2008) and the CRJ550 as a 50-seater. In 2008, the CRJ700 also received the NextGen package with a revised cabin and more efficient details, with SkyWest Airlines as the launch customer.

In June 2019, Bombardier announced the sale of the CRJ program to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and the deal was completed on June 1, 2020. After that, only the open orders were built, and the family’s last delivery was a CRJ900 in February 2021. By early 2021, the family had delivered about 330 CRJ700s and CRJ550s. Mitsubishi’s own regional jet project, the SpaceJet, never entered production.

How to spot a CRJ700

You settle family membership with three glances. After that, it comes down to length – and that is the deciding detail for the CRJ700.

A useful clue is the number of windows ahead of the wing: on the CRJ900, visibly more cabin lines up ahead of the wing root than on the CRJ700. Without a direct comparison, though, it remains a matter of practice. How to identify types systematically in general is shown in the guide Identifying aircraft types for beginners, and an overview of all small jets is in How to identify regional jets.

CRJ700 or CRJ900? The direct comparison

This question is the core of every CRJ identification. Both share the cockpit, tail shape, engine arrangement and basic wing. The CRJ900, however, has not only a longer fuselage but also a slightly larger wing with additional slats and a larger horizontal stabilizer.

Feature	CRJ700	CRJ900
ICAO type designator	CRJ7	CRJ9
Length	about 32.5 m	about 36.2 m
Wingspan	about 23.2 m	about 24.9 m
Seats (maximum)	about 68 to 78	90
Engines	CF34-8C1 or -8C5	CF34-8C5
First flight	1999	2001

In the field, two things mainly help you. First, the ratio of fuselage to wing: on the CRJ700, the wing sits optically a bit farther forward along the total length, while on the CRJ900 the forward fuselage extends clearly farther beyond the wing. Second, the impression when taxiing: the CRJ900 looks almost like a pencil, the CRJ700 more like a short, nimble jet.

A special case is the CRJ705. The name sounds like the CRJ700, but technically it is a CRJ900 with a limited seat count. Air Canada Jazz, today Jazz Aviation, introduced it in 2005 as launch customer. So don’t let the name fool you – the length matches the CRJ900.

CRJ200, CRJ550 and the CRJ700 versions

Downward, you separate the CRJ700 from the older CRJ200. At about 27 meters it is much shorter, has a narrower fuselage for a maximum of 50 passengers and, above all, no slats on the wing leading edge. If you see the wing from a front angle or on final approach, that gives you a clear feature.

Within the CRJ700, there are several sub-versions that differ only on paper:

• CRJ700 (base): designed for 68 seats, plus an ER version with a higher takeoff weight and more range.
• CRJ701: up to 70 seats, also with an ER variant.
• CRJ702: up to 78 seats, for operators who wanted more capacity.
• CRJ550: a converted CRJ700 with only 50 seats, introduced in 2019 with United Airlines as launch customer. The reason is the scope clauses in US pilot contracts, which set limits on seat count and weight for regional partners.

From the outside, all of these versions look the same. Whether a CRJ7 in the tracker is a CRJ701, a CRJ702 or an aircraft converted to a CRJ550 is only revealed by registration research. For collectors, the CRJ550 is still an appealing entry because it only flies with a few operators.

CRJ700, Embraer E175 or Fokker 70?

Besides its own siblings, there are a few typical lookalike candidates in the same size class.

The Embraer E175 and the slightly smaller E170 are the CRJ700’s direct competitors in the US and often fly for the same express brands. They carry their engines under the wings, though, and have a conventional tail. The Fokker 70 shares the rear-engine design principle but is built much sturdier. With the Avro RJ85, one glance is enough: four engines under a high-mounted wing. More on identifying by engines is in the article How to recognize engines.

The CRJ700 in Europe and at Lufthansa CityLine

In Europe, the CRJ700 was never as widespread as in North America, but it had some prominent operators. Brit Air in France, which later merged into HOP!, started in 2001. The Slovenian Adria Airways, which ceased operations in 2019, also used CRJ jets of the 700 series.

For spotters in Germany, Lufthansa CityLine is the main point of interest. CityLine was already the launch customer of the very first CRJ in 1992 and later also operated the CRJ700, whose registrations were in the D-ACP.. series. In summer 2013 the fleet still consisted of 19 aircraft when the gradual retirement began. The last scheduled CRJ700 flights for Lufthansa were set for March 29, 2015: from Munich to Luxembourg and back. After that, only the CRJ900 remained at CityLine, which in turn was retired in April 2026.

If you still have photos from that time, it’s worth documenting them properly – the article Documenting sightings and keeping a logbook gives tips. An overview of today’s operators of small jets on the continent is in Regional airlines in Europe.

Where you can see the CRJ700 today

The focus is clearly on the USA. There, CRJ700s fly with regional companies operating on behalf of the big network airlines. The numbers fluctuate constantly through conversions and fleet swaps, so here is only the order of magnitude from publicly available fleet lists (as of 2025/2026):

• American Eagle: PSA Airlines operates several dozen CRJ700s for American Airlines, plus CRJ700s from SkyWest. American is a member of Oneworld.
• Delta Connection: Endeavor Air has a smaller number of CRJ700s in addition to its large CRJ900 fleet, and SkyWest also flies the type for Delta Air Lines of the SkyTeam alliance.
• SkyWest Airlines: SkyWest is one of the largest operators of the series, flies CRJ700s for American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express, and has also converted CRJ700s to the CRJ550, which fly for Delta Connection and United Express.

At large hubs like Chicago O’Hare or Atlanta, regional jets of these brands are an everyday sight – you’ll find tips for O’Hare under Plane spotting at Chicago O’Hare. Many American Eagle regional jets also land at Washington Reagan National Airport, where a well-known spot is Gravelly Point Park. In Los Angeles, Imperial Hill and the In-N-Out Burger spot offer a lot of regional traffic. Whether a CRJ700 is among them you check beforehand in a tracker – how that works is explained in the guide on flight tracking with ADS-B.

Region	Chance of a hit (as of October 2026)	Why
USA	high	Large fleets at American Eagle and Delta Connection
Canada	low	Regional traffic with the CRJ family, but the CRJ700 plays hardly any role there
Germany, Austria, Switzerland	very low	No known regular scheduled service, at most guest appearances
Rest of Europe	low	A few smaller operators, charter or ferry flights

In the German-speaking world, the CRJ700 is thus a type for the category spotting rare aircraft. If one does turn up, for example on a ferry flight or a charter, classic spots like the Munich visitors’ hill are a good choice.

The CRJ700 and the Washington accident

For a long time, the CRJ700 was regarded as an inconspicuous type with no fatal accidents. That changed on January 29, 2025: a PSA Airlines CRJ701ER, operating as American Eagle flight 5342 from Wichita to Washington, collided on approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter. All 67 people on board both aircraft were killed. In its final report in February 2026, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) saw the main cause mainly in airspace design: a helicopter route lay too close to the approach path, compounded by errors on the part of air traffic control and the helicopter crew. A design defect of the aircraft was not named as a cause.

Spotting tips for the CRJ700

The CRJ700 is a small jet – that affects focal length, composition and planning.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The CRJ700 turned the CRJ from a 50-seater into a whole family of larger regional jets. With a new wing complete with slats, a stretched fuselage and about 70 seats, it became the basis for the CRJ900, CRJ1000 and CRJ550. In Germany it has been history since CityLine’s farewell in 2015, while in the US it still shapes the feeder traffic of the big airlines.