Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH, which was acquired by Fairchild in 1996 and was renamed Fairchild Dornier in 2000, announced the project, which had begun as the X28JET project and later introduced publicly as the 728JET, in October 1997 at the Dubai Airshow [REF].
In total, eight customers, among them Lufthansa Cityline, GECAS, Bavaria Leasing, CSA-Czech Airlines, Atlantic Coast Airlines, and SolAir, had (by March 2002) placed firm orders for 125 aircraft and signed options for an additional 164.