The Embraer aircraft have been achieving good opportunities in Europe. Binter Canarias, Belavia, Helvetic, Widerøe and KLM Cityhopper have the E190 and 195 E2. Second-hand aircraft have also shown some interest among airlines, the most recent example is SAS Scandinavian Airlines System, which signed a letter of intent (LOI) for fifteen Embraer E190s.
Patrick Bryrne, CEO of Irish Regional airline Cityjet, specialized in ACMI and wet-leasing business, is considering an Embraer fleet in the future. As a result of the COVID 19 health crisis, it lost its contracts with Aer Lingus, Air France, Brussels Airlines, and Air Antwerp. After undergoing a restructuring, the company only has an agreement with SAS for twelve CRJ 900s.
Cityjet’s entire fleet is currently operated by SAS. Photo: Cityjet
Cityjet is now looking to restructure, and according to CH-Aviation, the company will add another ten CRJ 900s, but will also look to incorporate several Embraer’s for its fleet.
«We want to enter the Embraer market, there are only a limited number of CRJs, so we will also have to build an Embraer fleet for the wet-leasing market», says Bryrne.
Bryrne initially considers a fleet of up to five E190s or E195s for next year. In the future, he would opt to use Embraer E2s, although the A220 is also vying for a place in his plans.
Adriatic airlines interested in Embraer
Embraer conducted a presentation of its E-Jet E2 product with the help of Swiss Helvetic in Zagreb, Croatia. The ceremony was attended by representatives of Croatian airlines Trade Air and Croatia Airlines. Also in attendance was Montenegro’s state-owned start-up, Air Montenegro, which was born from the early ashes of its predecessor, which was liquidated in 2020 after years of losses.
The company has one Embraer 195 and will soon take delivery of two more. The decision to acquire the E2s could mean divesting itself of the leasing agreements held by the Montenegrin airline.
We had an exciting day! Our team had the pleasure to to take a demo flight with the new Embraer E2 model and meet with colleagues from the industry. @embraer@helvetic_en pic.twitter.com/cgD0SEXUjM
— Air Montenegro (@airmontenegro_) October 15, 2021
On the other hand, Trade Air, focused on charter services, recently incorporated three Airbus A320s and would add an A319 to its fleet. The decision regarding the Embraer E2s would allow it to have secondary destinations, replacing the company’s existing Fokker 100s.
For Embraer, the biggest deal would be one with Croatia Airlines, a major airline in the Balkan region. The Croatian state-owned airline has not placed an order to modernize its fleet since 2008 when it completed a deal for four Airbus A319s and six Dash DHC Q-400s, of which it only received the turboprops. The A319s were replaced by four A320neo, which, due to the airline’s financial situation, were ultimately canceled in 2020.
Croatia is now Ceremony to introduce the model to Croatian airlines. Photo credit: Boran Pivčić/Helvetic.negotiating to assemble a modern fleet in line with its needs and finances. The Embraer models will have to compete with the Airbus proposal for its A220, which was presented weeks earlier to the Adriatic airlines.
Croatia is a seasonal destination in Europe, and Croatia Airlines has a disadvantage with its current models. The DHC 8-400 has an insufficient range for several low season destinations and the Airbus A319/320s tend to be very large aircraft for their regional routes.
With a very wide size difference among the three models, it has more aircraft in the low season than it needs or in the high season, it is looking for aircraft to meet holiday demand.
Croatia Airlines’ vision is based on a fleet of E195-E2s, offering a single class of 134 seats or divided into 12 seats in business and 108 in the economy.
The range of 4,815 kilometers (2,600 miles) allows it to operate throughout the airline’s current network and with the possibility of moving new seasonal routes to regular, such as Lisbon (LIS), Madrid (MAD), Barcelona (BCN), St Petersburg (LED) or Tel Aviv (TLV).
Alternatively, its DHC 8-400s could be replaced by the 90-seat E175-E2s. The model currently does not have any orders but Croatia’s renewal intention puts it on the negotiation list.
Embraer will have to compete with the Airbus A220, which is the European manufacturer’s star model in the regional fleet of major airlines such as Air Baltic, Air France, and soon ITA-Alitalia.
Photo: Boran Pivčić/Croatia Airlines
Cesar Pereira, Vice President of Commercial Aviation at Embraer responsible for the Europe, Middle East and Africa markets, made an open comparison between the E195 E2 and the A220-300 at the presentation, stating that the Brazilian aircraft has eight percent lower flight costs than the European aircraft, and a two percent lower cost per seat.
CityJet and Xfly will fly Embraer for SAS. Actually, Xfly already has 4 ERJ195 for that purpose. Both CityJet and Xfly are larger companies than the «major» Croatia Airlines. And you have problems adding together the number of seats.