Porter Airlines has become a flagship customer for Embraer. The Canadian regional airline decided in 2021 to abandon plans to rely on Airbus A220 aircraft to close an order for 30 E195-E2 jets, a total that was expanded to 50 aircraft in July.
With its first jets, the carrier intends to become an advantageous option for passengers who now depend on Air Canada and other older companies for their journeys in North America.
The first two E195-E2s, with 132 seats, were officially delivered by Embraer on December 21st, but only a week later the first of them took off from the planemaker’s headquarters towards Toronto, where Porter’s base is located.
It was the beginning of a coordinated journey, which includes three other E195-E2s that were in flight this Friday, on their way to Canada.
The first on the journey was aircraft registration C-GKQJ (flight PD9901), which left Brazil at 10:30 am on Thursday and landed in Toronto at the end of the night after a technical stopover in Bridgetown. The second Embraer, flight PD9902, departed yesterday and was flying over the US east coast when this article was published.
The other two E195-E2s took off this Friday within hours of each other. Jets C-GKQL (PD9903) and C-GKQM (flight PD9904) left Embraer headquarters within an hour and were over the Amazon some time later.
North America’s First E2s
Porter will certainly be a marketing case for Embraer. With its large fleet, the airline will put the E195-E2 into service on important routes not only in Canada but also in the US and Mexico.
They are the first E2 family aircraft to fly in the region, which has already consumed hundreds of first-generation E-Jets.
A successful operation could attract more customers to the Brazilian manufacturer, especially if the E195-E2 proves to be reliable and economical, virtues that it has shown so far with other operators.
