Azorra, a lessor company headquartered in Florida, managed to make Embraer executives more than satisfied. That is because not only did it find customers for the 20 E2 jets ordered just over a year ago, it also have to exercise purchase options to meet new interested parties.
According to data collected by ADN, Azorra would have already negotiated 28 E2 aircraft on the market, or eight more than its firm order.
So far, there are 16 E190-E2 and 12 E195-E2, whose deals were closed a few months ago. The first customer announced was Madagascar Airlines in December 2022, which will receive three E190-E2s starting this year.
In February, Scoot, the low-cost arm of Singapore Airlines, signed a letter of intent to operate nine E190-E2s. This week the carrier signed the contract with Azorra and will have the first plane in 2024.
A week earlier, Royal Jordanian finally detailed a prior agreement revealed in October last year when it said it would order ten E2 jets.
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In fact, the Jordanian carrier only purchased two E195-E2s direct from Embraer. Another two models of the type and four E190-E2 were leased precisely with Azorra.
By then, the leasing company had accumulated 16 E190-E2s and two leased E195-E2s. Embraer’s backlog includes 16 aircraft of the largest variant and four of the intermediate model.
Therefore, there were only two planes left, but the Letter of Intent signed with SKS Airways, from Malaysia, days ago exceed the list of firm orders in eight aircraft.
Not by chance, Azorra planned to increase its orders in the contract signed in January 2022. The US company has 30 purchase options which will have to be at least partially exercised at any moment.
It is worth remembering that Azorra has five E195-E2s leased to Porter Airlines, but which originally belonged to the Canadian airline.
Four lessors
In the commercial aircraft market, it is quite common for most orders to be placed by leasing companies. The E2 family has four customers of this type: in addition to Azorra, there are AerCap, AirCastle and the Chinese ICBC.
The latter has also already negotiated all ten E195-E2s ordered and which are being passed on to KLM Cityhopper.
AirCastle, which has 25 firm orders, has agreed a contract with the Dutch airline for 15 aircraft.
Finally, AerCap supplies E2 jets to Air Astana, TUi (which had previously gone to Belavia) and Azul. The Brazilian airline has 17 E195-E2s in its fleet, all leased, as none of the 51 aircraft on Embraer’s sales list have yet to be delivered.
In view of the good leasing contracts signed recently, it will not be surprising if the Brazilian manufacturer announces the expansion of orders with its lessor customers in the short and medium term.
