A traditional Embraer customer, the airline SkyWest signed a new agreement to acquire 20 E175 jets. The new planes will be delivered from the second half of the year and will be the first to be part of the American Airlines network, whose livery will be applied to them. According to Embraer, the order has a value of $ 972 million and will be included in the company’s fourth quarter 2019 backlog, which has not yet been disclosed.
“Embraer and SkyWest enjoy a partnership marked by a longstanding history of service to the mainline carriers, and we relish the opportunity to break new ground,” said Charlie Hillis, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, North America, Embraer Commercial Aviation. “Today, we are excited to announce that these 20 new aircraft will be the first E-Jets operated by SkyWest within the American Airlines network.”
“We are pleased to continue advancing our position in the industry with this latest order of new Embraer aircraft,” said Chip Childs, President and Chief Executive Officer of SkyWest, Inc. “We appreciate the long-standing partnership with Embraer and look forward to operating this outstanding aircraft for all four of our mainline partners. ”
Right-sized jet
With the new order, Skywest has accumulated more than 180 E175 units in its fleet since 2013. The regional company has been an Embraer customer since 1986 when it started operating the EMB 120 Brasilia turboprop.
Smallest variant of the E-Jet family still in production, the E175 has become Embraer’s most successful commercial aircraft. Designed to meet the scope clause that limits the use of jets in US regionals, the aircraft has received many orders in recent years.
One of the reasons for this sudden success is that there is no direct competitor for the plane today. Bombardier, for example, offered the CRJ, a smaller, less efficient jet that is now part of Mitsubishi Aircraft.
The Japanese manufacturer, in turn, is developing a competitor technically superior to the E175, but the model, dubbed the SpaceJet M100, will only enter service in 2023 if it does not delay further – the program had one more hitch in its development and now it should only be certified in 2022 in the M90 variant.
Embraer itself is experiencing a strange situation as it is developing a successor for the E175 in the new E2 family, however, the new aircraft has no customer so far because it does not meet the scope clause.
Ironically, SkyWest is one of the airlines that became interested in the E175-E2, however, its order ended up leaving the backlog while the stalemate over its ban on flying in the US persists.
