American Airlines Will Bring Parked Embraer Regional Jets Back Into Service By June 3

by Gary Leff

According to the Senior Vice President of Air Operations at the American Airlines wholly-owned regional carrier Envoy Air, “all of the E-175s and E-145s that we parked as a result of COVID-19 [are expected to be] returned to service by June 3.”

In addition all of the 20 Embraer 175 regional jets that had been operated by Compass are being brought into the Envoy Air fleet “over the next few months.” The first one, aircraft N208AN, was sent to Abilene for conformity checks by Eagle Aviation Services prior to entering revenue service.

Once this process completes that won’t necessarily mean every Embraer regional jet in American’s portfolio will be flying – as the update doesn’t cover Piedmont’s ERJ-145s or the 175s operated by Republic.

  • American’s ERJ-145s are 50 seat regional jets
  • American’s ERJ-175s are 76 seat regional jets

It may make sense to return smaller planes to service faster than larger planes. However that doesn’t mean that all flights will work even with the smallest jets in the fleet. Last week Senior Vice President Vasu Raja told American Airlines pilots that the small ERJ-145 regional jets “may become uneconomical” at places like New York LaGuardia where demands are low and costs are high. Regional jets cost less in total to fly than larger jets, but the cost per passenger is higher.

It also doesn’t mean that the smallest 50 seat jets will work for all passengers as they lack HEPA air filtration that larger regional jets and mainline aircraft possess.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. My least favorite plane to fly on is the ERJ-145/140. I’m too tall to ever fully stand up and it’s very narrow. I get claustrophobic on these.

  2. Once again Vasu is speaking through his ass! Why fly it if the demand is low and cost is high? He pulled flights out of JFK even with demand is high, but he claimed the cost is high to operate out of JFK.

  3. 145/140,miserable flight over , anything over 60min. With no HEPA this is a no-brainer, unless psgr. Safety isn’t a concern, aaaand litigation. I’m sure they can be used for cropdusting , or island hoppers.

  5. No one is forcing you to fly on these planes. And when you buy a ticket the aircraft type is shown.

  6. I am a ORD base flight attendant and the E140/145 are owned by American Engel the cost is low to maintain the planes as far as cost to the passenger yes it will cost a little more for a ticket.

  7. I am a former flight attendant based out of PHL. THE 145’s are anything but economical and always have maintenance issues. They really can’t fly very far because they burn fuel quickly. They really need to go back to the desert. I believe their shelf life is almost up.

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