If you are traveling on a regional flight in the US today, chances are it will be on an Embraer E-Jet.
The E-Jet family, specifically the E170 and E175, makes up about half of the 1,367 regional jets flying for Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines as of the end of 2023, their respective fleet plans show. Other less common models include the CRJ family from Mitsubishi, and formerly Bombardier, and the older ERJ family from Embraer.
E-Jets are so popular (it helps that there are no competing aircraft in production) that Americans ordered another 90 E175 in March to complement the more than 240 already in its American Eagle fleet. Not bad for a plane that first flew more than 20 years ago.
“The 175-E1 remains a great aircraft for the United States,” Arjan Meijer, president and CEO of Embraer Commercial, said at an investor event in New York on Monday. “We believe we have a tremendous market ahead of us.”
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That market includes the replacement of older 50-seat aircraft, particularly the CRJ200 and ERJ-145, as they disappear from American skies. Delta affiliates flew their last CRJ200 flight in December 2023, scheduling data from aviation analytics firm Cirium Diio shows. United plans to retire the 50-seat models from its subsidiaries in the coming years and American by the end of the decade.
Meijer could not give an exact number of planes Embraer expects to sell, as the replacement of the 50-seat regional jets will not be one for one due to pilot contract limits. But, he said, the market for E175-sized planes is substantial given that many U.S. destinations are too small for larger planes like the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX families.
Regardless of the numbers, one thing is clear: American travelers can expect to see E175 in regular rotation well into the 2030s, and likely well into the 2040s.
That’s good and bad news for Embraer. While continued sales of the E175 are positive for the Brazilian planemaker’s bottom line, they come at the expense of its next generation of E-Jets, known as E2, which were developed to replace the original models.
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According to the company, the E175-E2 offers double-digit fuel efficiency gains over the E175, also known as the E175-E1, plus more range and slightly more seating. The updated plane seats 80 passengers, instead of 76, in the two-class configuration that is standard on U.S. regionals.
Despite those performance improvements, the E175-E2 has yet to achieve a single firm order from the US. The lack of agreements led Embraer in 2022 to delay certification of the plane until 2027 or 2028, at least three years later than planned.
The lack of interest is the result of strict rules in Alaska, American, Delta and United pilot contracts. Those rules, known as “scope clauses,” govern the size and number of regional jets that major airlines can contract with their affiliates. They currently limit the size of regional airliners to 76 seats with a maximum takeoff weight of 86,000 pounds; the E175-E2 is a little too big and heavy, with seating for 80 passengers and a maximum takeoff weight of 98,767 pounds.
“The E175-E1 is such an incredibly strong aircraft that it is basically triggering its own need not to change the range clause,” Meijer said.
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Pilot contracts at Alaska, American, Delta and United that set the current limits on regional jets will not be renewed until 2026 at the earliest.
The E175 that American and other airlines are buying today is not the same plane that Embraer first flew in 2003. The addition of “wingtips” (angled extensions to the wingtips) in 2014 improved fuel efficiency by more 6% compared to the original model with unmodified wings.
With continued sales of the E175 and E2 on pause, Embraer is in a holding pattern in terms of what’s next for the regional aircraft segment. Work on a possible new 90-passenger turboprop is in the “freezer,” as Meijer said. And while research continues on other new technologies, including hydrogen fuel cell propulsion and electric vertical takeoff and landing (or eVTOL) aircraft, the planemaker has yet to set a specific direction for its next commercial airliner.
“We are really investing in new technologies to keep us ready for a new product,” Embraer CEO Francisco Gomes Neto said Monday. “Right now, we don’t have a concrete plan to go this way or that way.”
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