KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has placed a firm order for 21 Embraer E195-E2, plus purchase rights for another 14 jets of the type.
This order was originally announced at the Paris Air Show 2019, where KLM and Embraer agreed on a deal for 15 E195-E2, along with 20 options, through a Letter of Intent (LoI). Six of these options have now been switched to firm orders, while the airline signed the LoI into a firm order with the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer.
Delivery of the new jets will take place through an existing backlog of lessors Aircastle and ICBC Aviation leasing, starting in 2021. US-based Aircastle has a total of 25 E2’s on order of which eleven will go to the Dutch flag-carrier, while Chinese ICBC will provide KLM with the remaining ten aircraft – its entire backlog.
All Embraer aircraft are due to be delivered to KLM Cityhopper, KLM’s subsidiary for regional flights, featuring a total of 132 seats. The airline currently operates an all-Embaer fleet with E-Jets from the previous generation, consisting of 32 E190 and 17 E175.
The manufacturer claims that KLM’s E195-E2 has 30 percent lower emissions, while at the same time seating 32 more passengers than the smaller aircraft from the previous generation.
Embraer’s E195-E2 is the largest member of the E2 family, the second generation of the ‘E-Jet’. The first E2 aircraft, an E190-E2, entered commercial service with launch costumer Widerøe in April 2018. In September 2019, Brazilian airline Azul became the first airline to receive the larger E195-E2.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
