Publish Date : 21-Jan-2017
Airlink, a regional airline business of South Africa, has decided to procure 3 units of Embraer E170s and a pair of E190s from ECC Leasing, a subsidiary of the leading Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer.
Airlink will acquire the new jets as part of its larger strategy of having overall 13 E-Jets.
According to a spokesperson of Embraer, the South African carrier, instead of leasing, has purchased the jets from ECC.
The delivery of the aircraft to Airlink, an independently owned regional airline, will be started from H1, 2017.
This type of Embraer will enter into the South African market for the first time with the delivery to Airlink.
The CEO of Airlink Rodger Foster stated, This is the beginning of the implementation of a well-planned growth and modernization strategy for Airlink that includes replacing our current fleet of Avro RJ85s over the next three years. The strategy calls for a total of 13 E-Jets, and we are in the process of sourcing the balance of the fleet requirementan additional eight E190sfrom the market.
The Airlink boss has further said that they have opted for the E-Jets for their short-field, hot-and-high and extended twin-engine operations (ETOPS) capacities, in addition to the types capability to bolster the expansion of Airlink.
Foster added, The E190s ETOPS capability and range presents Airlink with new market opportunities to address isolated destinations that were previously beyond our reach and, in some instances, that have never enjoyed the privilege of reliable scheduled air services.
The Johannesburg-headquartered airline, an existing operator of a big fleet of ERJ, has begun inclusion of an additional eleven ERJ140s into the fleet in December 2016.
Airlink, by the end of the last quarter of 2017, will be managing operations of 30 ERJs, comprising all three types of the ERJ135, ERJ140 and ERJ145 jets.
The regional airline flies to 36 destinations across nine countries in Africa, annually operating 44,800 flights with a 30:70 division in support of the business travelers, and shipping over 1.4 million passengers.
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