Porter Airlines takes delivery of their first two Embraer E195-E2

 Porter Airlines dream of its Toronto Pearson hub took a leap forward today, with the first two Embraer E195-E2 aircraft being delivered to the airline.

The first two Porter Embraer E195-E2 aircraft – Image, Porter Airlines

The first two of 50 Embraer E195-E2 ordered by Porter Airlines have been delivered in a ceremony at Embraer’s HQ in Brazil.

In the run-up to the New Year, Embraer will deliver a further three aircraft to Porter, bringing the cadre to five aircraft.

Porter Airlines is the North American launch customer for Embraer’s E195-E2 and is using the type to open up operations throughout North America, including to the west coast, southern U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean.

The aircraft will initially be deployed from Toronto Pearson International Airport, with Halifax, Montreal and Ottawa also seeing new services with the E195-E2. Porter has chosen to configure the 146-seat aircraft in a  132-seat all-economy configuration, with a variety of seat pitches on offer for their passengers in either 36, 34, and 30 inches (depending on the fare purchased – be it PorterReserve or the normal baseline fares).

 
Porter Reserve Seats.

 
Cabin Overview. 

In Quotes

Michael Deluce, president and CEO of Porter Airlines, said:

“The official delivery of these aircraft is the beginning of a new era for Porter,”

“The E195-E2 enables us to reach across the continent, beyond our Eastern Canada roots, while introducing a level of service for economy air travellers that no other North American airline provides. It’s an enhanced experience that builds on our reputation for providing an elevated level of service to every passenger at reasonable prices in a single class of service. The first planes are ready to fly to Canada later this month before going into regular service in February.”

Arjan Meijer, president and CEO, Embraer Commercial Aviation, said,

“Porter is focused on delivering what we all want – making the air travel experience a pleasure. Along with their exciting levels of service and generosity, Porter’s entire fleet is also without the dreaded middle seat, and will also satisfy the sustainability needs of Porter’s guests. E195-E2 is the most sustainable single-aisle aircraft, at 65% quieter and up to 25% cleaner than previous-generation aircraft. It has the lowest fuel consumption per seat and per trip among 120 to 150 seat aircraft, and is the quietest single-aisle jet flying today.”

Now comes the tricky bit – scaling to launch and beyond

With a launch of the new network out of Toronto Pearson in February, covering five destinations (including Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton), there will need to be time to conduct familiarisation trials, service tests and so on to enable the network to launch as planned.

Once the fleet is deployed, the next hardest thing will come – building out the network. Porter has orders with Embraer for up to 100 E195-E2 aircraft, based on 50 firm commitments and 50 purchase rights.

That’s a lot of aircraft – and Porter will be hard at work identifying routes that make economic sense to operate.

It’ll be interesting to see what other bases they establish and where the wings of this fleet will spread.

All images – Embraer.