Embraer delivered the first Embraer E190 jet to China’s CDB Leasing Co., Ltd. (CLC). The aircraft will be operated by China Southern Air Holding Xinjiang Company, a branch of China Southern Airlines, which is the largest airline in China and the third largest in the world, in terms of traffic volume. CLC has ordered a total of 30 Embraer 190s, including 20 firm orders and ten options, all of which for China Southern Airlines.
The aircraft will fly in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Xinjiang’s civil aviation industry has made significant progress in recent years and is now one of China’s most developed regions, in terms of regional route networks. As the Chinese Central Government furthers economic development in western China, the rapid development of the Xinjiang regional economy requires its air transport industry to enter a new phase. Based on the current plan, another six EMBRAER 190s will be delivered by the end of this year, all of which will be put into service in this region. These aircraft will assist the operator to build a hub and spoke network with convenient, high-frequency schedules, which will help accelerate the establishment of Xinjiang’s Urumqi as a hub airport in western China.
The E190 went into operation in the Chinese market in 2008. Today, around 40 of these jets are in service in the country. Its range (4,450 kilometers or 2,400 nautical miles) gives the airplane tremendous versatility to operate on city pairs with over 5.5 hours of nonstop flight time. The airlines can use the jet in parallel with larger mainline aircraft to manage changes in seasonal and time-of-day passenger demand to optimize its fleet capacity, to right size fleets, to develop new routes with lower risk or to replace older aircraft. As the third of four members of Embraer’s E-Jets family, the EMBRAER 190 can seat up to 114 passengers in a four-abreast (2×2) layout. The E-Jets family has registered over 1,000 firm orders from 60 airlines in 40 countries, with more than 750 aircraft in operation, worldwide.
Source: Embraer
Photo: (c) Embraer