Future Gamechanger? Embraer’s 130+ Seat E195-E2 Can Now Land At London City Airport

With the Embraer E195-E2 being approved to land and take off from London City Airport (LCY), the regional jet is now the largest aircraft allowed to operate at the airport. According to Embraer, the E195-E2 can seat up to 146 passengers in a single-class configuration and 132 travelers in a typical two-class cabin.

At a Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW) of 62,000 kilograms (136,685 pounds), the aircraft is now the second-heaviest jet to be certified to operate out of LCY. The heaviest was the Airbus A318, whose MTOW was 68,000 kg (149,900 lbs). However, it could only seat 136 passengers in a single-class configuration, although the most famous A318s to operate out of LCY had far fewer seats than that.

Largest modern jet at LCY

However, the Embraer E195-E2 became the largest modern jet aircraft to be certified to operate at the airport, which is in the business center of London. According to Marie-Louise Philippe, the Vice President of Sales & Marketing, and Head of Region for Europe and Central Asia at Embraer Commercial Aviation, the manufacturer’s aircraft, including the E-jets, already dominate the airport’s market share with 85% of all aircraft movements.

“This is due to the performance of the aircraft that does not require seats to be blocked to reduce weight.”

The largest aircraft to operate out of the airport, which has a single 1,508 meter (4,948 feet)-long runway, are the Airbus A220-100, Embraer E190-E2, and E195-E2. The larger A220, the A220-300, is not certified to land or take off from LCY, making the E195-E2 the largest regional jet able to fly out of the central London airport.

Comparing the Airbus A220-300 and Embraer E195-E2, the former outperforms the latter in every aspect: the ex-CSeries CS300 aircraft can seat more passengers – 160 in a single class; a typical two-class cabin is between 120 and 150 travelers – and can fly much further, with an advertised range of up to 3,400 nautical miles (6,297 kilometers). However, this results in the A220-300 being much bigger physically, with the aircraft’s MTOW being 70,900 kg (155,000 lbs). As mentioned previously, the E195-E2’s MTOW is 62,000 kg (136,685 lbs). This raises the question of whether A220-300 operations out of LCY are viable, and if so, could operators utilize the full size of the A220-300’s cabin?

Photo: Embraer

Upgauging regional jets

Could this result in a sales growth spur for the E195-E2? It could make the aircraft more attractive to some European airlines, particularly those that operate out of slots-restricted airports, since the largest E2 family member seats the most passengers, making a single slot much more efficient.

LCY is also an airport where aircraft movements are restricted – airlines are not allowed to land or takeoff from the airport between Saturday at 12:30 and Sunday at 11:00. Furthermore, departures between Monday and Saturday between 6:30 and 7:00 are restricted to six. In total, LCY can only welcome up to 6.5 million passengers per year. It has unsuccessfully attempted to raise those limits, including raising the maximum limit of annual travelers to 9 million by 2031.

Read more: London City Airport To Appeal Council’s Decision To Halt Passenger Growth

Several large European airlines operate Embraer E190s at LCY, including British Airways (via BA CityFlyer), KLM (via KLM Cityhopper), Lufthansa (via Lufthansa CityLine), LOT Polish Airlines, and, before early November 2023, ITA Airways. Out of those, only KLM has taken delivery of the E2 aircraft, with KLM Cityhopper operating 18 E195-E2 aircraft, per ch-aviation. When the Dutch airline announced the order for the type in 2019, it said that its E195-E2s “will have 132 seats on board, which is 32 more than the Embraer 190, which is currently the largest aircraft in KLM Cityhopper’s fleet.”

“The new aircraft will enable KLM Cityhopper to accommodate growing passenger demand without increasing flight frequency.”

Considering that the Dutch government went ahead with slot restrictions at KLM’s primary hub, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS), it would not be a massive surprise that the airline would choose to replace the remaining Embraer E-jets, of which it has 47, with the E2s. While ITA Airways has already begun operating the Airbus A220-100 to LCY in early November, British Airways, Lufthansa, and LOT Polish Airlines will have choices to make in the near-term future.

The airlines’ Embraer aircraft are aging, and as the number of available slots across European airports continues to diminish, the trio will have to choose which aircraft will operate their respective intra-European flights. After all, abandoning the business-heavy traffic at LCY is probably not the most attractive proposition to any of them, considering the next-generation aircraft, whether it would be the Airbus A220-100 or Embraer E195-E2, could be deployed to other routes as well.

Photo: Bjoern Wylezich | Shutterstock

Lufthansa, which is in the process of launching its City Airlines subsidiary, has already said that it is exploring an order for the new carrier, with some aircraft potentially being either the Airbus A220 or Embraer E2 aircraft.

Read more: Lufthansa’s City Airlines Launch: What’s The Latest?

Sources: ch-aviation, EASA