JetBlue has officially retired its last Embraer E190 as reported by Yahoo Finance, marking the end of an era for the Long Island City-based carrier. The aircraft type had been part of JetBlue’s fleet since 2005 and played a central role in helping the airline expand into smaller markets and connect underserved cities. After nearly two decades of service, the airline celebrated the final Embraer E190 flight with both staff and aviation enthusiasts noting the milestone.
This marks the completion of JetBlue’s transition towards a modernized fleet made up solely of Airbus aircraft, as it now flies the Airbus A220-300, Airbus A320-200, Airbus A321-200, and Airbus A321neo. With this change, JetBlue has significantly modernized its fleet while also streamlining on aircraft types and engine models.
Two Decades Of Embraer Operations
When JetBlue commenced operations in 2000, it flew all of its routes with the Airbus A320-200. It’s standard for low-cost carriers to concentrate on one aircraft type, as this reduces costs. Fellow budget airline rivals Frontier and Spirit also exclusively operate the A320 family, while Southwest Airlines’ entire fleet of over 800 aircraft is solely made up of the Boeing 737 family.
The problem is that the A320 is a relatively large aircraft, and even in JetBlue’s relatively spacious configuration of 150 seats, it provides a lot of capacity for many of the routes that the new airline wished to serve. In 2003, JetBlue became the launch customer for the Embraer E190, and would end up taking delivery of 63 examples from 2005 to 2013.
As JetBlue configured the type with only 100 seats, the E190 quickly became an important tool in JetBlue’s network. It allowed the airline to expand into secondary airports and connect cities that lacked sufficient demand for the larger Airbus jets. They were often used to expand JetBlue’s network while also adding frequency to existing routes, further strengthening JetBlue’s market position.
The Age And Efficiency Of The E190 Fleet
The first JetBlue E190 entered service roughly 20 years ago, while the last E190s were delivered 12 years ago. While these planes aren’t young, they’re far from the oldest airliners in the US, and many of JetBlue’s A320s are older than the E190s that have now left the fleet. However, age is not the primary reason why these planes are being retired.
While a 100-seater jet is meant to serve smaller markets and open up new routes for an airline, these aircraft can have difficult operating economics. Operating a flight comes with inherent fixed costs, such as pilots, and a 100-seater jet has significantly fewer seats on which these fixed costs can be spread. This issue is especially prominent when operated by mainline staff.
JetBlue’s replacement for the E190s is the Airbus A220-300, which comes with 40 additional seats. This makes it far easier to operate for an airline with the pay scales that JetBlue has, and the A220-300 has also proven to be popular with airlines worldwide. With its incredible fuel efficiency, the math shifts towards JetBlue replacing young E190s with state-of-the-art A220s.
The Era Of The Airbus A220-300
The Airbus A220-300 is JetBlue’s replacement for the Embraer E190. The carrier has already taken delivery of 50 examples, with another 50 remaining on order. The A220 seats 40 additional passengers compared to the E190, with both aircraft being configured in an all-economy layout. The A220-300 also comes with a range of up to 3,400 nautical miles (6,300 kilometers).
The A220-300 is more economical to operate and more capable than the E190, while also being far more fuel efficient. With the E190’s retirement, JetBlue is also returning to only operating two types of aircraft, and while the A220 doesn’t have pilot commonality with the A320, it uses a version of the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engine that JetBlue equips on its A321neo fleet.
The E190 was a key part of the JetBlue fleet, but aviation technology has progressed past the type. With notoriously high maintenance costs, two incredibly efficient successors (the A220 and Embraer E2), as well as a difficult market position, the E190 is disappearing from airline fleets. Instead, the E2 and the Airbus A220 are taking the baton, as seen with JetBlue.
