Alliance Airlines will bolster its fledgling jet fleet with the purchase of 16 Embraer E190s, on top of the 14 already headed for its Brisbane hangars.
The E190s, previously flown by American Airlines and retired in April this yr, have been snared in an $85 million deal which also consists of one spare engine.
Alliance will gather the keys to the first 5 jets this month, after which one per month will likely be handed over across January to November 2021.
The E190s will arrive in American’s 99-seat configuration of
- eight business class seats (in a 2-1 arrangement) with 36″ pitch
- four extra-legroom economy seats (at the exit row) with 34″ pitch
- 80 economy seats with 31-32″ pitch
“The 100 seat jet plane market globally will rebound rapidly as carriers look to give attention to total trip prices somewhat than traditional metrics,” predicts Alliance Airlines managing director Scott McMillan.
“The additional capacity will likely be deployed to capture several growth opportunities across Australia together with contract flying and wet and dry lease operations.”
McMillan added that one noticeable side-effect of COVID-19 “has been the market shift away from common public transport to charters.”
Whereas Qantas holds a 20% stake in Alliance, and has expressed its curiosity in “taking a majority place” within the firm, Alliance also maintains an extensive partnership with Virgin Australia.
That is probably so as to add some 40 regional routes to Alliance’s network, following the streamlining and downsizing of Virgin’s fleet under new owners Bain Capital, together with a sharper give attention to the most profitable routes.
Alliance’s first tranche of 14 E190s, which got here from Panama’s Copa Airlines, are available in two variants with 10-12 business class seats and 84-88 economy seats.
No middle seat
Regardless of how Alliance’s E-Jets are configured, Schofield expects they’ll be welcomed by the airline’s wide array of passengers, which spans from the assets market to holidaymakers and personal charter flights.
“The E190 is an exceptional plane from the passenger comfort point of view. You may fit as much as 114 seats in this stuff, so even in an all-economy 100 seat structure, that is a pretty beneficial passenger experience.”
And unlike the bigger Boeing 737s that are the workhorse of Qantas and Virgin Australia, even economy seating will likely be simply two seats on both sides of the aisle, so there’s no dreaded middle seat.
“We already see that in the Fokker aircraft, having only 5 abreast,” Schofield recounts.
“Only 20% of the cabin has a middle seat, so you must have over an 80% passenger load earlier than you use the middle seats.”
“That is always been received very effectively by our passengers, and the E190 has the added benefit of no middle seats.”
