American Airlines will bring more regional jets back into service under the American Eagle brand from June 3rd. Envoy Air, American's fully-owned subsidiary, will be bringing all of its crisis-related parked E175s and ERJ145s back into service.

Bringing the E175s and ERJ145s back into service

Due to a downturn in passenger demand, American parked a number of planes, including regional jets operating under the American Eagle and the Envoy brands. These included both Embraer 145s and 175s. The ERJ145s seat 50 passengers while the E176s seat 76 in a two-class configuration. According to a report in View From the Wing, the Senior Vice President of Air Operations at Envoy Air has said,

"All of the E-175s and E-145s that we parked as a result of COVID-19 [are expected to be] returned to service by June 3.”

American Eagle retirement
Some smaller regional jets will be retired this year. Photo: Getty Images

These jets usually service small cities and short shuttle routes. The ERJ145s can be found on routes from Baltimore-Washington (BWI) to New York-JFK, Nashville to JFK, Chicago-O'Hare to Cincinnati, and more. The E175s operate a number of domestic routes to secondary airports as well as between major cities like New York-LaGuardia to Detroit, O'Hare to Cleveland, Los Angeles to San Francisco, and more.

American Eagle Regional jets
Cancellations across mainline and regional flying led to a large number of refunds. Photo: Getty Images

However, recently, these planes have become more common on short-haul routes. Normally, American operates robust schedules with mainline jets between New York and metro areas like Boston and DC. Now, American is down to daily E175 service on these routes through early June.

E175 flight deck
More E175s will be flying for American come June. Photo: Envoy Air

The smaller planes are easier to fill, given reduced demand. And American still has to maintain minimum levels of service after receiving funding from the United States government to help it through this crisis. Although the Department of Transportation (DOT) is getting a little more lenient, nevertheless, the smaller jets will likely operate on many routes in the meantime.

Regional jets have taken over some previous mainline routes. Photo: Getty Images

Envoy operates under the American Eagle brand alongside PSA, Piedmont, Republic, and SkyWest. The return of all parked E175s and ERJ145s only applies to Envoy Air. Other carriers, like Republic and Piedmont, will likely keep their fleet parked.

Envoy Air

At the end of 2019, Envoy Air operated a total of 58 ERJ-145s and 70 E175s. However, that number has since grown. 20 E175s are making their way over to Envoy from Compass Airlines. The first of these 20 jets has arrived in Envoy's care, and the other 19 will follow this year. In addition, Envoy received three new E175 aircraft from Embraer in the first quarter of 2020. 11 more new E175s are due over the course of this year.

Envoy E140
Envoy also operates E140s. Photo: Envoy Air

Envoy Air is American's wholly-owned regional subsidiary. The carrier operates over 185 aircraft comprised of ERJ140s, ERJ145s, E175s, and Bombardier CRJ700 aircraft. The E140s seat 44 passengers while the CRJ-700s seat between 65 and 76 passengers depending on the configuration.

American Eagle
American flew a regional jet on a 29-mile flight before these exemptions. Photo: Getty Images

Overall

From June 3rd, there will be more 50-seat and 76-seat jets flying American Airlines routes. Frequent fliers used to mainline service may find that their flight is operated by one of these regional jets as American alters its schedules and maintains reduced capacity. Nevertheless, the resumption of services with more aircraft is a positive step forward and may lead to the resumption of some routes. Or else, a capacity increase between some cities.

Will you look forward to flying an Envoy Air regional jet? Do you think this is a good step forward? Let us know in the comments!