Regional carrier Envoy Air is celebrating its heritage in a very pretty way, unveiling a retro liveried E170-100STD this week. The Embraer is a former BA Cityflyer aircraft and will join the Envoy fleet in the coming weeks. Its livery pays homage to American Eagle Airlines, the brand under which Envoy Air flew until 2014. It changed its name to Envoy to distinguish itself from the American Eagle regional brand.
Celebrating National Aviation Day
Yesterday was National Aviation Day, and saw various aviation companies showcasing their history, heritage, and future plans. But the one that really caught our eye was a new retro livery rollout on a small and adorable plane.
Envoy Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines, has unveiled one of its new Embraer E170s in a special historic livery. The livery showcases the American Eagle brand in a heritage livery on its newest E170, registered N760MQ.
The aircraft previously flew for British Airways’ Cityflyer subsidiary as G-LCYD but left the fleet in April this year. It flew to the United States via Reykjavik, Goose Bay, and Bangor before arriving in Macon, Georgia, on April 27th.
Macon is home to a major aircraft painting facility known as Dean Baldwin LP. The company has been painting aircraft for over 55 years, with substantial facilities in Roswell, NM; Peru, IN; and Goodyear, AZ. Construction of the site at Macon began in 2019, with the first aircraft arriving for painting in June this year.
Envoy Senior Vice President of Air Operations, Dee Temples, commented on the paint job, saying,
“We’re just as excited about the heritage livery as anyone else. We like that people take an interest in Envoy and its history, and that they’re enthusiastic about aviation.”
The airline released a behind the scenes video of the painting process:
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Envoy’s E170s
N760MQ will be the second E170 to arrive at Envoy out of at least seven the airline plans to take in the coming months. Six of the seven are coming from BA Cityflyer, leaving the UK airline with no more E170s in its fleet. Going forward, Cityflyer will operate only the E190-100SR.
At present, the retro livery E170 is undergoing conformity checks and preparation for the aircraft to enter revenue service with Eagle Aviation Services in Abilene. It should join the fleet in the coming weeks.
Envoy received its first E170 earlier in August. N761RW arrived in Dallas-Fort Worth on August 4th and entered revenue service on August 8th, flying from DFW to Lexington. Since then, it’s been hopping around the Envoy network, flying multiple times per day and proving its worth for the regional airline. Speaking about the ex-CityJet E170s, which are a new type for Envoy, Dee Temples said,
“A lot of hard work from across our airline went into adding this new E170 fleet type to Envoy’s operating certificate. This continued growth not only demonstrates American’s faith in our operation, but is a testament to the hard work our teams across the system continue to do every day for the thousands of customers who travel with us.”
The E170s are the largest aircraft Envoy operates today. It has a large fleet of 98 E170-200LR but is adding these E170-100STDs as a new type. It also flies 57 Embraer 145LR and seven Embraer 140LR.