There are over 1,700 routes by Embraer 190/195s between June and December this year. The aircraft are used on a wide variety of missions, with 346 routes over 1,000 miles. At 2,422 miles, Belavia’s Minsk-Dubai is the world’s longest, followed by the exotic Johannesburg to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The Embraer 190 and 195 – of all variants including the E2 – have a 15% share of the global active scheduled regional jet (RJ) market, analyzing ch-aviation.com data reveals. This is based on some 488 aircraft out of a total of 3,287.

In April, Simple Flying showed that Embraers are now the backbone of Kenya Airways' fleet. Indeed, larger Embraers are used on a wide variety of missions, including longer and thinner routes.

Airlink's has a once-weekly service from Johannesburg to/from Saint Helena, a distance of 2,285 miles. It is the world's second-longest route by the E190/E195. Image: Airlink.com.

346 routes are 1,000 miles+

There are over 1,700 routes scheduled to be operated by the E90/E95 between June and December, examining schedules provided by airlines to OAG shows. They have an average sector length of 664 miles, which is expected and within a two-hour radius.

Of these, some 346 routes are over 1,000 miles, including 190 to, from, and within Europe, 66 involving Africa, and 46 with North America. However, the world's longest 10 E90/E95 routes average a significant 2,015 miles.

Belavia's Minsk-Dubai, operated by the E195 E2, is 2,422 miles. It last flew on June 1st with an outbound flight time of five hours and 17 minutes. Image: RadarBox.com.

The world's longest Embraer 190/195 routes

At 2,422 miles, Belavia's Minsk to Dubai is the world's longest route, as shown below, now operated exclusively by the E195 E2. Despite the ongoing troubles afflicting Belarus, Dubai is still operating because it doesn't overfly EU countries. Simple Flying recently examined the Belarussian flag carrier.

  1. Belavia: Dubai to Minsk, 2,422 miles
  2. Airlink: Saint Helena-Johannesburg, 2,285 miles
  3. TAP Air Portugal (by Portugália Airlines): Lisbon-Conakry, 2,035 miles
  4. QantasLink (by Alliance): Canberra-Darwin, 1,951 miles
  5. Binter Canarias: Las Palmas-Venice: 1,940 miles
  6. Kenya Airways: Nairobi-Mauritius, 1,924 miles
  7. Aeromexico Connect: Mexico City-Santo Domingo, 1,919 miles
  8. Kenya Airways: Nairobi-Douala, 1,912 miles
  9. TAP: Lisbon-Bissau (by Portugália Airlines), 1,899 miles
  10. TAP: Lisbon-Praia (by Portugália Airlines), 1,862 miles
The world's top-10 longest E190/E195 routes. Note: the map only shows the longest leg, with Kenya Airways' Nairobi (NBA) to Douala (DLA) service, for example, continuing to Yaounde, also in Cameroon. Image: GCMap.

TAP Air Portugal

TAP Air Portugal has 12 active E190s/E195s with 106 to 118 seats in an all-economy layout. They're operated by Portugália Airlines under the banner of TAP Express. Some 43 routes are operated by the aircraft, all from Lisbon.

TAP has 43 routes by Embraer 190/195s, including 21 of 1,000+ miles. Photo: Getty Images.

TAP has 21 routes that are 1,000+ miles, including Lisbon-Zagreb, at 1,368 miles, inaugurated on June 2nd. It is the only non-stop route from Croatia to Portugal, and on its first day had a flight time back to the Portuguese capital of three hours and eight minutes.

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The Portuguese airline perhaps nicely illustrates the rationale for using larger RJs. In the right markets, there are fewer seats to fill, enabling stronger yields, high load factors, and therefore unit revenue.

They may also enable higher frequencies too, which in turn normally generate yield premiums. But, of course, the unit cost disadvantage has inevitably often been a big problem versus narrowbodies, although the difference has been reducing with newer versions (the E2).

What are your views on the E190/E195? Let us know in the comments.