Air Europa waves goodbye to the ERJ195

Air Europa has concluded its final Embraer ERJ195-flight and has officially retired the type from service. The last flight was operated by EC-LLR (19000452) on 27 January 2023, when it flew as UX5038 from Malaga to Madrid. A day later, the aircraft was ferried to Nottingham to be returned to its lessor.

The airline has operated eleven different ERJ195s, with the first delivered in June 2016. The Embraers were operated by Aeronova, a subsidiary of Air Europa and operating as Air Europa Express.

Air Europa has decided to retire the ERJ195 in order to standardize the fleet on the Boeing B737 and the B787. Currently, it operates 21 B737-800s, eleven B787-8s, and twelve B787-9s. For the future, the airline has lease-orders to replace the oldest B737-800s with new B737-8s as well as lease-orders for more additional Dreamliners. The aim is to stabilize the fleet to around 50 aircraft.

At the same time, Air Europa-owner Globalia, is still working with the International Airline Group (IAG) for a complete take-over. Last year, IAG acquired 20% of the shares of the airline with the aim to increase this to full ownership in the coming years.

Photo by Anton Homma.