Aircraft

US low fares carrier JetBlue Airways has admitted its Embraer regional jet roll-out has hit several delays, among which several technical issues are evident.

The carrier became the first carrier to operate the 100-seat Embraer 190 in November with the launch of services from Boston to New York Kennedy airport with its first three E-190s. It planned to roll the type out across its network from the end of last year. However, late last year JetBlue postponed one of its scheduled eight deliveries from December to this month and JetBlue chief executive David Neeleman has now admitted the carrier has had many issues around the type's entry into service.

“We have had some operational issues with the aircraft,” Neeleman said at an analyst conference late last week, adding that the airline had expected to experience hiccoughs in launching the aircraft and that some of this has been “of our own doing”.

He confirms that the E-190 has had on-time reliability rates “a few percentage points less” than the Airbus A320 aircraft currently operated by JetBlue. He cites pilot “familiarity issues” with the aircraft including the problem of the absence on foggy days of crew rated for low-visibility operations (which requires 100h of flying). The carrier is awaiting certification within the next three months of the Rockwell Collins dual liquid crystal display head-up guidance system for the aircraft, which will help eliminate the issue.

A two week delay in first delivery and software issues have contributed to the failure to roll the aircraft out across the network as originally planned, says Neeleman. Combining “all those factors together” has meant that the E-190 service launch “hasn’t been up to what we thought we could do”, he says.

The carrier launched E-190 services from Austin, Texas to the East Coast last week and will start a route from Boston to Nassau, Bahamas this week using the aircraft. JetBlue is scheduled to receive a further 19 E-190s this year.

Embraer was not available for comment.

MARY KIRBY / PHILADELPHIA

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