Aircraft

Brazilian manufacturer Embraer is taking one of its pre-production E-190 regional jets on a world tour, fitted with a special two-class seating demonstration configuration.

The aircraft (manufacturer's serial number 0002) will kick off its tour at the UK's Farnborough air show from 17 July. From there the E-190 will fly to North America between 26 July and 11 August before returning to Brazil. A South American leg will take place between late August and early September when the aircraft will fly to Southern Africa for flights between 15-20 September. Africa will be followed by views by Middle Eastern airlines and then MSN0002 will make a return to Europe on 28 September, staying until 13 October. The final leg on the world tour will be Asia Pacific, where the E-190 is scheduled to fly for six weeks commencing 15 October.

The aircraft is fitted with 93 seats in two classes (a diagram of which is pictured above). However the economy section has 84 seats, of which 72 are in standard 33" (840mm) seat pitch. A further one row of four seats has 32", another row has 31" and a final row has a mere 30" pitch.  Embraer's expected airliner service seating configuration for the E190, a stretch of the E170, is 98 passengers in two classes.

Meanwhile, Embraer says it is confident that the E-190's larger E-195 variant will have met European and Brazilian certification requirements by the end of July, ahead of its delivery to launch customer Flybe in August. Embraer airline market programme vice president Mauro Kern said the 108-118 seat E-195 is “moving well” towards its certification

The manufacturer is also close to selecting an electronic flight bag supplier for the E-Jet family.