Air Transport

Republic Airways plans to roll out an extended legroom product on its Embraer 170 fleet.

The company already offers so-called 'Stretch' premium economy seating on all Airbus and Embraer 190 aircraft operated by its new subsidiary, Frontier Airlines.

With Stretch, passengers in the first four rows of seating are provided with an additional 5in of legroom for a minimum 36in seat pitch.

During a recent earnings conference call, Republic vice-president of planning and strategy Daniel Shurz revealed that Stretch will be available on the E-170 fleet "by the end of the summer".

"We launched the [Stretch] programme officially on the Frontier network at the beginning of February, and we have been very pleased with the uptake, even this early in the programme," says Shurz.

Republic chief executive Bryan Bedford says the company's 40 new Bombardier CS300 CSeries aircraft, which will be configured with 138 seats, are slated to include 25 Stretch seats.

"So [there will be] five rows of Stretch seating and then the balance in our normal coach," says Bedford.

Deliveries of the CS300s begin in the latter half of 2015.