It’s a big day for JetBlue, as the airline has retired its Embraer E190 fleet. Not only does this mark the end of the plane at JetBlue, but it’s also the end of regularly scheduled passenger service with this jet on US airlines.
JetBlue retires Embraer E190 after 20 years in service
Today, JetBlue has operated its last-ever passenger flight with the Embraer E190. The airline commemorated this with a special flight number, B6190, and it operated from New York (JFK) to Boston (BOS). Not coincidentally, this is the same city pair where JetBlue first operated this plane, all the way back in 2005.
As a special tribute, JetBlue’s Chief Operating Officer, Warren Christie, captained the flight, just as he did the inaugural journey nearly 20 years ago. He was also joined by several original crew members and guests.
For context, JetBlue’s fleet at one time consisted of up to 63 Embraer E190s. The airline took delivery of these planes between 2005 and 2013, and started retiring them in 2022. The airline was actually the launch customer for the plane.
JetBlue’s Embraer E190s were in a 100-seat configuration, and were quite comfortable, thanks to the 2-2 layout, with 25 rows of seats. As with all other JetBlue planes, the Embraer aircraft also had seat back entertainment and free Wi-Fi.
JetBlue is retiring its Embraer E190s in favor of Airbus A220-300s, as the airline now has over 50 of those planes in its fleet, of the total of 100 that have been ordered. This marks a major fleet simplification for the airline, as the carrier is now an all-Airbus operator, and just has two plane types — the A220 and A320-family of aircraft.
JetBlue’s A220s are configured with 140 seats, and definitely have more modern of a feel. At the same time, increasing the size of the smallest plane in the fleet by 40% might make some markets more challenging. Then again, the economics of the A220 are great, with per-seat fuel burn that’s 40% lower than on the E190s.
The scope clause ruins Embraer’s great plane lineup
With JetBlue having retired the Embraer E190, where’s no US airline operating regularly scheduled flights with E190/195 aircraft. That’s unfortunate, because that’s actually a plane that has evolved, with the introduction of the E190-E2 and E195-E2. These are awesome planes with great fuel efficiency and range.
So, why do no US airlines fly these for regularly scheduled flights? Well, scope clauses. While JetBlue doesn’t have a regional airline subsidiary, the “big three” US carriers do. They all operate huge fleets of Embraer E170/175 aircraft, because those are the largest planes the regional carriers can fly (typically with up to 76 seats).
That’s due to the scope clause for pilots, whereby pilot contracts limit the number of smaller aircraft that can be flown by subsidiaries. So in theory, the major carriers could bring the E190-E2 and E195-E2 into the mainline fleet, but the challenge is making the economics work with the high pay scales they’re on the hook for.
That sucks, because this is an obvious market inefficiency that exists over a technicality, since there’s demand for planes that have somewhere between 76 seats and and a plane with nearly double as many seats. Congested airports that are slot controlled sure could use some larger planes, like the E190-E2.
But as labor costs in the airline industry have gone up, it’s hard to justify flying a plane with so few seats with higher paid crews. Heck, I’m kind of amazed that Delta can make the Airbus A220-100 work in its mainline fleet, as that has just 109 seats (with first class as well).
The irony is we see regional airlines keep buying more and more Embraer E170/175 jets, and those don’t even have new engines, and we haven’t seen a full overhaul of that plane.
Bottom line
JetBlue has finally retired its Embraer E190 fleet, after 20 years of service. With that, JetBlue is now an all-Airbus operator, with a fleet of A220 and A320-family aircraft. The E190s were lovely planes, and at just 100 seats, they were also JetBlue’s lowest capacity aircraft.
There are now no E190s in scheduled service with a US airline. It’s especially a shame that no E190-E2s or E195-E2s are on order due to the scope clause issue.
What do you make of JetBlue retiring the Embraer E190?
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