Airbus and Embraer see initiatives by Asia-Pacific airlines—including low-cost carriers—to reduce capacity on domestic and intra-region routes and service frequencies as providing important sales opportunities for their respective A220 and E-Jet E2 families.

“Historically, intra-region and domestic APAC markets have been stimulated by the addition of new city-pairs, with a significant portion being operated by LCCs,” said Claude Debeauquenne, Airbus’s head of single-aisle market development. “The A220, with a lower cost per trip, is perfectly positioned to continue this trend to even thinner markets.”

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, as LCCs developed Asia-Pacific intra-regional and domestic route networks, their focus on minimizing unit costs led most to build their fleets around one aircraft family, said Raul Villaron, Asia-Pacific vice-president Asia for Embraer Commercial Aviation. Almost all did so by ordering A320s and 737s, the larger single-aisle families.

However, because of the pandemic’s traffic-destroying effects, “demand is lower than in the past and airlines are having to cut frequencies or even wait” to resume services on routes, said Villaron. Now, with traffic on many Asia-Pacific routes yet to recover, the airlines with single-type fleets “are having to rethink that paradigm,” because they need the flexibility to match capacity to demand on every service.

Globally, utilization levels for the original-generation Embraer E-Jet fleet recovered much more quickly following the onset of the pandemic than did utilization levels for larger single-aisle and widebody aircraft, he noted. E-Jets’ smaller capacities made them ideal for handling reduced traffic demand throughout the world. “This allows us to be optimistic” of the success the new E-Jet E2 family can achieve with Asia-Pacific carriers, said Villaron.

Embraer sees the 195-E2 as highly suitable for Asia-Pacific intra-regional and domestic routes, particularly those within and between the region’s larger nations. By making the 195-E2’s fuselage 10 percent longer than that of the original 195, Embraer increased the 195-E2’s seat capacity 20 percent, to 146 seats.

At the same time, Embraer increased the 195-E2’s range to 2,600 nm—ideal for operating almost every APAC intra-regional route now operated by larger single-aisle aircraft, according to Rodrigo Silva e Souza, vice-president of marketing for Embraer Commercial Aviation. “Not only did we address unit cost, but the 195-E2 is able to do everything the Embraer 190 does,” he said.

The 195-E2 does more than that, added Villaron. In preserving and even going beyond the 25 percent fuel-burn advantage Embraer claims it holds over the larger A320neo, “it also gets very close to the seat cost” of the A320neo, greatly improving Embraer’s chances of penetrating the big Indian domestic market, as yet untapped for E-Jet sales, he said.

The 195-E2 is the lightest aircraft in the 150-seat class, conferring maintenance-cost advantages over its competitors and a 10 percent fuel-burn advantage over the Airbus A220-300, as well as offering lower navigation costs and airport landing charges, according to Silva.

Powered by the same engine type as the A220 (only the Pratt & Whitney GTF model’s nomenclature differs between them), the 195-E2 offers higher engine operating temperature margins and needs a less powerful and lower-maintenance auxiliary power unit than the A220, he said. It also features longer airframe maintenance intervals.

Additionally, said Silva, the E2 family’s operating noise levels are even lower than those of today’s 70- to 90-seat turboprops when operating on the airport surface—a potential sales advantage in noise-sensitive operating environments, particularly at airports near city centers. For example, in Japan, where numbers of original E-Jet models remain in service, carriers want aircraft offering low operating noise levels, he said.

Embraer sees a wide variety of E2 sales opportunities in the region, particularly for an aircraft able to operate the long over-water routes from island chains in the South Pacific to larger nations such as Australia and New Zealand. “Range is an important element” for such services, said Villaron. “We see great potential in Australia, New Guinea, and Kiribati,” he noted.

Additionally, Asia-Pacific operators of the original E-Jet family are “natural candidates for E2s,” he said. “We see strong interest from existing customers in Japan, Australia, Vietnam, and Myanmar, noted Villaron. “We also see large potential in markets where there are large populations living far apart from each other: Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and Nepal. There is already a 100-seat segment flying in Indonesia with Garuda and Sriwijaya Air.

“The pandemic has had major impacts there and we hope the airlines emerge with a stronger focus on profitability, adjusting their capacity using efficient aircraft,” Villaron explained. “Indonesia and Malaysia provide opportunities for direct replacement and right-sizing because operators there are now flying large single-aisle aircraft at 30 percent load factors.” In pre-pandemic days, load factors averaged 70 percent or more.

Embraer sees Australia as a major opportunity for the original E-Jet and the E2 families. Alliance Airlines has already agreed to take 32 used Embraer 190s (18 of which will fly for Qantas on wet lease). However, Alliance and others also need to replace many aging Fokker 100s and BAe 146s, so Villaron thinks Australian operators will take more than 100 original-family E-Jets. Australia now has four E-Jet operators: Alliance, Cobham Aviation, Air North, and Pionair.

While many first-generation E-Jet flights in Australia will be charters and fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) cargo services, Embraer believes it will also provide a market for at least 100 E2s, many contracted for Qantas’s scheduled network—even though Qantas has ordered the similarly sized A220. 

The Airbus A220 Family

In Airbus’s view, the A220 is especially well suited to the Asia-Pacific region, offering longer range capability, high levels of comfort, and a 25 percent reduction in fuel consumption compared to the previous generation aircraft it replaces, according to Debeauquenne. “We see strong potential for A220 as the ideal complement to the A320 family, with a lower cost per trip,” he noted.

“[The A220-300’s] range capability of up to 3,450 nm is a key selling point in the Asia-Pacific region, where distances are often long, over water and [serving] relatively remote locations,” said Debeauquenne. The range of the two A220 models allow them to fly non-stop on the domestic networks of the larger countries in the region, such as Australia, China, and India, a key advantage that led Qantas to select the model at the end of last year,” he explained

“The [A220] can fly non-stop on international routes, linking destinations in Southeast Asia to North Asia, or the Pacific islands to Australia and New Zealand, or even North Australia to South East Asia,” added Debeauquenne. “Therefore, it would enable the opening of new routes, both for leisure and business traffic.”

Following the Qantas decision, Airbus continues work on several promising campaigns in the region, reported the Airbus marketing boss, who further explained that the two A220 variants offer distinct market options for Asia-Pacific carriers.

“[The A220-100 provides] the lowest risk solution for opening new routes, for growing regional airlines, and for urban and challenging airports,” he explained. “[The A220-300 represents] the best network feeder, the lowest risk solution for start-ups, and growth from the A220-100.”