On Tuesday, April 11th, Embraer confirmed the launch of the passenger-to-freighter
(P2F) conversion program for the Embraer E-jet family aircraft for next year. The
announcement took place during a press tour of the company’s facilities in Nashville,
Tennessee. Let’s look at this exciting news in today’s video!
Almost a year ago, Embraer secured its first customer for its new E-Jet
passenger-to-freighter program. Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) signed an order
for up to ten conversions of E190 and E195 aircraft.
On the day of the announcement, Embraer outlined the timeline for the certification process of the
new P2F program. The company’s executives said that certification will be available by 2024
and that the estimated entry into service for the program is also expected for that year.
Embraer will focus its first certification with Brazil’s Civil Aviation National Agency.
After that, it will begin the certification process with the FAA in the United States.
At Farnborough last year, Embraer said it would start with five modifications
per year (with the first P2Fs taking as much as six to eight months to be
ready). The Brazilian manufacturer expects to get up to 12 by 2026.
According to Embraer’s executives, the first P2F aircraft was parked recently in Macon,
Georgia. It has been recently flown to Brazil, they said. Currently,
Embraer has ripped out the E190's interior and is hoping to cut additional room for the cargo door.
The conversion to freighters in the future is expected to be performed at Embraer’s
facilities in São José dos Campos, Brazil. It includes the main deck front cargo door,
cargo handling system, floor reinforcement, Rigid Cargo Barrier, and removing the interiors. The
E190F will be capable of carrying about 13,150 kilograms of payload.
Meanwhile, the E195F can carry 14,300 kilograms at its maximum structural loads. E-commerce customers
can expect that number to fall to 10,700 and 12,300 kilograms at typical shipment volume.
Compared to the Boeing 737, Embraer expects trip costs to be 25% lower.
Volume costs versus turboprops will be about 20 to 25% lower.
Embraer expects the optimal range of the E190F to be between 600 and 1,400 nautical miles.
The E190 and E195 families are, on average, between 15 and 20 years of age. With this in mind,
Embraer is reported to be targeting up to 20% of these planes as conversion candidates.
Last year, the Brazilian carrier Azul Linhas Aéreas introduced the
new E195 Class F Freighter. This plane was developed between Azul
and LHColus Tecnologia as a way to employ the company’s aging passenger E190 fleet.
When introducing the E195 Class F Freighter, Abhi Shah,
the company’s Chief Revenue Officer, said that the company was reformulating its E1s.
“What we are doing is removing all the seats, and we are putting fire
bag containers on the aircraft, doubling the payload. And now, using the E1 trip cost,
we can fly to secondary cities and provide dedicated e-commerce delivery services.”
So what do you think about this exciting Embraer news? Let us know in the comments below.