South African private-sector airline Airlink and Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer jointly announced on Thursday that the carrier was leasing five of the manufacturer’s E-Jet family airliners. The aircraft, three E170s and two E190s, will be obtained from ECC Leasing, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Embraer. Deliveries will start during the first half of this year. The deal makes Airlink the first Southern African airline to operate E-Jets.
“This is the beginning of the implementation of a well planned growth and modernisation strategy for Airlink that includes replacing our current fleet of Avro RJ85s over the next three years,” explained airline CEO Rodger Foster. “The strategy calls for a total of 13 E-Jets, and we are in the process of sourcing the balance of the fleet requirement – an additional eight E190s – from the market.”
