American Airlines’ subsidiary Envoy continues to grow. As the regional airline’s success continues, it is nearly doubling its Embraer E175 fleet by adding 15 airplanes to an existing order of 25 E175s.
The new airplanes will start arriving this month and, by mid-2020, the E175 fleet will reach 84. This is a significant increase to Envoy’s total fleet of about 170 airplanes, the majority of which are 44- to 50-seat Embraer regional jets – Embraer 140s and 145s. The fleet also includes Bombardier CRJ-700s configured for 63 or 65 passengers.
“Each new aircraft we welcome to the Envoy fleet represents more jobs and greater opportunity for all of us,” said Envoy’s president and CEO Pedro Fabregas in a letter to the company’s employees.
The regional airline was founded in 1998 as American Eagle Airlines. Following a merger of several regional airlines, the company was named Envoy Air, Inc. in 2014, becoming one of the largest regional airlines today. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Envoy currently serves more than 150 destinations and employs 17,000 people. With a continued increase in the aircraft fleet and a flow of pilots moving up to jobs with American Airlines, the company expects to hire large numbers of pilots and support staff in the next few years.
To find the pilots it needs, Envoy has partnered with a long list of flight training providers and has several financial incentive programs to help flight students reach their ultimate goals of becoming airline pilots, including tuition assistance programs for cadet instructors, full payment for the required ATP-CTP course (a $5,000 value) and a $17,100 signing bonus once the students are ready to join the team.
