The new aircraft are part of the carrier’s fleet expansion program

Embraer is pleased to welcome Bulgaria Air to its portfolio of E-Jets customers. The airline, a member of the Bulgarian Aviation Group, will operate three EMBRAER 190 jets from Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, under a new agreement with a leasing company.

“It’s wonderful to have another customer endorsing our E-Jets philosophy in this region of Europe,” said Paulo César de Souza e Silva, Embraer President, Commercial Aviation. “E-Jets are already flying with airlines in Moldova, Montenegro, and Ukraine. Bulgaria Air’s new EMBRAER 190s will bring even more visibility to the potential for right sizing capacity, new market development and fleet renewal opportunities in the Balkans and Central Europe.”

Bulgaria Air’s new aircraft will be configured in a dual-class layout with 108 seats: eight Elite seats in the premium cabin and 100 Slimline seats in the economy cabin. The airline will operate the EMBRAER 190 in conjunction with its narrowbody fleet, optimizing capacity to demand from its hub in Sofia. Deliveries are scheduled for the first and third quarters of 2012.

“Following a detailed analysis of the destinations to which we fly and taking into consideration the aircraft’s size, efficiency and passenger comfort, we selected the EMBRAER 190,” said Yanko Georgiev, Bulgaria Air CEO. “The aircraft will reinforce our competitiveness, having the capacity to broaden our network and complement our narrowbody fleet. The well-established E-Jets family, already flying with many leading airlines around the world, like Lufthansa, Air France, LOT Polish Airlines, Air Canada, and US Airways, will help Bulgaria Air to develop new markets in a more economically efficient manner, whilst maintaining the very highest levels of comfort and service for its passengers.”

Since they entered revenue service in 2004, Embraer has delivered more than 700 E-Jets to nearly 60 airlines from some 40 countries around the world. The versatile 70- to 120-seat, four-aircraft family is flying with low cost airlines, on regional routes, and with mainline carriers

Embraer press release