A new commercial airline in Europe, Air Lituanica of Vilnius, Lithuania, has acquired two Embraer E-Jets. The carrier will launch scheduled service on June 30th with one EMBRAER 170 leased from a third party. In July, Air Lituanica will add another E-Jet, an EMBRAER 175, leased from ECC Leasing Company, Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Embraer.

The E170 and E175 are configured with 76 and 86 seats in single class, respectively. Air Lituanica will deploy the aircraft on its planned routes between Vilnius and Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Munich and Moscow. The airline intends to add three to four more aircraft to increase frequencies with the objective of serving a dozen European routes from Vilnius in three years.

“Embraer E-Jets have proven to offer an effective combination of capacity, frequency and reliability that new carriers need to successfully launch their services,” said John Slattery, Chief Commercial Officer, Embraer Commercial Aviation. “The sizes of the airplanes are ideal for the types of markets in which the airline will fly. Embraer welcome’s Air Lituanica to our growing portfolio of E-Jets operators in Northern Europe.”

“Air Lituanica is aiming to improve nonstop air travel links between Vilnius and points in Western Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and the CIS. The arrival of our first E-Jets is a very important milestone for the company,” said Mr. Erikas Zubrus, CEO of Air Lituanica. “The aircraft will allow us to serve business routes with high frequency and offer our passengers an outstanding level of comfort.”

As with all E-Jets, the E170 and E175 benefit from common crew qualification and 100% parts commonality so operators can realize exceptional maintenance and crew resource cost savings. The different E-Jet capacities give Air Lituanica the flexibility to assign the aircraft based on variations in market demand.

Air Lituanica joins a growing list of customers in Northern and Eastern Europe that have identified E-Jets as the preferred platform to replace their ageing aircraft, simplify their fleets and open new markets. Twelve airlines – Air Lituanica, Air Astana, Air Moldova, Azerbaijan Airlines, Belavia, Bulgaria Air, Estonian Air, Flybe Finland, Flynonstop, LOT Polish Airlines, Montenegro Airlines, and Ukraine International have added Embraer E-Jets to their fleets.

Embraer press release