Salzburg, Austria, October 4, 2013 – Belavia of Minsk, Belarus, has signed a firm contract for two E195s with Embraer Commercial Aviation. The transaction was announced today at a press briefing in Salzburg at the annual general meeting of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA – www.eraa.org). The firm order will be included in Embraer’s 2013 third quarter backlog.

The aircraft will join two E175s already operating at the airline. The acquisition is part of the carrier’s fleet renewal initiative to replace older aircraft. The first E195 will be delivered in the first semester of 2014.

“Belavia has seen the enormous potential of E-Jets and selected the E195 to complement the E175s as they replace larger-capacity aircraft,” said Paulo Cesar Silva, President & CEO, Embraer Commercial Aviation. “The exceptional seat-kilometer cost of the E195 and its crew and parts commonality with the E175 will deliver even better economics and operating efficiency to the airline.”

Belavia selected the E195 to replace its older narrow-bodied jets. The aircraft are configured with 107 seats in a two-class layout. The E195s will allow the airline to increase frequencies on some routes and to develop its network from its base at Minsk International Airport.

“We identified the E195 as the ideal aircraft to satisfy the expected growth in demand on some of our routes,” said Anatoly Gusarov, Director General of Belavia.  It was a natural choice because of the technical commonality with the E175 and for their superior cabin comfort.”

Since they entered revenue service in 2004, the E-Jets family has received more than 1,300 orders. The company recently delivered the 1,000th production aircraft to Republic Airways of the USA. Currently, E-Jets are flying with 64 airlines from 45 countries. In Europe, 24 airlines have added E-Jets to their fleets. The versatile 70- to 130-seat, four-aircraft family is flying with low cost airlines, regional and mainline carriers. Collectively, the E-Jets fleet has accumulated more than 10 million flight hours.

About Belavia

Created in 1996, Belavia is the 100% state-owned flag-carrier of Belarus. Belavia codeshares with AZAL, airBaltic, Austrian, CSA, Finnair, KLM, LOT, Rossiya, Transaero and S7, Air France, Ural Airlines, Severstal, Etihad Airways. Belavia operates to 44 destinations in Europe, Asia and he Middle East. Belavia’s fleet consists of 21 aircraft. Belavia carried 1.2 million passengers in 2012.