Swiss regional airline Helvetic Airways has broken the record for the longest distance flight in an Embraer E190-E2.
The Kloten-based carrier was taking delivery of its fifth example and flew the brand-new jet from Natal on the east coast of Brazil, direct to Zurich in Switzerland on July 2.
The narrowbody, HB-AZE (c/n 19020038) was ferried from Embraer’s facility at Sao Jose Dos Campos airport near Sao Paulo to Natal Augusto Severo, before it embarked on its record-breaking flight.
The nonstop nine-hour ten-minute leg covered a distance of 4,652 miles (7,488km), numbers usually associated with long-haul widebody aircraft, not a narrowbody short- to medium-haul jet.
The airline says the flight was operated under optimum conditions “that bear no comparison to regular passenger operations”, and the weather conditions were “ideal”.
The ferry flight was conducted with a crew of five, made up of three pilots, one flying engineer and a Helvetic project leader.
In regular passenger service, the carrier says the E2 has a maximum take-off weight of 54 tonnes and can transport 110 passengers more than 3200 miles (5,200km).
The handover was also significant for Embraer because it marked the 1,600th E-Jet since its first delivery in 2004.
