By Andy Cline | April 12, 2017 Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 25 seconds.
Sky Regional Airlines has introduced one of its Embraer ERJ175s into service in the rebranded Air Canada express livery. Coincidentally, it’s the first of five ERJ175s newly acquired by Sky Regional to fulfill a capacity purchase agreement (CPA) with Air Canada Express.
The five are the third batch of ERJs for Sky Regional Airlines and were acquired secondhand. The first 15 ERJ175s were transferred from Air Canada mainline to Sky Regional to be operated for Air Canada Express between May and December 2013. Five more were acquired secondhand in 2015.
The five newly-acquired ERJ175s arrived in Trois-Rivières, Que., for painting and conversion by Premier Aviation to the Air Canada Express cabin configuration: nine business (2/1) and 64 economy/premium economy seats (2/2).
ERJ175 fleet number 393 made its first revenue flight on April 10, arriving in Toronto from Montreal.
Although the Sky Regional fleet is currently growing by five ERJ175s, it is also losing five, its oldest aircraft acquired in 2011. The five original Bombardier Q400s will be transferred to Jazz Aviation LP, also an Air Canada Express operator, so all Dash 8 variants will be consolidated at a single operator, simplifying logistics and maintenance.
Air Canada launched its much anticipated new livery simultaneously in three Canadian cities on Feb. 9, 2017. A Boeing 787-8 and two Airbus A321s were the first types to be painted in the livery for the initial launch, followed by a Jazz Air Canada Express CRJ900 rolled out on April 5.
The ERJ175 is the third type to adopt the new livery, designed by international design firm Winkcreative, headed by Canadian entrepreneur Tyler Brûlé.
