Air Astana Celebrates Delivery of First Embraer E190-E2

Air Astana celebrated the delivery of its first Embraer E190-E2 at a special ceremony held in the carrier's Aviation Technical Center hangar at Astana airport on Friday.

The aircraft is the first of five ordered under a leasing agreement signed with AerCap in 2017, with the remaining four aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2019.

The aircraft is also the first E2 to be delivered to an airline in the CIS.

The new generation Embraer E190-E2 aircraft will replace older Embraer E190s in the fleet, which have operated with Air Astana since 2011.

The new aircraft features a special Snow Leopard livery, which is intended to draw global attention to the threat of extinction faced by this large wild cat, which is a native to the mountain ranges of southern Kazakhstan.

“All of us at Air Astana are pleased to receive our first E190-E2, and we look forward to a smooth entry into service and a simple transition for our pilots. We know Embraer's E-Jets well, and have high expectations for their new generation aircraft in terms of economics, environmental impact, and levels of comfort and convenience for our customers,” said Peter Foster, President and CEO of Air Astana.

Air Astana will operate the Embraer 190-E2 on domestic services across Kazakhstan, as well as to destinations in Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and China.

The inaugural E2 commercial service from Astana to Almaty is scheduled for 19 December 2018.

John Slattery, President and CEO, Embraer Commercial Aviation, said, “We are honored to deliver new generation jets to Kazakhstan by delivering this “wildcat” to our good friends at Air Astana. For a manufacturer, there is no better reward than to see a customer’s business continuously growing with our products. Air Astana’s decision to embrace the E2 program is a further measure of trust in Embraer and in the E-Jets family of commercial aircraft.”

The Embraer E190-E2 belongs to a family of twin-engine, single aisle airliners offering a maximum range of up to 5,300 km, which is 1,000 km more than the E190. The aircraft has improved aerodynamics, redesigned fuselage and wings and new Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan engines.

The aircraft is fitted with 108 seats in a four abreast / two-by-two layout which provides more legroom and additional luggage storage space. E2 has a wireless entertainment system, which enables passengers to watch movies and listen to music from their personal devices.

Media Briefing

Exclusive media briefing by Air Astana's President and CEO, Peter Foster, OBE. In the briefing, which is completely unedited and includes the entire Q&A session from media attending, Peter tells us about the new Embraer E190-E2 and he shares some previously undisclosed details of the new low cost airline that the company is about to launch. The briefing took place on 14 December 2018 in Astana, Kazakhstan.

See latest HD Video Interviews, Podcasts and other news regarding: Embraer, Air Astana, Kazakhstan.