Ever since Air Canada consolidated its Air Canada Express regional operation with a single operator, Jazz Aviation, the national carrier’s partner has flown a mixed fleet of both jet and turboprop aircraft.

The need to cut costs during the pandemic saw the Canadian flag-carrier switch Sky Regional’s fleet of Embraer 175s across to Jazz in 2021. Sky Regional ceased operation as a result, leaving Jazz the sole regional operator to fly for the national carrier under a capacity purchase agreement.

Jazz now operates 25 E175s (together with 35 Mitsubishi CRJ900s, 15 smaller CRJ200s and 46 De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 turboprops).

Both the E175s and CRJ900s have the same internal configuration (12 business-class and 64 economy-class seats), a factor that eases the task of scheduling personnel.

“We consider the E175 and CRJ900 to both be competitive products for similar market segments,” an Air Canada spokesman said. “Thus, they are often ‘mix-and-matched’.

“We don’t favour one fleet over another, but the E175s are based only in Eastern Canada and so that determines the missions they operate. The CRJ900s are based across the country.”

Jazz has four pilot bases – Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver – with the E175s’ hubs in the first two cities.

Sector lengths on which the E175s operate vary significantly: “Using March 8th as a one-day sample, the shortest sector is Cleveland to Toronto at 63 minutes,” the spokesman said. The longest, almost exactly three times as long, is Montreal to Minneapolis-St Paul at 179 minutes.

Both domestic and cross-border services to the U.S. feature in the E175s’ route map, with the Embraers’ taller cabin reportedly making them more popular on more business-oriented sectors.

Some of the E175s are approaching 20 years in service, but Air Canada says that it plans to continue to keep the fleet at its present size for the foreseeable future.