At what was a quiet Farnborough Airshow on the civil aviation side, the sole “new” design on the static display was the first conversion of an Embraer E190 to a small narrowbody freighter.
A small inscription below the flight deck windows revealed that the aircraft was destined for the first E-Freighter customer, U.S.-based lessor and aviation services group Regional One.
The first cargo operator customer is set to be Kenya’s Astral Aviation, which is taking two of the aircraft from lessor NAC; NAC has ordered 10 of the converted aircraft for onward lease.
Astral is a specialist cargo operator whose fleet ranges from seven-tonne capacity Fokker 50 turboprops to 42-tonne capacity Boeing 767-200Fs. The E-Freighter will be capable of carrying 10.7 tonnes and will operate on a combination of scheduled and charter flights on Astral’s intra-African network.
Embraer sees the E190F slotting into the cargo market between smaller turboprops and larger jet freighters. In particular, the Brazilian manufacturer sees the E190F and E195F replacing aircraft such as now-elderly (and increasingly expensive and polluting) types such as the DC-9. The company believes there is a market of up to 700 cargo aircraft in the E190/195F’s category over the next two decades.
The prior generation of E-Jets that entered passenger service around 10-15 years ago are now emerging from long-term leases and beginning their replacement cycle, continuing over the coming decade, Embraer notes. The cargo conversion will extend the life of the first-generation E-Jets by a further 10 to 15 years.
The E-Jet Freighter will have over 50% more volume capacity and three times the range of large cargo turboprops, while having up to 30% lower operating costs than narrowbodies, the Brazilian company promises.
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