Embraer E195-E2 (E295)

The E195-E2 is the largest airliner Embraer has built and the one that pushed the company out of the regional-jet niche and into direct competition with Airbus. Embraer launched the E-Jet E2 program in 2013, promising three re-engined, re-winged versions of its best-selling E-Jets: the E175-E2, E190-E2 and E195-E2. The E195-E2 was stretched by three rows over the original E195, taking maximum seating to 146, which put it against the Airbus A220-300 and the smallest A320neo and 737 MAX rather than against other regional jets.

The E190-E2 flew first, in May 2016; the E195-E2 followed on March 29, 2017 and was certified in April 2019, a few months ahead of schedule. Azul, the Brazilian airline that had been the launch customer for the original E195, took the first E195-E2 in September 2019 and used it to replace older E-Jets on domestic trunk routes. Embraer painted the test aircraft with eagle, tiger and shark noses under the "Profit Hunter" name, and several delivery aircraft have carried the same art.

Sales were slow at first. The E175-E2 was shelved because US regional airlines' pilot contracts would not allow its weight, and the pandemic hit just as deliveries ramped up. Orders then built through the 2020s: Porter Airlines of Canada bought E195-E2s to launch a jet network from Toronto and became the largest operator; KLM Cityhopper replaced its E190s with E195-E2s; Azul kept adding them; and Binter, Airlink, Salam Air, Royal Jordanian and others followed. By late 2026 Embraer had delivered more than 220 E2s of both sizes.

The E195-E2's position in the market is unusual. It is a regional jet by heritage and a mainline narrowbody by capacity, and Embraer sells it on fuel burn per seat against the A220-300, with which it competes almost everywhere. The E190-E2, three rows shorter, carries the code E290 and has its own page.

The E2 shares a fuselage cross-section with the first-generation E-Jets, the 2-2 double-bubble that gives every passenger a window or an aisle, but almost everything else is new. The wing is a clean-sheet design with a high aspect ratio and raked tips, 35.1 meters across on the E195-E2, nearly seven meters wider than the original E195, and it is the main reason for the roughly 25 percent lower fuel burn per seat Embraer claims.

The engines are Pratt & Whitney PW1900G geared turbofans in the 19,000- to 23,000-pound-thrust class, the same family that powers the A220 and A320neo. The landing gear was lengthened to make room for them. The flight controls are full fly-by-wire with Embraer's own closed-loop control laws, which replaced the first generation's mixed system, and the Honeywell Primus Epic 2 cockpit has four large landscape displays. Embraer also redesigned the cabin with larger bins and a staggered business-class option.

At 41.5 meters the E195-E2 is 2.85 meters longer than the E195 and its maximum takeoff weight rose to 62.5 tons, with range of about 2,600 nautical miles with a full cabin. Maximum seating is 146 at 28-inch pitch; typical layouts run 120 to 136. The E190-E2 is the same airplane shortened to 36.2 meters, with a slightly smaller wing span and the PW1900G at lower thrust.

Porter Airlines is the E195-E2's largest operator, flying a fleet in the dozens from Toronto Pearson and Ottawa across Canada and to the United States in an all-economy, 132-seat layout. Azul uses the type on Brazilian domestic routes, KLM Cityhopper flies it across Europe from Amsterdam, and Binter operates it between the Canary Islands and the Spanish mainland. Smaller fleets fly with Airlink in South Africa, Salam Air in Oman, Royal Jordanian, Congo Airways and lessor customers in Asia. No US airline flies the E2 because regional pilot contracts cap aircraft weight, and mainline carriers have not yet ordered it. On a tracker the code E295 is concentrated in Canada, Brazil and the Netherlands.

The E195-E2 is one of the most pleasant narrowbodies to fly in, and that is almost entirely the cabin layout. Seats are 2-2, so there are no middle seats anywhere, and at about 18.3 inches wide they match or beat an A320's. The overhead bins were enlarged for the E2 and take a roll-aboard with room to spare. Pitch depends on the operator: Porter's 132-seat all-economy layout runs 30 to 36 inches with a few extra-legroom rows; KLM Cityhopper and Azul use a similar single-class cabin with a flexible business section at the front. The geared turbofans are noticeably quieter than older E-Jet engines, and because they are under the wing the quietest seats are forward of it. The long rear fuselage means the last few rows feel more motion in turbulence than on a shorter jet. Best seats are the first ten rows on either side; the window seats are not pinched by the fuselage curve the way they are on the ERJ or CRJ.

The E195-E2 is the stretched E-Jet shape with a new wing, and the wing is the giveaway: long, thin and swept, with sharply raked tips rather than the first-generation E195's blended winglets. The engines are the large-fan PW1900G, much fatter than the CF34s on older E-Jets, and the nose gear is taller. At 41.5 meters it is the longest E-Jet by nearly three meters, with an unusually long rear fuselage behind the wing. The E190-E2 looks the same but shorter. Against the A220-300, which it meets everywhere, the E2 has the slimmer E-Jet nose and a 2-2 cabin, visible as four windows across the fuselage width from the front, where the A220 is wider and rounder with a 2-3 cabin. Many E2s wear Embraer's animal "Profit Hunter" nose art on delivery.