One aircraft, two codes
If you watch a flight tracker for long enough you will see the same airline's E175s labelled two ways: E75L on one flight and E75S on the next. Both are the Embraer E175, the 76- to 88-seat regional jet that dominates feeder flying in North America and is common in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. The two codes exist because Embraer changed the wing in 2013, and ICAO, which assigns the four-character type designators used in flight plans and by air traffic control, decided the change was big enough to deserve a new one.
- E75S is the short-wing E175, the aircraft as built from its 2005 entry into service with Air Canada until 2013. Wingspan 26.0 m, conventional upturned wingtips.
- E75L is the long-wing E175, every aircraft delivered since 2013. Wingspan roughly 28.7 m, with large swept winglets.
Everything else is identical: the fuselage, the 2-2 cabin, the General Electric CF34-8E engines, the cockpit and the pilot type rating. A pilot does not need extra training to move between them and an airline does not publish separate seat maps.
Why ICAO split them
ICAO's designators (the list is in Doc 8643) are meant to tell controllers what performance to expect. The long wing lowered drag enough to change climb and cruise performance, so a new code was issued for the modified aircraft and the original was renamed from plain E175 to E75S. The same thing has happened elsewhere: the ATR 72's three generations are AT72, AT75 and AT76, and the 737-900 and 737-900ER share B739 because their performance is close enough not to matter.
Embraer's reason for the new wing was fuel. The extended tips and higher aspect ratio cut fuel burn by around 6% per flight, which on a regional jet flying six or seven sectors a day is worth real money. The change arrived with a package of other improvements, lighter seats and systems tweaks, marketed together as the "E175 enhanced", but only the wing changed the code.
What the airline codes mean
Airlines and booking sites do not use ICAO codes; they use three-character IATA equipment codes, and the E175 has two of those as well. E7W is the long-wing E75L and E75 is the short-wing E75S. You will see them on seat selection pages, in the fine print of an itinerary and on sites that show "aircraft type" for a booking. Seat maps are the same for both.
The rest of the E-Jet family follows the same pattern:
- E170 / E70: the Embraer E170, the 66- to 78-seat original, ICAO E170.
- E190 / E90: the Embraer E190, about 100 seats, ICAO E190.
- E195 / E95: the Embraer E195, the longest first-generation E-Jet, ICAO E195.
- E290 / 290: the Embraer E190-E2, the second-generation aircraft with geared turbofans.
- E295 / 295: the Embraer E195-E2.
How to tell which one you are on
Before the flight, the aircraft code in your booking is the surest guide: E7W is a long-wing aircraft, E75 a short-wing one. Once the aircraft is assigned, usually the day before, a flight tracker will show E75L or E75S against the flight number; our flight pages show the type we have observed on each route.
At the gate, look at the wingtips. The short-wing aircraft has a small, conventional upturned tip; the long-wing aircraft has a large, swept winglet that blends into a visibly longer wing. The fleet also sorts by age and operator. In the United States, SkyWest, Envoy, Horizon Air and Mesa took delivery from 2014 onward and fly long-wing aircraft; Republic Airways has both, with its 2007 to 2009 deliveries being short-wing. Air Canada's original 2005 fleet, LOT, Royal Jordanian and most European E175s delivered before 2013 are short-wing.
Does it matter?
Not to a passenger. Seat width, pitch, bins, noise and the lack of middle seats are the same, and the airline's cabin configuration decides your comfort, not the wing. It matters to the airline's fuel bill and to anyone trying to identify an aircraft, which is why the question comes up so often on tracking sites.
If you want the specifications side by side, the E75S vs E75L comparison has them, and the two type guides, E175 long wing (E75L) and E175 short wing (E75S), cover history, operators and what each is like to fly on.