Helvetic Airways already owns four Embraer E190-E2. The fifth one completed its delivery flight on Thursday evening (July, 2). But something was different this time. The aircraft with registration HB-AZE crossed the Atlantic without a stop.
The four previous E190-E2s of the Swiss regional airline departed from Embraer's São José dos Campos factory airport to Recife and from there across the Atlantic to Gran Canaria and then to Zurich. HB-AZE, which is also Embraer's 1600th E-Jet, took a much more direct route. From São José dos Campos it flew first to Natal in the outermost Northeast of Brazil.
More than nine hours in the air
And from there the Embraer jet headed directly for Zurich. «We tried to perform the longest flight ever with an E190-E2,» a Helvetic Airways spokesman confirmed to aeroTELEGRAPH. The route from Natal to Zurich measures approximately 7300 kilometres. The flight time was around 9:10 hours.
This was only possible because there were only five crew members and no cargo on board. The normal range of the Embraer E190-E2 is 5300 kilometres. Whether flight 2L-9409 would actually break the record was unclear. It also depended on the weather and wind conditions. At first only Geneva was targeted, but in the end the aircraft reached Zurich.
In the picture gallery above you can see pictures of the Embraer E190-E2 HB-AZE.
Embraer breaks a record on a transatlantic flight
HB-AZE at the Embraer factory in São José dos Campos.
The aircraft is the 1600th E-Jet. And she shows it off.
Helvetic Airways has ordered twelve E190-E2.
