British Airways scraps its Embraer E170 fleet

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It looks like the Boeing 747 and Airbus A318 won’t be the last fleet casualties at British Airways.

According to Simple Flying, BA CityFlyer has decided to get rid of its six Embraer E170 aircraft.

BA CityFlyer is the British Airways subsidiary which operates flights from London City Airport.

British Airways scraps Embraer E170 fleet

The length of the runway at London City, and the need for departing aircraft to gain height quickly enough to avoid Canary Wharf, means that the smaller Embraer aircraft have been the preferred choice there. In the last few years, BA CityFlyer has been investing in the larger E190 version.

It isn’t the end of the line for the six aircraft in the E170 fleet. They are being sold to Envoy Air in the US, which operates as an American Airlines feeder under the ‘American Eagle’ brand.

The sale will not have a major impact on BA CityFlyer. It now has a fleet of 22 x E190 aircraft, the majority of which are currently parked at Norwich Airport. The loss of the six smaller E170 planes will not lead to noticeable cuts to services once flying resumes in earnest.

Envoy expects to take delivery from May, with the planes back in service – after having the seat count reduced – from July.

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This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Colin MacKinnon says:

11 Mar11 March 06:10

With these being scrapped and the new summer at Southampton schedule, does this mean the end of the Barrhead Travel Scottish summer charters?
- ChrisC says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 06:46
  
  Likely not as given these charters make BA money so I’d assume that their weekend Southampton flights take these charter into account.
- TP says:
  
  13 Mar13 March 15:08
  
  Barrhead themselves dropped them. But for summer 2021 BA CityFlyer are operating their own flights GLA-PMI
IslandDweller says:

11 Mar11 March 06:35

The E170s have been gone a while. They retired the first of that sub fleet in May last year. The final one was retired in January of this year.
Glad to see the back of them. Given how generous the legroom is in the E190, it was always a rude shock if an E170 (miserable cramped let room) turned up.
- Genghis says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 06:58
  
  +1. They were v cramped.
  - KP says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 14:42
    
    I dont the E170s were cramped.. rather the E190/195 have generous legroom !!
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 07:46
  
  I honestly thought the direction to do this was taken a while back when they bought 4 new to BA E190’s
  - Stu N says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 08:23
    
    Yes, won’t miss the E170, often a nasty surprise. As long as CityFlyer keeps the bacon roll and G&T, I’ll be back on board as soon as travel resumes.
- apbj says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 09:13
  
  Agree the E170s were tighter than the E190s, but if you think they were “cramped” you would not have enjoyed the 146s/RJ85s that preceeded them!
- Mike says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 14:17
  
  The E170 have been parked in Warsaw for ages at LOTAMS.
IslandDweller says:

11 Mar11 March 06:42

Colin. Barrhead haven’t chartered the Cityflyer aircraft since summer 2019
R says:

11 Mar11 March 07:12

Out of interest, how does an E170 make it across the Atlantic?
- ChrisC says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 07:24
  
  Hopping – via Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and Canada and internally within the USA.
  - Stu N says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 08:21
    
    Aircraft range is massively longer when not loaded down with heavy passengers and all their luggage so I’d expect they will do the ferry flights non-stop or with a single refuelling stop.
    
    The E190s did City to Reykjavik in passenger service, remember….
    - Julian says:
      
      11 Mar11 March 08:52
      
      E170 has a maximum range of 3982km in normal passenger service according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_E-Jet_family so I presume it could probably get all the way from LCY to the other side of the pond with no passengers or freight. If not I’m sure it could manage with a stop at say Glasgow and then across to Bangor……..
      - Dubious says:
        
        11 Mar11 March 15:54
        
        Not sure they are ETOPS compliant though – so wouldn’t he able to take a direct routing.
  - Julian says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 08:40
    
    @ChrisC Would be interested to know the actual airports involved and the distances between each of them. However looking at a map it does seem that Scotland to Iceland is the longest piece of water but suitable airports in Greenland and Northern Canada are probably relatively thin on the ground.
    - tony says:
      
      11 Mar11 March 15:29
      
      There’s quite a bit written about this – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34484972 covers shipping even smaller planes to the US – an interesting read.
  - Julian says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 08:40
    
    @ChrisC Would be interested to know the actual airports involved and the distances between each of them. However looking at a map it does seem that Scotland to Iceland is the longest piece of water but suitable airports in Greenland and Northern Canada are probably relatively thin on the ground.
- Jonathan says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 07:28
  
  Only the (also now retired) A318 could do such journeys (on commercial scale) at least, and this was done by refuelling (only on the westbound flight) at one of Europe’s most western airports, Shannon in Ireland.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 07:47
    
    That was only because it took off from LCY with a very low fuel load (short runway)
    - Jonathan says:
      
      11 Mar11 March 09:21
      
      Yeah that’s one LCY’s problems, from a perspective of what aircraft can and can’t use the airport. The lack of passenger facilities there also doesn’t help, but saying that they’re not exactly spoilt on square footage
TripRep says:

11 Mar11 March 07:25

Rob, do you need to be logged in to see the rates for spending Radisson points, can only see cash prices…
- Rob says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 09:22
  
  Wesbite is playing up for me at the moment, keep getting ‘bad gateway’ errors …
  - The Savage Squirrel says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 19:47
    
    The Radisson website is very flaky in all sorts of ways; which goes well with its other features: badly laid out and ugly :D.
Nic says:

11 Mar11 March 08:57

Aah, the Radisson in Cape Town, I remember a few good nights out at that hotel bar when in Cape Town. Sundowners overlooking the ocean..A magnificent setting.
Andy says:

11 Mar11 March 08:59

Hmm I don’t have many Radisson points in my account but this is a good deal. Wondering whether I should make a speculative points purchase to use in the future!

Do Radisson points expire?
- Frenske says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 09:37
  
  You need to go to the redeem section: https://www.radissonhotels.com/en-us/rewards/redeem/room-nights
  
  I believe there is expiration date but you can use AmEx Rewards to keep account alive.
  
  A nice cheap option is Malta Golden Sands hotel for 44.000 points per night. Nice beach with swimming pool. Great for kids. Over the summer rooms are 200 euros. So 3 nights would 600 euros but in points 132.000 (==£400). Not a massive profit but still.
ChrisW says:

11 Mar11 March 09:19

Unfortunately that Maldives Radisson has very poor reviews. Too big, difficult to get around the resort due to the distances and lack of bicycles and buggies, the resort wanting booked guests to pay outside of the official Radisson payment platform (!), poor quality food, aggressive staff, unsafe for children, poor snorkelling at the house reef.

The good quality villas are one of the few positives.

Buyer beware – several reviewers have said this is not a five star resort.
- NC says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 09:43
  
  We stopped there en route to Rangali recently (seaplane landed at the Radisson, then we took a 5 minute speedboat to Rangali) and the Radisson did not look like a 5* resort.
- Roger W says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 09:44
  
  I have done several Maldives trip and would steer clear of an island with so many water villas in comparison with land space. Much prefer beach villas with a palm tree to lie under.
  - Erico1875 says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 12:22
    
    Me too.Villa on the beach much nicer
    - meta says:
      
      11 Mar11 March 14:03
      
      There are plenty of places on earth to do that for 10x less. Most people go to the Maldives for the overwater experience…
- BuildBackBetter says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 13:17
  
  Thats disappointing. Was hoping this was one way to keep accomodation costs low and spend more on food and activities!
  - meta says:
    
    11 Mar11 March 14:02
    
    However, reviews are getting better. Most reviews in the first year will be bad until the staff get the hang of it. Also most restaurants only opened up recently…
    - TJ says:
      
      11 Mar11 March 19:26
      
      Hmmm…a lot of recent 5 star reviews on trip advisor appear to be from reviewers who have only made one review. Suspicious?
- Boon says:
  
  11 Mar11 March 22:09
  
  I concur…. booked last year, and the hotel wanted me to make a dodgy 100% deposit via a Maldivian bank website. Would have been a hassle to cancel and get money back I think…
  
  Ended up at the Conrad Maldives, which I totally recommend. The Conrad is in the same area – in fact, on one of my dolphin tours, the boat passed by the Radisson. Let me say that I’m so glad I went with the Conrad. The Radisson is built on a sandbank, not even a proper island. And they’ve really crowded the whole place with over-water villas, so you lose that nature feel.
  
  Unless you just want to stay in your villa 24/7, it looked like not alot of communal space to relax and explore, nor long stretches of white sand beach.