Swiss European Air Lines (Zurich) is set to replace its outgoing fleet of ARJ-100s with E190s leased from fellow operator, Helvetic Airways (2L, Zurich). According to Switzerland's aeroTELEGRAPH, the decision to withdraw the ARJs comes amid increasing concerns about the type's growing maintenance costs.

With delays in the delivery of the A220-100, the first of which Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) was to have delivered this year, Swiss (LX, Zurich) has had to reconsider its options apropos its twenty-strong Avro fleet resulting in it choosing to lease EMB-190s from Helvetic as an interim solution.

Helvetic's Chief Financial Officer, Tobias Pogorevc, says that four EMB-190s will replace four of its oldest ARJ-100s that will be phased out. The Brazilian jets are due in country between December 2014 and January 2015.

The jets will be manned by Helvetic flight attendants while the pilots will be sourced from Swiss. The Swiss captains will later be retrained for the C-Series when they begin arriving, he added.