Eastern Airways (T3, Humberside) will resume E170 operations this month and E190 operations later this year, taking delivery of two units of the former and three of the latter type.
"The UK regional airline is seeing significant growth in the ad-hoc charter market for 70-100 seat jets, and the first of these aircraft [E170] will be delivered later this month," the airline said in a press release.
ch-aviation understands that Eastern Airways plans to reactivate two E170LRs which it used to operate until October and November 2018, G-CIXV (msn 17000111), since then re-registered as EI-GID, and G-CIXW (msn 17000230). Both aircraft are owned by GECAS and have been stored at Lourdes/Tarbes since their phase-out by Eastern Airways under the airline's previous ownership.
The three E190s will be delivered at a later point in 2020. The airline never operated the type in the past.
"We are pleased to see the return of the E-Jets to our fleet giving us an entry into new ad-hoc charter and ACMI markets, alongside an option to evolve our scheduled service network, especially as we expand this fleet through the year," General Manager (Commercial and Operations) Roger Hage said.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the airline operates two ATR72-600s, fifteen Jetstream 41s, two E145s, and six Saab 2000s. The airline is a franchisee of flybe. (2002) and exclusively operates under the latter carrier's code, flying domestic routes in the United Kingdom, as well as the Paris Orly-Rodez service in France, although the French route is set to be terminated by January 20, 2020.
Until May 2019, Eastern Airways was owned by Bristow Group. The US-based group sold the British airline to Orient Industrial Holdings Limited (OIHL), an entity affiliated with Richard Lake during its Chapter 11 restructuring.
