It actually looked as if Turkish Airlines had chosen the Airbus A220 as its regional jet. Now the airline’s president is bringing Embraer back into play – albeit on one condition.
It looked as if Airbus would win the bid. In July, Turkish media reported that the national airline Turkish Airlines would order 30 Airbus A220s from the European aircraft manufacturer. But it’s obviously not that certain.
According to Ahmet Bolat, the airline’s president, in an interview published on the Samchui website, his airline is in talks with the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. They are talking about 15 to 20 aircraft in the E2 family.
Bolat wants jets with crews and maintenance
But it’s not all that simple. “I told them: Bring me the aircraft, the associated pilots and the maintenance, then I would consider such an offer,” said Bolat.
That would be a fairly new offering for an aircraft manufacturer. However, what is conceivable in this way would be the operation of E2 jets under wet lease. This is apparently also an option for Turkish Airlines.
The new little ones at Turkish
Both the Airbus A220 and Embraer’s E2 jets would be the smallest in the airline’s fleet. The Airbus A319 is currently the smallest model that Turkish is using.