Porter Airlines (P3, Toronto Billy Bishop City Centre) has entered into sale/lease-back transactions with Azorra Aviation covering the first five of its 50 firm-ordered E195-E2s.

The deal follows the delivery of the first two units shortly before Christmas. The handover of a third is expected by year-end. However, so far, none of the Embraer regional jets has been ferried from São José dos Campos Professor Urbano Ernesto Stumpf to Canada.

Porter Airlines is the type's North American launch customer and their induction signals its shift into the regional jet market. The ch-aviation fleets module shows it currently operates twenty-nine DHC-8-Q400s, of which 24 are owned by the airline and the remaining five are leased from Aergo Capital.

For its part, Azorra Aviation specialises in regional aircraft, but has thus far not owned any E195-E2s. The ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows that the lessor's portfolio includes a single E190-E2 leased to Air Astana (KC, Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev), as well as thirty-two E-Jet E1s in all variants (E170, E175, E190, and E195). The lessor also owns four A220-300s, all of them placed with airBaltic (BT, Riga).