Austria's People's to fly more winter charters, keep E170

UK's Eastern Airways adds first E170

Eastern Airways (T3, Humberside) has taken delivery of its first E170 as it prepares to resume the type's operations after a two-year pause.

G-CMLI (msn 17000093) was ferried from Ljubljana to Humberside on June 12, 2023, still under its previous OE-LOC registration. The 17.8-year-old jet is owned by Regional One and was last operated commercially by Austria's People's (PE, Altenrhein) through early 2020.

The British regional carrier ended E170 operations in October 2021, shortly after adding its first E190, which currently remains its only jet aircraft. Eastern Airways also operates four ATR72-600s and nine Jetstream 41s. The airline operates 152 weekly scheduled departures, mostly within the United Kingdom and Jersey, although it also has a sizeable presence at Paris Orly and runs scheduled flights to Esbjerg.

Eastern Airways did not respond to ch-aviation's request for comment regarding its E170 plans.

UK's Eastern Airways returns to E170 operations

Eastern Airways (T3, Humberside) took delivery of its first E170, OE-LOC (msn 17000093), as it returns to the type's operations following a 1.5-year hiatus.

The 17.7-year-old Embraer regional jet was ferried from storage at Toulouse Francazal to Ljubljana for maintenance on March 14, 2023. The aircraft is owned by Regional One and was last operated by People's through January 2020.

Eastern Airways operated two E170s between 2016 and October 2021, according to the ch-aviation fleets history module.

The aircraft will be Eastern Airways' second regional jet, following its only E190 which was added in 2021. However, the airline's sole jet aircraft has been in maintenance at Warsaw Chopin since February 2023. The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that the British carrier also operates nine Jetstream 41s and four ATR72-600s.

Eastern Airways did not respond to ch-aviation's questions of whether it would add more E170s and what its plans for the type are.

Germany's Lübeck Air to launch charters from Austria

Austria's People's to launch winter charters

People's (PE, Altenrhein) has announced it will launch winter charter flights from Altenrhein in mid-January 2022, operating 2x weekly (growing to 3x weekly during the peak winter season) to Billund and Gothenburg Landvetter on behalf of tour operator SkiTravelGoup AG.

"People’s airline sees that ski charters have sustained potential and will be pleased to operate inbound flights for the first time," the carrier said.

Winter charters will continue through the end of March 2021.

People's used to operate a sizeable charter business not just from Altenrhein, but also other airports in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. It suspended all operations from other airports in 2019 to focus on Altenrhein. Its charters from the Swiss airport are tailored to the needs of outbound passengers travelling for holidays to the Mediterranean.

The airline's core business is the Altenrhein-Vienna route. While nominally an international service, as Altenrhein is located in Switzerland, the airport lies just 1 kilometre from the Austrian border and serves both Austria's westernmost state of Voralberg and the...