David Neeleman has said that his new American start-up tentatively named Moxy Airways (Salt Lake City) could launch ahead of the original plan using second-hand ex-Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras (AD, São Paulo Viracopos) E195s, Bloomberg has reported.
Speaking during the delivery ceremony of the first E195-E2 for Azul, Neeleman - who is Azul's founder - suggested taking over as many as thirty previous-generation Embraer regional jets to headstart Moxy Airways in the US. The aircraft would be used for both scheduled and charter operations.
Moxy Airways has orders for sixty A220-300s but the deliveries are not scheduled to start before 2021.
Neeleman said that he was eyeing an Air Operator's Certificate for the US start-up and a potential launch with the second-hand aircraft as soon as 2020.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Azul currently operates fifty-one E195ARs. They are just 6.7 years old on average.
The aircraft are due to be replaced with E195-E2s, of which Azul has fifty-one on order from the manufacturer and a further six from lessors. Azul is the type's global launch operator and took delivery of its first E2, PR-PJN (msn 19020018), on dry-lease from AerCap on September 12, 2019.
