Background During the 1990s, the Brazilian
aerospace manufacturer Embraer had introduced the
ERJ family, its first
jet-powered regional jet. As demand for the ERJ series proved strong even early on, the company decided that it could not rely on one family of aircraft alone and examined its options for producing a complementary regional jet, including designs that would be larger and more advanced than its preceding aircraft. During March 1997, Embraer made its first public disclosure that it was studying a new 70-seat aircraft, which was initially referred to as the
EMB 170; this reveal was issued concurrently with the announcement of the development of the
ERJ 135. As originally conceived, the EMB 170 was to feature a new wing and larger-diameter fuselage mated to the nose and cockpit of the
ERJ 145. The proposed derivative would have cost $450 million to develop. While
Alenia,
Aerospatiale and
British Aerospace through
AI(R) were studying the
Airjet 70 based on the
ATR 42/72 fuselage for a range, AI(R) and Embraer were studying a joint development of a 70-seater jet since their separate projects were not yet launched. In February 1999, Embraer announced it had abandoned the derivative approach in favour of an all-new design. initially using the twin designations
ERJ-170 and
ERJ-190; these were subsequently changed to
Embraer 170 and
Embraer 190 respectively. The launch customers for the airliner were the French airline
Régional, which placed ten orders and five options for the E170, and the Swiss airline
Crossair, which had ordered 30 E170s and 30 E190s. During July 2000, production of components for the construction of both the prototype and test airframes began. On 29 October 2001, the first prototype
PP-XJE was rolled out at São José dos Campos, Brazil. In May 2002, the aircraft was displayed to the public at the
Regional Airline Association convention. During that same year, full-rate production of the E-Jet commenced; this activity was centred around a recently completed factory built by Embraer at its
São José dos Campos base. After a positive response from the airline community, Embraer launched the E175, which stretched the fuselage of the E170 by . During June 2003, the first flight of the E175 took place. Following several delays in the certification process, the E170 received
type certification from the
civil aviation authorities of Brazil, Europe and the United States in February 2004. On 10 October 2012, Embraer delivered the 900th E-Jet to
Kenya Airways, its 12th E-Jet. On 13 September 2013, the delivery of the 1,000th E-Jet, an E175 to Republic Airways for
American Eagle, was marked by a ceremony held at the Embraer factory in São José dos Campos, with a special "1,000th E-Jet" decal above the cabin windows. On 6 December 2017, the 1,400th E-Jet was delivered, an E175; it had a backlog of over 150 firm orders on 30 September 2017. On 18 December 2018, Embraer delivered the 1,500th E-Jet, an E175 to
Alaska Air subsidiary
Horizon Air, as Embraer claims an 80% market share of the
North American 76-seaters.