Helvetic operates London city's 1st E190-E2 flight

Following its recent steep approach certification, the Embraer E190-E2 has touched down on its first commercial flight at London City Airport.

This is not only a milestone for Embraer and for Helvetic Airways, who operated this first flight; it's also a crucial moment for London City Airport, as it has bet its future growth on this game-changing aircraft, report agencies.

The first revenue service of an Embraer E2 was greeted with an appropriate level of celebration. The jet, an E190-E2 operated by Helvetic Airways, is the first to arrive at the central London airport following the types' certification last month.

It was greeted with a water cannon salute from the airport's fire service, while passengers were treated to a commemorative luggage tag.

Almost every seat on the flight was sold. For most of the passengers, it was a welcome return of a route that has been suspended since April 2020 (save for a handful of flights in May and June last year) due to the COVID downturn.

Prior to that, the route was served by SWISS with its Airbus A220 and occasionally its A320 family jets. But with passenger demand still relatively thin, the lower capacity, highly efficient E2 is the ideal aircraft to restart the service.