Lufthansa will temporarily reactivate five Airbus A340-600's next summer before putting the aircraft up for sale. The German carrier's pre-pandemic A340-600 fleet consisted of 17 aircraft – 12 of which are now in the process of being sold. The remaining five widebodies will be brought out of storage in summer 2022 to operate flights from Munich to North American and Asian destinations. Lufthansa says it is temporarily bringing the aircraft back into service in response to "growing premium demand" for both business and leisure travel. The aircraft will have a four-class configuration, including eight first-class seats. The five A340's will be "temporarily reactivated and sold at a later date", says Lufthansa. The carrier adds that in late summer 2023 its first Airbus A350-900 will begin operating flights from Munich, "bolstering the premium offering".

Embraer is pressing ahead with its plans for a new turboprop airliner and is eyeing a programme launch next year. Arjan Meijer, chief executive of Embraer Commercial Aviation, says the airframer has been “more and more vocal” in recent months over its intentions for the market. “Embraer is still very much focused on the segment. We are still working on a turboprop and hope to launch the programme in 2022,” he told a 23 June webinar to celebrate the first delivery of an E195-E2 to Helvetic Airways. Last year, Embraer showed updated renderings of its design that now shares the same fuselage cross-section as its current E-Jet family. This, says Meijer, will allow it to “bring much better passenger appeal to the turboprop segment”. Service entry is likely in the 2027-28 timeframe, he says. “It will really stand apart from the products out there today.” Meijer says Embraer has also “selected the turboprop as the platform for the future”, allowing it to add “more sustainable solutions” to later iterations. That does not imply that the airframer is moving away from jets, but that it views the turboprop as an ideal fit for new power or propulsion technologies. Discussions with several potential partners on the project are “progressing well”, Meijer adds.

Helvetic Airways has taken delivery of its first Embraer 195-E2 as part of the final phase of the Swiss carrier's fleet replacement programme.

The airline says that three more E195-E2s are scheduled for delivery by the end of July, which will bring Helvetic's fleet to 16 aircraft – four first-generation E190s, eight E190-E2s and four E195-E2s.

All 12 new aircraft were ordered in 2018 under a deal that initially covered only E190-E2s, the first of which was delivered to Helvetic in 2019. After having received the fifth aircraft, Helvetic and Embraer disclosed in July 2020 that further deliveries would be delayed and that four orders were converted to the larger variant.

The airline holds purchase rights for another 12 E-Jets.

Helvetic has configured its E190-E2s with 110 seats and E195-E2s for 134 passengers, while its E190-E1s are fitted with 112 seats.

Chief executive Tobias Pogorevc describes the fleet of Pratt & Whitney PW1900G-powered E2s and GE Aviation CF34-10E-powered E1s as an "optimal fleet mix in terms of capacity and sustainability". He states: "The structural changes in the demand for air travel that have emerged in recent months vindicate the strategic choices we made back in 2018." Helvetic's introduction of the E2s will "further strengthen its role as a Swiss airline in the European sky," Pogorevc says. The airline says that the crisis has "accelerated a regionalization of air transport and a downsizing of aircraft". With the new fleet, the airline believes it has "the right aircraft to operate reliably and economically" and take advantage of "all the new opportunities in a post-pandemic market". Eight E190's are being operated for Swiss under a long-term wet-lease agreement with the Lufthansa Group carrier, Helvetic notes. Its first E195-E2 (HB-AZI) is scheduled to depart Embraer's assembly line Sao Jose dos Campos on 24 June and arrive at its Zurich base on 25 June, via stopovers in Brazilian city Nata and Spanish island Gran Canaria. The twinjet's first regular passenger service is scheduled from Basel to Greek island Santorini on 10 July.