Embraer [ERJ] last week delivered the first four of its new family of regional jets. Two of the ERJ 170s went to European airlines and two went to MidAtlantic Airlines, the new regional unit of US Airways [UAIR] (CRAN, Feb. 16).

LOT Polish Airlines was the first airline to take delivery of the Brazilian-produced jet. The carrier is leasing the plane from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS). The ERJ 170 will go into service by the end of the month operating out of LOT's Warsaw hub. The 70-seat plane will be the backbone of an expansion of LOT's regional network. The carrier has ordered 10 ERJ 170s to be delivered through mid-2005. It has options for an additional 11 planes.

Italy's Alitalia took delivery of the first of six ERJ 170s that it ordered for its Alitalia Express. The aircraft is expected to enter service in mid-April. The carrier holds options for an additional six planes.

MidAtlantic's first two ERJ 170s arrived in Pittsburgh on March 8. The planes will spend the next month on a series of proving runs and training flights, said Amy Kudwa, a spokeswoman of US Airways.

While Pittsburgh will be MidAtlantic's home base, the first commercial flights of the ERJ 170 will be from Philadelphia on April 4. Kudwa said initial flights will be to Kansas City and Syracuse. As more planes are delivered, MidAtlantic will add flights to Albany, Atlanta, Nashville and Boston. MidAtlantic will be serving 16 markets by June, Kudwa said.

Embraer is scheduled to deliver two planes this month and two more in April, she said.

A year ago, US Airways ordered 85 ERJ 170s and it has options on another 50 planes. The carrier can convert the options into the slightly larger ERJ 175, which is not scheduled for delivery until later this year.

Embraer and GECAS are providing the funding for the $2.1 billion order.

With the launch of MidAtlantic, US Airways will have three company-owned regional units each with its own aircraft type. The new MidAtlantic will be the only unit flying the ERJ 170s. Kudwa said PSA will be flying 50-seat regional jets. And the revamped Piedmont Airlines will fly the Dash-8 turboprop (CRAN, Jan. 19).

"It will be a matter of supply and demand as to which aircraft serves which market," she said. "For MidAtlantic, it will be a combination of replacing mainline service or upgrading from the 50-seat regional jet. As we roll out more planes, we will replace more mainline jets."

The smallest plane that US Airways flies is the 120-seat Airbus 319. Kudwa said that US Airways doesn't plan on retiring any aircraft as the Embraers arrive, but simply shift resources.

MidAtlantic has reached an agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association to establish a wage scale for the Embraer pilots, said Capt. Jack Stephan, a spokesman for the US Airways unit of ALPA. MidAtlantic will employ those pilots that have been furloughed by the mainline. Because they will be flying smaller planes, a new pay scale was established based on the contract ALPA has with American Eagle, the in-house regional unit of American Airlines [AMR]. Based on 85 flight hours per month, Stephan said a MidAtlantic captain will earn $58,000 annually. A first officer will be paid $37,000 per year. MidAtlantic pilots will have the flexibility to fly the maximum monthly hours set by the Federal Aviation Administration. As a US Airways captain, a pilot could have earned $120,000.

So far 87 furloughed pilots have been hired to fly the new Embraers, he said. The first class was hired to become the training instructors for the subsequent classes.

Just as the seniority lists were used when the pilots were furloughed, Stephan said the senior-most pilots were given the first opportunity to be re-hired at MidAtlantic. As many as 1,879 pilots were furloughed between January 2002 and June 2003.

Kudwa said MidAtlantic will also be staffed by flight attendants furloughed by US Airways. Here, MidAtlantic will again be paying a reduced scale.

>>Contact: Amy Kudwa, US Airways, (703) 872-5116; Jack Stephan, ALPA, (410) 703-9259. <<