ISTANBUL—Brazilian operator Azul is seeing a bit of relief in the challenges stemming from reliability issues with the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines powering its Embraer 195-E2 jets. 

“Pratt’s been relatively supportive of us on the E2; we’ve had several engine changes,” Azul CEO John Rodgerson told CAPA TV during the IATA AGM in Istanbul. “It seems like some of the teething issues on the E2 are starting to get worked out, and so we have no E2s on the ground right now; we have 17 flying.”

Azul is no different from any other airline at the moment regarding aircraft delays from manufacturers, Rodgerson said. Azul is taking delivery of five additional E2s this year, hopefully before the carrier’s high season in December and January, he said. The airline also has more Airbus narrowbodies joining its fleet this year. 

Overall, Azul is confident it will get the aircraft its needs “but not as many as we want,” Rodgerson said. 

Azul recently launched its first service to Paris on flights from Campinas Viracopos to Orly. Rodgerson said the flight was performing above expectations. He explained Azul used to codeshare on the flight with Aigle Azur, “so we kind of knew the traffic patterns and who was flying to Orly … and so we had a database of people, so we had a little bit of experience.” 

One-third of the passengers on the flight are first-time travelers on Azul, he said, “so now they’re in our ecosystem, they’ll fly us domestically, have access to our loyalty program. … We just expanded our customer base with that flight.”