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 EnvoyE175LR operated forAmerican Eagle | |||||||
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| Founded | 1984; 42 years ago (1984) (asAmerican Eagle Airlines)[1] | ||||||
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| Commenced operations | May 15, 1998; 27 years ago (1998-05-15) | ||||||
| AOC # | SIMA586A[2] | ||||||
| Hubs | |||||||
| Frequent-flyer program | AAdvantage | ||||||
| Alliance | Oneworld (affiliate) | ||||||
| Fleet size | 169 | ||||||
| Destinations | 170[3] | ||||||
| Parent company | American Airlines Group[3] | ||||||
| Headquarters | Irving, Texas, U.S. | ||||||
| Key people |
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| Employees | 20,000 (2024)[3] | ||||||
| Website | www | ||||||
Envoy Air Inc. is an Americanregional airline headquartered inIrving, Texas, in theDallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of theAmerican Airlines Group and it is paid by fellow group memberAmerican Airlines to staff, operate and maintain aircraft used onAmerican Eagle flights that are scheduled, marketed and sold by American Airlines.
Envoy Air operates a fleet consisting of exclusivelyEmbraer regional jet aircraft. The company has a team of more than 18,000 employees, operating more than 1,000 daily flights to over 150 destinations in theUnited States,Canada,Mexico,Caribbean andSouth America.
Envoy was formerly known asAmerican Eagle Airlines and was formed when American's parent company merged several airlines owned by the group and operating regional flights. The name was changed to avoid confusion with other regional carriers that operate on behalf of American Eagle. The name "American Eagle Airlines" was also used between April 1980 and April 1981 by an unrelated air charter service that suspended operations and filed bankruptcy before flying any scheduled operations.[6]
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Envoy began as a collection of regional carriers with contracts to carry the American Eagle brand name. The first American Eagle flight was operated byMetroflight Airlines, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Metro Airlines (formerly Houston Metro Airlines), on 1 November 1984, fromFayetteville, Arkansas, andFort Smith, Arkansas, toDallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Metroflight utilizedConvair 580 turboprop aircraft that had been formerly operated byFrontier Airlines.
Other carriers that have flown inAmerican Eagle livery includeExecutive Airlines,Command Airways,Air Virginia,Simmons Airlines,Chaparral Airlines andWings West Airlines. Among other aircraft in its fleet, Chaparral flewGrumman I-C turboprops which were stretched, 37 passenger regional airliner versions of Grumman's successful propjet business aircraft and was one of only a few air carriers to ever operate the type in scheduled passenger service.
Until 1987 these third-party carriers flew under contract withAmerican Airlines to provide regional feed to its hubs. During 1987 and 1988AMR Corp. acquired its regional carriers, starting with Simmons Airlines. AMR's final airlined.b.a. American Eagle acquisition wasExecutive Airlines in 1989.[7]
By mid-1991 AMR had consolidated the number of carriers to four. The May 15, 1998, merger of Wings West and Flagship into Simmons (and the name change of Simmons Airlines to American Eagle Airlines) reduced the number of carriers flying as American Eagle under separate operating certificates to two: American Eagle Airlines and Executive Airlines.
American Eagle Airlines launched itsregional jet service in May 1998 usingEmbraer ERJ 145 aircraft.
AMR struck acodesharing deal withTrans World Airlines (TWA), allowing TWA to sell American Eagle Airlines flights feeding into Los Angeles and later New York's JFK Airports. These services were branded by TWA asTrans World Connection flights.[8] These American Eagle Airlines/Trans World agreements were forged well in advance of AMR's acquisition of TWA in 2001.
During 2007, AMR began studying ways to spin American Eagle Airlines off into a separate company, including, but not limited to, the possibility of selling the company to stockholders or an unaffiliated third party. In 2008, AMR said any plans had been put on hold until the airline industry stabilized after the2008 financial crisis. In July 2011, AMR announced the spin-off of American Eagle Airlines, but those plans were again shelved when AMR filed for bankruptcy in November 2011.
On 14 January 2014, American Airlines Group officially announced the rebranding of its American Eagle subsidiary as Envoy. Aircraft operated by American Eagle continued to operate under the current American Eagle branding, but an "Operated by Envoy Air" label was added, similar to the label used by other contract airlines that fly aircraft with American Eagle livery.[9] This name change was created to avoid confusion when American Airlines announced that other regional carriers would operate on behalf of American. The term 'Envoy' is a reincarnation of the now deprecated Envoy Class of seating onUS Airways aircraft.[10]
| Carrier | Eagle service began | Acquired by AMR | Eagle service ended | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metroflight Airlines (formerly Metro Airlines) | November 1, 1984 | May 28, 1993 | May 28, 1993 | Bankrupt; assets acquired by Simmons Airlines[11] |
| AVAir (formerly Air Virginia) | May 15, 1985 | May 1988 | May 1988 | Bankrupt; assets acquired by Nashville Eagle[12] |
| Simmons Airlines | October 1, 1985 | August 1, 1987 | May 15, 1998 | Merged with Flagship and Wings West to form American Eagle Airlines[13] |
| Command Airways | April 27, 1986 | September 28, 1988 | June 1, 1991 | Merged into Nashville Eagle to form Flagship Airlines[14] |
| Wings West | June 1986 | August 9, 1987 | May 15, 1998 | Merged into Simmons to form American Eagle Airlines, Inc.[15] |
| Executive Airlines | November 1, 1986 | 1990[16] | March 31, 2013 | San Juan (SJU) American Eagle hub shut down with ATR-72 turboprop aircraft phased out of fleet |
| Nashville Eagle | January 1988 | January 1988 | June 1, 1991 | AMR Corp.’s first and only start-up airline, using equipment acquired from Air Midwest.[17] Merged with Command Airways to form Flagship Airlines[17] |
| Flagship Airlines | June 1, 1991 | June 1, 1991 | May 15, 1998 | Formed by the merger of Command Airways into Nashville Eagle; merged into Simmons to form American Eagle Airlines, Inc.[18] |
| American Eagle Airlines | May 15, 1998 | May 15, 1998 | Apr 15, 2014 | Formed by the merger of Wings West and Flagship into Simmons[13] |
| Envoy Air | Apr 15, 2014 | May 15, 1998 | Still Operating | American Eagle Airlines rebranded to Envoy |
| Business Express Airlines | — | March 1999[19] | — | Never flew under the American Eagle brand before being fully integrated into American Eagle Airlines, Inc. in December 2000. |
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Envoy Air's headquarters are inIrving, Texas,[20] in two buildings located north of the northeast portion of DFW Airport.[21] American Eagle was previously headquartered at theAmerican Airlines headquarters inFort Worth, Texas, and had employees in several buildings: HDQ1, HDQ2, the Systems Operations Control (SOC) center, the DFW American Eagle hangar, the DFW-area warehouse CP-28, the Flight Academy, and the Flagship University. It was scheduled to consolidate operations and move 600 employees from the headquarters, SOC, and training divisions into the Irving offices in July 2014, which were formerly occupied byEpsilon.[21]
| Rank | Airport | Flights |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas | 210 |
| 2 | Chicago–O'Hare, Illinois | 138 |
| 3 | Miami, Florida | 72 |
There were previously bases in Boston, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York,[28] Raleigh/Durham, and San Juan.[citation needed]
As of August 2025[update], Envoy Air operates the following aircraft:[29]
| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Passengers | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | Y+ | Y | Total | ||||
| Embraer 170 | 43 | — | 12 | 20 | 33 | 65 | Equipped with 66 seats, one in main cabin blocked |
| Embraer 175 | 126 | 33 | 12 | 20 | 44 | 76 | |
| Total | 169 | 33 | |||||
In September 2009, AMR Corporation announced plans to add a First Class cabin to its fleet of 25 Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets and also signed a letter of intent with Bombardier, Inc. to exercise options for the purchase of 22 additional CRJ700 aircraft for delivery beginning in the middle of 2010.[30]
In January 2014, American Eagle's pilots' union reached an agreement with the regional carrier's management that guaranteed 60 of the 90 new Embraer 175 aircraft that American Airlines ordered in December were to be operated by Eagle. The deal included options for 90 other aircraft to be operated by the regional carrier. Delivery of the aircraft would begin in the first quarter of 2015. This deal was voted down by the pilots' union, theAir Line Pilots Association (ALPA).
Envoy was awarded 40 new Embraer 175 aircraft with 90 options. Deliveries began on November 13, 2015.[31][32]
In October 2016, Envoy announced that they had taken delivery of two additional Embraer 175 aircraft.
In May 2018, Envoy announced that they had taken delivery of fifteen additional Embraer 175 aircraft between March and November 2019 bringing the total of E175's to 69 by the end of 2019.[33]
In November 2018, Envoy announced that they had taken delivery of an additional fifteen Embraer 175 aircraft totaling 84 by mid-2020.
In December 2019, Envoy transferred all of the remainingBombardier CRJ700 aircraft toPSA Airlines.
In March 2020, it was announced that all twenty of the Embraer 175 aircraft operated byCompass Airlines would be transferred to Envoy upon their closure in April 2020.
In February 2021, American Airlines announced that the remaining ERJ140 fleet belonging to Envoy would end service on May 5, 2021.[34]
On March 1, 2021, Envoy ordered six Embraer 170 jets, expected to enter the fleet in 2021.[35]
On June 20, 2023, at theParis Air Show, theAmerican Airlines Group ordered seven Embraer 175 jets, on behalf of Envoy Air.[citation needed]
The American Eagle brand operated a variety of twinturboprop aircraft over the years via its various regional and commuter airline partners, including theATR 42 andATR 72;Beechcraft Model 99;British Aerospace Jetstream 31 and 32 models;CASA C-212 Aviocar;Convair 580;Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner;Grumman Gulfstream I (stretched G-IC model);NAMC YS-11;Short 330 andShort 360; and theSaab 340.
