Small plane, big plans

How Scoot got S’pore's first Brazil-made jet off the ground

- Kok Yufeng

It was a rare moment in his 20 years of flying commercial aircraft.

As the Embraer E190-E2 plane touched down in Krabi, Thailand, after taking off from Changi Airport on May 7, Captain Darius Yeo was greeted with applause from passengers.

The 46-year-old, who is the pilot in charge of Scoot's new E190-E2 fleet, was at the controls of the budget carrier's first Brazilian-made jet on its maiden commercial flight.

While the 112-seat plane is smaller than the Airbus A320, Boeing 777 and double-deck Airbus A380 "superjumbo" he previously flew, the flight was no less significant.

Made in Sao Jose dos Campos, a city in Brazil an hour from Sao Paulo, the E190-E2 is the first aircraft from manufacturer Embraer operated by a Singapore carrier.

It is also the first time since the late 1990s that a carrier in the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group is flying a plane not supplied by Boeing or Airbus.

For passengers, the main benefit besides the novelty and added option is the absence of a middle seat.

Capt Yeo said the jet, touted as being the quietest in its class, has so far lived up to expectations.

"It is a very stable aircraft to fly and very responsive on the controls... The fuel burn we encountered is very good." Scoot has two E190-E2s in operation. Three more are due to arrive in the second half of 2024, and four will be delivered by end-2025. All nine aircraft are being leased from American firm Azorra.

Scoot has said the new aircraft will allow it to serve thinner and less popular routes in the region, fly to airports that cannot accommodate larger jets and increase frequencies on existing routes.

Initially, the planes will fly to six South-east Asian destinations, but Scoot has plans for more.

While Scoot announced it was ordering the E190-E2s only in February 2023, plans to add a smaller plane to its fleet were hatched as early as 2022.