Embraer Lineage 1000E

Where it came from

Embraer launched the Lineage 1000 on 2 May 2006. The basis was the E190, a hundred-seat regional airliner already in airline service: the cabin was stripped and rebuilt, and extra tanks were fitted in the lower hold to turn a regional aircraft's range into an intercontinental one. The prototype first flew on 26 October 2007. ANAC and EASA certified the type in December 2008, the FAA followed on 7 January 2009, and the first aircraft was delivered on 7 May 2009.

In October 2013 Embraer introduced the Lineage 1000E, which took range to 4,600 nm — 8,500 km — with updated avionics and cabin systems. That is the variant this page describes, and effectively the whole charter fleet, which is why our entry is named 1000E. Twenty-eight aircraft were built in all before production ended. Published sources disagree on how those twenty-eight split between the two variants, so we do not quote a split.

Rarity is the practical fact for a charter customer. There is no deep pool of Lineages bidding against one another, they are not parked on every major ramp, and dates decide more here than they do on a Challenger or a Global. When one is available near you it is often the best answer on the page; when it is not, the ferry to reach you is real money.

Who charters a Lineage 1000E

Twelve to nineteen people who need rooms rather than seats, and who are carrying a great deal: corporate groups on a multi-city week, government delegations, film and music production parties, and large families who want a bed and a shower on an eight- to ten-hour sector.

Like every airliner, it is chartered for the size of the group and the size of the luggage, not for distance. The comparison a client actually runs is against two business jets on the same trip — a Global and a Challenger, say, which cost more once both are positioned and which split the party across two cabins with two arrival times. Against its airliner neighbours the Lineage is the smaller and cheaper aircraft: around €15,000 an hour against about €18,000 for a BBJ, with a narrower cabin and less range, but with the larger hold and by far the better-arranged one.

The hold is the reason

12.54 m³ in total, of which roughly 9.1 m³ is an internal walk-in compartment reachable from the cabin in flight and about 3.4 m³ is external. Nothing else on this fleet comes close. The best-provisioned heavy jet we quote, the Legacy 650, has 8.1 m³; a nine-tank BBJ has 4.6 m³ and you cannot get into it once the doors are shut.

What that changes in practice: skis, camera cases, instruments, medical equipment and wardrobe trunks travel as ordinary luggage rather than as a negotiation, and whatever you need in the air is not sealed on the ramp. The limit here is weight rather than volume. Maximum payload is 4,366 kg, which nineteen passengers and their bags do not approach, but a heavy technical load with full fuel can. Send us a manifest and we check it against the specific aircraft.

Five zones, and what is in them

25.9 m of cabin, 2.74 m across and 2.01 m high, divided into as many as five zones: a forward lounge, a conference and dining area, a mid-cabin lounge, a private master suite with en-suite bathroom, and a rear washroom with a stand-up shower. The cross-section is an E190's, so at 2.74 m it is narrower than a BBJ's 3.53 m — the cabin reads as a long series of rooms rather than a wide one.

Cabin altitude is 7,000 ft, a thousand feet lower than a BBJ's and the best figure among the VIP airliners; on an eight-hour sector that is a difference you feel rather than a line on a table. Two pilots fly it with one or two cabin crew, the published typical configuration being nineteen passengers and three crew. Nineteen is also the certified maximum, and typical occupancy on charter is about eight — most Lineage trips are a small party using a large aircraft.

Range, runways and corridors

8,500 km is 4,600 nm at long-range cruise on NBAA reserves with four to eight passengers. Unlike the Airbus and the Boeing there is no auxiliary-tank programme to complicate it: every 1000E has the same range and the same whole hold. Fill all nineteen seats and load the bags and the penalty is a few hundred kilometres rather than a few thousand.

London–Dubai is about 6 h 45 m and comfortably inside it; London–Larnaca around 4 h 30 m. The shorter legs — London–Nice roughly 1 h 55 m, London–Milan about 1 h 45 m, London–Ibiza about 2 h 25 m — are group-size flights. London–New York is nonstop; São Paulo and Los Angeles are not, which is worth saying because customers assume a large aircraft reaches everywhere.

It needs 1,852 m to take off at maximum weight and 747 m to land, and its 28.72 m span is narrower than a 737's or an A319's, so regional fields those two handle awkwardly are open to it. London City is still out, and a long sector from a short, hot or high field is paid for in payload.

What moves the price

From around €15,000 per flight hour, quoted against a named tail.

Positioning dominates here more than on any other type we broker. Twenty-eight were built and only some are on the charter market, so if the nearest is in the Gulf and you are leaving from Farnborough, that ferry is on your quote, with no second Lineage down the ramp to substitute.

Crew duty is next: two pilots plus cabin crew, and an eight-hour sector with a same-day return means either a night stop or an augmented crew.

Then the ground. It is handled as an airliner even though it is narrower than one — airliner parking, airliner landing fees — and at Nice in August or Geneva in January the stand is what you are really booking. Gulf routings add overflight charges. Every trip is priced individually against the dates.