2013 was a significant turning point for American Airlines under the AMR Corporation and the US Airways Group, after American completed its merger and acquisition of the latter, ultimately creating the holding company of The American Airlines Group as it is known today.

Now, the group is made up of mainline operations and three wholly-owned, regional subsidiaries: Envoy Air, Piedmont Airlines and PSA Airlines. Envoy Air — one of American’s sole subsidiaries the airline owned prior to the merger — was founded in 1998, after a series of mergers with several smaller regional carriers, and now currently contributes to the carrier’s core regional operations.

The retro Envoy Air livery on one of the airline’s newly-acquired E170s (Photo: Envoy Air)

The Irving, Texas-based regional carrier began its early days, branded as American Eagle Airlines Inc., which was the backbone for the prominent oneworld carrier’s regional operations in Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago O’Hare, and Miami, among other cities. American Eagle Airlines was formed through the subsequent merger of Simmons Airlines, Flagship Airlines and West Wings in 1998, as part of American’s regional carrier strategy to create and operate a single carrier. 

Ultimately, in April 2014, the regional carrier adopted Envoy Air Inc. as its brand and name, overseeing extensive operations in Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago.

An American Eagle Embraer Regional Jet featuring a yellow ribbon (Photo: Ian McMurtry)

In honor of Envoy Air’s significance as part of the now larger, American Eagle regional brand, the regional carrier debuted a brand new livery, dubbed as the “American Eagle Heritage Livery” for one of its recently acquired Embraer E170s. AirlineGeeks received an exclusive first look. 

Envoy’s retro livery on the airline’s E170 (Photo: Envoy Air)

Dee Temples, Senior Vice President of Air Operations, said in a press release, “We’re just as excited about the heritage livery as anyone else. We like that people take an interest in Envoy and its history, and that they’re enthusiastic about aviation.”

The brand new livery, which took 800 hours to complete,  will feature the vintage, historic scissor Eagle logo, which will be painted on American’s current red and blue stripes design, located on the aircraft’s tail.

Envoy’s New Aircraft

Earlier this year, Envoy Air announced the inauguration for the regional E170s into its fleet as an addition to its existing Embraer E175s and E145s, which the carrier received its first of at least seven E170s, in early August. The regional carrier’s new E170 aircraft will be configured with 65 seats compared to 76 seats for its existing E175 aircraft, and Envoy Air outlined its plan to receive more E170s as part of its plan for potential growth.

“The pandemic has had a significant impact on our business, our fleet plans, and our team members,” Temples added. “That said, we have continued to demonstrate our capability to operate the Embraer E-Jet aircraft safely, reliably, and efficiently.”

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Benjamin Pham

Benjamin has had a love for aviation since a young age, growing up in Tampa with a strong interest in airplane models and playing with them. When he moved to the Washington, D.C. area, Benjamin took part in aviation photography for a couple of years at Gravelly Point and Dulles Airport, before dedicating planespotting to only when he traveled to the other airports. He is an avid, world traveler, having been able to reach 32 countries, yearning to explore and understand more cultures soon. Currently, Benjamin is an Air Transporation Management student at Arizona State University. He hopes to enter the airline industry to improve the passenger experience and loyalty programs while keeping up to how technology is being integrated into airports.

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