American Eagle regional carrier Envoy Air is a wholly-owned regional airline of American Airlines Group. It operates a fleet of nearly 185 aircraft to an extensive network of more than 150 destinations across the United States, commencing about 800 daily flights. Envoy Air is the largest regional flight service provider to American Airlines. This completely owned subsidiary of American Airlines has its headquarter in Irving, Texas, and concentrates its air traffic flow and flight operations with hubs in Dallas, Fort Worth, Chicago, New York, and Miami. The airline has large ground handling operations in Los Angeles.
Moving forward with the vision to be the safest, most reliable, and most successful regional airline globally, the airline was established in 1984 with the name” American Eagle Airlines” to create one of the world’s largest regional airlines through the merger of different regional airlines.
The company became “Envoy Air Inc.’ on April 15, 2014, to distinguish from the American Eagle brand under which different airlines provide regional flight operation service for Americans. Formally, ‘American Eagle Airlines’ was rebranded as Envoy, giving it a new identity, leaving Eagle name as a brand that included all of American’s regional flying.
A total of seven carriers used to operate under the ‘American Eagle’ name, including PSA Airlines, Compass Airlines, Republic Airlines, SkyWest Airlines, Piedmont Airlines, and Mesa Airlines. The American Eagle still persists as a brand and livery for regional flights operated by Envoy’s aircraft that fly with American Eagle livery.
The name ‘Envoy’ was used for long-haul premium cabin offerings by US Airways. It’s a fancy name for business class. All the seats on 180 ERJs were Envoy class. That is where Envoy Air got its name from. Envoy Air’s slogan is ‘Going for Great.’
Through its hubs at Dallas, Chicago, Miami, it serves the destinations in Canada, Mexico, the USA, and the Bahamas. Some of these destinations are
- Canada (Alberta, Ontario, Quebec)
- Mexico
- USA (Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, etc.)
- Bahamas (Abaco Island, Exuma, Eleuthera, New Province Island, Grand Bahama Island)
Facilities and services
Envoy Air provides different facilities and services for its customers. Some of them are:
Check-in service
One can check-in for Envoy Air’s flight without the need to going to the airport. Web check-in facility is offered to Envoy Air’s flight where they can print their own boarding pass. It also allows the customer to check their luggage in advance, makes seat assignments, and select meals (if available). In addition to online/web check-in, airport check-in opens 4 hours 45 minutes before flight departure, depending on the sector you are flying to.
Baggage
Envoy allows passengers to carry hand luggage as well as checked luggage. A Carry-on bag and one personal item are permitted to bring whose dimension should not exceed 22x14x9 inches. Regarding checked bags, they have to be 62 inches, when combining the dimensions, or smaller with the weight, not more than 50 lbs. Bags have to be bought, and the charge differs as per sector and ticket price.
Class of service
There are two travel classes offered by Envoy, i.e., Business class and economy class. Although being regional flight, Envoy’s business class seats are entrenched to full-lie beds with enough space. The reverse Herringbone-designed seats have aisle access. There’s a personal touchscreen entertainment system. Different amenities like earplugs, toothbrushes, toothpaste, cream, lip care, pen, eye mask, etc., are available for business class passengers. For economy class passengers, there’s duty-free shopping. Seats are padded comfortably, featuring power ports and demanded videos in economy class, and an in-flight magazine is provided on the flight.
Envoy Air provides dedicated customer service to embrace customer needs and a seamless quality experience for regional flight customers. Regional carriers provide about 40% of scheduled flight operation services, serving US airports. As the largest regional carrier for American Airlines, it connects smaller cities in the US, Canada, and Mexico with American Eagle branded aircraft. American Airlines relies on Envoy Air to feed air traffic flow from smaller cities to international destinations. Envoy Air’s market continues to be a key growth sector for American Airlines within commercial aviation.
Fleet operated by Envoy Air
Envoy welcomed its Embraer E175 aircraft having a seating capacity of 76, to provide excellent customer experience to and from mainland flights, to join the substantial fleet of regional jets Embraer J145 (50seats) and Embraer J140 (44 seats), Embraer E17 (66 seats but use 65). All of its remaining Bombardier CRJ-700 is supplied to PSA Airline.
How does Envoy Air derive its benefits?
The first benefit of Envoy Air is that American Airlines is the parent company of this regional carrier. Envoy gets the significant advantage of operating their modern aircraft as they are environmentally friendly, cost-efficient, and have easy management and maintenance. Being a regional carrier, Envoy integrates innovative and affordable technologies, contributing to low maintenance cost, structural weight savings due to innovative aircraft configuration, lower fuel burn. Its fleet requires little airport capacity and runway length. It has been contributing American passengers to safe, fast, and adequate mobility. Envoy doesn’t have aircraft exceeding 76 seats, which means they are economical to fly. Having small aircraft doesn’t necessarily mean small business. With regional airlines like Envoy Air, hundreds of American cities have air services and added schedule flexibility. Envoy continues to be an integral part of the American Airlines network and serve more destinations well into the future with added aircraft.
Envoy Air serves the regions of the United States which are not accessible by American Airlines. It allows AA to adjust its capacity and cut corners with costs they couldn’t.
Frequent Flyer Program
Envoy Air offers a loyalty program for those who frequently fly with it. AAdvantage allows the members to redeem their tickets, get free hotel rooms, car rentals through miles accumulated by them. At 5000 miles, there’s one-way redemption for frequent flyers.
Recently, in May 2021, Envoy’s pilot made a potentially catastrophic situation. The fatal error of the Envoy pilot aimed at the wrong runway caught FAA’s serious attention and gave warning to Envoy Air. Over the last two years, Envoy Air flight crews have shown multiple unsafe and poor piloting, showing the potential lack of airmanship. It has also raised concern about regional services not abiding by the same safety level as American Airlines. Similarly, in June 2020, Envoy Air’s flight crew didn’t complete the mandatory checklist for take-off preparation and was stopped by a warning from the plane’s computers. The negligence in the preflight checklist for take-off can be a fatal safety mistake, which can’t be overlooked.
MyEnvoyAir
Being one of the world’s biggest provincial carrier specialist companies, Envoy air enjoys significant advantages shared by American representatives.
My Envoy Air ( MyEnvoyAir ) is an online portal managed by Envoy Air to get airline-related updates, recent news, work schedules, time sheets by the Envoy Air American Airlines employees. Envoy Air offers a competitive package of employee benefits which includes medical, dental, vision, life insurance for all its employees and their families offered to travel freely anywhere around the world through American Airlines’ world networks. The employees of Envoy Air will get their work-related information on this portal My Envoy Air (like work time, paycheck, etc.). It avails the benefits offered to the employees.
Training programs and career opportunities are informed to staff through this portal. The employees can manage their accounts and data in my envoy air login. They can make changes to the account as per necessity. My Envoy Air, the official online portal of Envoy, contains details about core Envoy staff members’ financial benefits, retirements, and savings. My Envoy air has the advantage of a travel package for Envoy Air staff as well as their family members. A total of about 18000 staff employed by Envoy Air enjoy the benefits of three medical options with additional two dental options, employee credit union, paid leaves, etc.
Additional benefits include Envoy Employee vision insurance, employee AD and D insurance, critical illness insurance, 11 days annual paid leave. Those who are serving the airline for over a year get seven days of paid leave, while those who have served the airline for 14 years get 40 days paid leave.
The web portal my envoy air needs to be registered by employees to be eligible for all benefits offered by it.
What facilities do customers get through my envoy air?
Envoy Air has welcomed its brand new Embraer 175 (E175) to offer consistent travel insights to customers interfacing with and from mainline flights. Customers can feel the pleasure of traveling on Envoy Air with world-class safety. Myenvoyair prioritized safe and secure air travel which can be made possible by responsible staff workers.
Envoy fosters workforce diversity with a safe work environment, where all employees are respected and their differences are valued. It seeks to ensure equal business opportunities without any discrimination against anyone.
Envoy Air, in addition to the focus on regional flights, aims to provide employees with the best benefits no airlines offer.