Embraer E170

It is the aircraft that started it all: the Embraer E170 brought the E-Jet family into scheduled service in 2004 and is still its smallest first-generation member. In the market, though, it quickly stood in the shadow of its somewhat longer sister, the E175. For spotters, that is exactly what makes the E170 interesting. It is no longer built, is becoming rarer in Europe and looks confusingly similar to the E175. Here you will learn how to recognize it, how to tell it from the E175 and where you can still catch it.

What is the Embraer E170?

The E170 is a twin-engine regional jet from the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. It is the base model of the E-Jet family, which Embraer officially launched at the 1999 Paris Air Show under the project names ERJ-170 and ERJ-190. The family consists of two pairs: the short E170 and E175, and the long E190 and E195. In the certification documents the E170 is called the ERJ 170-100, and the E175 is the ERJ 170-200 – the designation alone shows that the E175 is derived from the E170 and not the other way around.

Technically, the E170 has little in common with Embraer’s older regional jets, the ERJ 135 and the ERJ 145. Instead of rear engines and a narrow fuselage with three seats per row, it got engines under the wings, a so-called double-bubble cross-section and a cabin with four seats per row and no middle seat. Add to that a fly-by-wire control system and a glass cockpit that is largely the same across all first-generation E-Jets. Pilots can therefore switch between the E170, E175, E190 and E195 with the same type rating.

The E170 is powered by two General Electric CF34-8E engines, the same engine as in the E175. The range is just under 4,000 kilometers depending on version, and the cruise speed is around Mach 0.75. For regional routes in Europe, North America or Japan, that is more than enough.

History: from the Crossair order to the first flight with LOT

When Embraer unveiled the E-Jets in 1999, the Swiss airline Crossair was on board as a major launch customer: it ordered 30 aircraft each of the small and the large version. Nothing came of it – Crossair was absorbed into Swiss, and the order was canceled. Among the early E170 customers was also the French Régional, a predecessor of today’s Air France Hop – though it postponed its order and only got its first E-Jets in 2006.

The prototype took off on its first flight on February 19, 2002, in São José dos Campos. Certification was delayed several times, however. Only in February 2004 did the authorities in Brazil, the USA and Europe give their approval. Shortly afterward, in early March 2004, LOT Polish Airlines received the first production aircraft. On March 17, 2004, LOT flew the E170 from Warsaw to Vienna – the first commercial E-Jet flight ever. Other early customers were Alitalia and MidAtlantic Airways, a subsidiary of US Airways.

In the following years demand shifted. From 2005 the E175 came onto the market, offering more seats with the same technology. Many airlines that had initially flown the E170 switched to the E175 or the larger E190 and E195. According to Embraer’s order statistics, a total of 191 E170s came together, all delivered, with no open orders. For comparison: by 2025 more than 800 E175s had already been delivered.

E170 and E175: where exactly is the difference?

The E170 and E175 are twins of different length. For the E175, Embraer stretched the E170 fuselage by about 1.8 meters: a short section ahead of the wing, another behind it. That makes room for a few more rows of seats. Engines, cockpit, landing gear and most of the systems are the same.

For you as a spotter this means: to the naked eye, the length difference is barely visible without a direct comparison. The E170 looks a bit stubbier, almost roundish, with very little fuselage between the cockpit and the wing leading edge. If you often have both types in front of your lens, you develop a feel for it – but it is not a sure thing.

There is one clear difference, though: the wingtips. From 2014 Embraer introduced an efficiency package for the E175 with larger winglets canted outward. The E170 never got this update because by then it was hardly in demand anymore. It always carries the small, steeply upright winglets of the first series. The reverse does not hold: older E175s also have small winglets.

Feature	E170	E175
Official designation	ERJ 170-100	ERJ 170-200
ICAO code	E170	E75S / E75L
Length	29.90 m	31.67 m
Engine	CF34-8E	CF34-8E
Seats (typical)	66–76	76–88
Winglets	always small and steep	small, or large and canted
Production	ended	continues

Why did the E175 win out? Above all in the USA, the largest market for regional jets, the scope clauses in the major airlines’ pilot contracts usually limit regional aircraft to 76 seats and a certain maximum weight. Both types fit. With the same seat limit, though, the longer E175 allows a cabin with first class and more legroom. For Embraer there was eventually no reason left to keep building the E170 in parallel. The E170SU and E170SE variants, with 76 and 70 seats respectively, are tailored precisely to these US rules.

The E170 in the E-Jet family

Within the family the lengths rise in clear steps. With these numbers in mind you can quickly tell the E170 from its larger siblings.

Model	ICAO code	Length	Engine
E170	E170	29.90 m	CF34-8E
E175	E75S / E75L	31.67 m	CF34-8E
E190	E190	36.25 m	CF34-10E
E195	E195	38.66 m	CF34-10E
E195-E2	E295	41.51 m	PW1900G

Compared with the E190, the E170 is over six meters shorter, and compared with the E195 almost nine meters. Add to that the clearly smaller engines. For airlines that fly several E-Jet types in the same livery, fuselage length and engine size are therefore the quickest features. You will find a detailed guide to all family members in the article Telling Embraer E-Jets apart.

Common mix-ups

Besides the E175, there are a few other candidates that resemble the E170:

Mix-up	How to tell them apart
E175	about 1.8 m longer, large canted winglets on newer aircraft; code E75S/E75L
E190	much longer fuselage, larger engines; code E190
Bombardier CRJ700	rear engines, T-tail, narrower fuselage with small windows
Airbus A220-100	wider fuselage with five seats per row, large geared turbofan engines

The CRJ700 was the E170’s direct competitor and plays in the same seat class. Thanks to its rear engines, though, you can tell it apart from a long way off. Trickier is the A220-100, which replaces the E170 at LOT: from a distance it also looks compact, but it is bigger and has conspicuously fat engines. You can read more about the typical traps in the regional segment under Identifying regional jets.

Where you see the E170 today

The E170 is no longer a mass-market model. Where it still flies, a targeted look at the tracker is worthwhile. As of October 2026, these are the main addresses:

• LOT Polish Airlines is the launch customer and flies the E170 from Warsaw Chopin Airport. The fleet has shrunk to a few aircraft, and LOT wants to replace the E170 with the Airbus A220 by 2027. Because LOT serves many destinations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, you might also meet an E170 in Hamburg, Düsseldorf or Frankfurt – but usually an E175, E190 or E195 shows up.
• Air France Hop operates E170s in feeder service for Air France, including at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and in Lyon. Here too, the fleet is shrinking.
• In the USA fly the largest remaining E170 fleets: Envoy Air uses them for American Eagle, Republic Airways for the regional brands of the major US airlines.
• Other operators can be found, among others, in Japan at Fuji Dream Airlines, which retired its oldest E170 in 2024, and in Mexico, where Aeromexico Connect appears in operator lists with the E170.

Historically, the E170 was much more widespread in Europe. BA CityFlyer took over E170s from 2009 to replace its Avro jets at London City Airport, and Alitalia, Finnair and Flybe also flew the type. Alitalia and Flybe no longer exist. Which airline still uses the E170 at any given time keeps changing – so always rely on current fleet lists and live tracking. The article Regional airlines in Europe offers an overview of the continent’s regional airlines.

Spotting tips for the E170

The E170 is one of the smallest jets you see at big airports. That has consequences for equipment, location and planning.

• Plan for more focal length. A jet of just under 30 meters in length fills the frame much less than a medium-haul jet. The article Choosing a lens for plane spotting explains which focal length makes sense.
• Choose the side view. Because fuselage length is the most important feature against the E175, clean side profiles are worthwhile. Compared with other aircraft on the taxiway, the size difference becomes visible.
• Get the wingtips in the frame. A photo in which the small winglets are clearly visible helps you with identification later.
• Search for registrations on purpose. Because there are only a few E170s left in Europe, it pays to put the registrations of the remaining aircraft on a wish list. How to use live data for that is covered in the guide to flight tracking with ADS-B.
• Plan the light. The white LOT livery with a blue tail looks best in side light. How to calculate the sun position in advance is covered in the guide to the sun position.

In Germany, good options include the observation deck at Hamburg Airport, the observation deck at Düsseldorf Airport or the Zeppelinheim viewing platform in Frankfurt, where regional jets from Warsaw arrive regularly. Whether it is actually an E170 is only revealed by the tracker on spotting day.

Variants of the E170

Within the type there are several versions that do not differ on the outside:

• E170 STD: the base version.
• E170 LR: higher maximum takeoff weight and thus more range.
• E170 SU and SE: based on the LR, with the cabin limited to 76 and 70 seats respectively for the US scope clauses. Both designations exist only with the US aviation authority, the FAA.

These variants play no role for identification at the fence. More interesting is that there is no second-generation E170. Embraer launched the E2 family with the E175-E2, E190-E2 and E195-E2, setting the smallest size right at E175 level. The E170 thus remains purely a first-generation model.

Conclusion

The Embraer E170 made aviation history: with it, the E-Jet success story began at LOT in 2004, and today the E-Jets are among the most important regional aircraft in the world. In the market, though, it was quickly overtaken by its own, somewhat longer sister. The E175 is still being built, the E170 is not. In Europe it is now a rare guest and will disappear from LOT altogether by 2027. If you want to collect it in European colors, you should not wait much longer.