Embraer ERJ 140

Updated: October 2026 – A slim jet with a T-tail and rear-mounted engines, three seats per row, American Eagle livery: at first glance a perfectly ordinary ERJ 145. But look closer and you notice that the fuselage is a little too short. Then you may have an Embraer ERJ 140 in front of you – a regional jet that exists only because pilots and airlines in the US negotiated over aircraft sizes. Here you learn where the 44-seater comes from, how to tell it from the ERJ 135 and ERJ 145, and why it is among the real rarities in your logbook today.

What is the Embraer ERJ 140?

The ERJ 140 is the middle member of the ERJ family from Embraer. The family comprises the 50-seat ERJ 145, the shorter ERJ 135 with 37 seats and the ERJ 140 with 44 seats. All three share the same basic design: a narrow fuselage with three seats per row, a T-tail and two AE 3007 engines on the sides of the rear fuselage. The Legacy 600 business jet is also based on this platform.

Embraer launched the program in September 1999. Technically the effort was manageable: the starting point was the ERJ 145, whose fuselage was shortened by about 1.4 meters. At 28.45 meters long, the ERJ 140 therefore sits between its sisters. Wing, cockpit, systems and engines stayed largely the same; only the engine rating was reduced slightly. Formally the aircraft appears in the certification documents as the EMB-135KL, that is, as a variant of the ERJ 135 – a detail that still affects the ICAO type designator today.

The first flight took place on June 27, 2000. In July 2001 American Eagle put the ERJ 140 into scheduled service; the first delivered aircraft carried the registration N800AE. By early 2005 Embraer had delivered 74 aircraft. Measured against the more than a thousand jets of the entire ERJ family, the ERJ 140 is a small sideshow – and that is exactly what makes it interesting for spotters.

Scope clauses: why the ERJ 140 exists at all

To understand the ERJ 140 you have to take a look at the collective agreements of US airlines. Large network airlines such as American Airlines have part of their feeder flights operated by regional airlines flying under brands like American Eagle. For the pilots of the mainline airline this is a sensitive topic: the more routes are flown with regional jets, the less work remains in their own cockpits.

That is why the contracts between airline and pilot union contain so-called scope clauses. They set how many aircraft the regional partners may operate and how large those may be – measured in seats and often also in maximum weight. In the late 1990s the number of 50-seat regional jets that partners of major US airlines were allowed to use was limited in such contracts.

Embraer responded with a pragmatic solution: instead of an entirely new aircraft, the manufacturer offered a downsized ERJ 145 with 44 seats, which counted differently in fleet planning than a 50-seater. The ERJ 140 is thus a textbook example of how strongly labor contracts can influence aircraft development. Bombardier, by the way, took the same route and offered the CRJ440, a 44-seat version of the CRJ200.

One drawback of the concept: the ERJ 140 carries basically the same technology as an ERJ 145 but offers six fewer seats. Per passenger it is therefore less economical. As soon as contracts changed or larger regional jets became more attractive, the type lost its special status – an important reason why relatively few were built.

American Eagle and AmericanConnection

The ERJ 140 is inseparably linked to American Eagle. American Airlines’ regional subsidiary was the launch customer and by far the largest operator; the first aircraft carried the registration N800AE. In 2014 American Eagle Airlines was renamed Envoy Air. The “American Eagle” brand remained as the umbrella name for all of American’s regional flights, which today are also flown by partners such as Piedmont Airlines, PSA Airlines, Republic Airways and SkyWest.

Besides American Eagle, Chautauqua Airlines also used the ERJ 140. In June 2001 American Airlines, which had taken over TWA shortly before, renewed its feeder flights with Chautauqua out of St. Louis, using 44-seat ERJ 140s. These flights ran under the AmericanConnection brand. Chautauqua flew for American until August 2014; at the end of 2014 the airline was merged into Shuttle America.

Operator	Brand	Period	Status
American Eagle / Envoy Air	American Eagle	from 2001	ERJ 140 retired
Chautauqua Airlines	AmericanConnection	from 2001, partnership until 2014	Airline no longer exists

There are slightly differing accounts of the retirement at Envoy. What is certain: in the wake of the collapse in demand during the pandemic Envoy parked the ERJ 140, and American Airlines announced in early 2021 that it would retire the remaining aircraft for good in May 2021. That ended the type’s era with its most important customer. Today Envoy flies for American Eagle with the E170 and E175.

How to recognize the ERJ 140

The ERJ family is unmistakable on the apron once you have consciously seen it. The difficulty is not recognizing an ERJ but recognizing the right ERJ.

How to read registrations and what you can learn from them is explained in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations. You can find an aircraft’s year of manufacture with the article Finding out an aircraft’s age.

ERJ 135, ERJ 140 and ERJ 145 compared

The three sisters differ mainly in fuselage length and seat count. Wing, tail, height and cockpit are practically the same.

Feature	ERJ 135	ERJ 140	ERJ 145
Seats	37	44	50
Length	approx. 26.3 m	28.45 m	approx. 29.9 m
Wingspan	approx. 20 m	approx. 20 m	approx. 20 m
ICAO type designator	E135	E135	E145
Cabin	1+2	1+2	1+2

The type code is interesting: because the ERJ 140 is formally certified as the EMB-135KL, it appears in flight plans and flight trackers under E135, even though in size it is closer to the ERJ 145. How such codes are built is explained in the article on ICAO type designators.

Common mix-ups

A detailed overview of the differences between CRJ, ERJ and E-Jets is offered by the guide How to tell regional jets apart.

Where you can still find the ERJ 140 today

Honestly: hardly anywhere in scheduled service anymore. The ERJ 140 operated almost exclusively in the US, mainly on feeder flights to American Airlines’ hubs. If you spotted at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, at Chicago O’Hare or in Miami in the 2000s and 2010s, you have a good chance of having an ERJ 140 in your archive without knowing it.

That is exactly where the appeal lies today: archive work. Many spotters filed old American Eagle pictures as “ERJ 145.” A second look at the registration sometimes shows it was an ERJ 140 – and suddenly a rare type is in your collection. How to edit and label old photos properly is covered in the article Labeling photos correctly.

Retired regional jets in the US often end up in storage parks in the desert before they are scrapped or parted out. Which places those are and what you are allowed to see there is explained in the article on aircraft graveyards and boneyards. Whether and where ERJ 140s still stand today keeps changing – you can only settle that reliably through individual registrations.

Spotting tips for ERJs in the US

Even though the ERJ 140 itself has disappeared, its sisters keep flying in North America. If you want to photograph the family, you will still find regional jets by the minute at the big hubs.

If you are planning a spotting trip to the US, the guides to Chicago O’Hare and Miami will help. How rare a particular sighting really is you can judge with the article How rare is my sighting?.

Conclusion

The ERJ 140 is not a spectacular aircraft, but a particularly instructive one. With it you see how strongly pilot contracts, fleet planning and market logic shape aircraft development. Technically a shortened ERJ 145, economically a compromise, historically closely tied to American Eagle – and today a real rarity that you are most likely to find in old photo archives.