Kazakhstan’s national carrier Air Astana has received its first Embraer E190-E2, with a livery depicting a snow leopard.
The jet arrived at Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport in Astana from Brazil on Monday.
The livery is part of a campaign to draw attention to the threat of extinction facing the snow leopard, which is native to southern Kazakhstan.
Air Astana, which offers daily non-stop flights between the UK and Kazakhstan, ordered five Embraer E2s in August 2017.
The airline currently operates a fleet of nine Embraer E190s on domestic and low-density regional services, with the first aircraft entering service in 2011.
It now plans to gradually replace these with newer models.
The twin-engine, single-aisle E190-E2 has a range of more than 5,000 km. It is the same size as its predecessor the E190, with up to 114 seats and a 2-2 configuration in economy – meaning no middle seats.
Embraer said the E2 offers double-digit percentage reductions in fuel burn and maintenance costs, and has lower noise levels.
Its medium-range E2 family, which replaced the original E-Jets, also includes the E175-E2 and E195-E2.
The Brazilian manufacturer has been taking the E190-E2, a competitor to Airbus’s A220 (previously the Bombardier C Series), on a world tour.
Norwegian carrier Wideroe was the first airline to snap up the E190-E2, with its aircraft emblazoned with a shark landing at London City earlier this year.
In February Air Astana increased its London Heathrow to Astana service to daily, with the route served by a three-class (economy, Economy Sleeper and business) B757-200 aircraft.
Meanwhile, last month it announced plans to launch a low-cost subsidiary called Fly Arystan, initially serving domestic routes.
